Some Didn't, Some Did.

 Yes, the war in Vietnam was misunderstood.  At that time in our country's history, our people knew nothing of ANY Asian culture, let alone a small country's such as Vietnam.  There lies the real misunderstanding.  
 The U.S. saw itself as Anglo Saxon, no matter what the real statistics were.  The young people in this country were just beginning to see the injustices here at home.  Protests for civil rights for the black and minority people of our nation were in the fore-front and they WERE making a difference.  After the Kennedy assination, along with Martin Luther King, the TOTAL realization that we could no longer trust our own government kicked in.  We questioned everything they did and believed nothing they told us.  
 The media showed us pictures of the Vietnamese Police Action being won.  Remember that?  But, it went on, and on, and on.   
 People were dieing on every side.  Many Americans realized our government had NO idea what they were doing.  Many U.S. citizens saw what they thought to be the reality: our boys were being sent off to die, not for nothing but, senselessly and a whole bunch of innocent people from a country, here-to-fore unknown to us, were being killed for those mistakes.  (The Vietnamese were being viewed as yet another oppressed minority here.)  It wasn't because the cause wasn't right or good but because U.S. government didn't have a clue what they were doing!  America was becomming the oppressor because the cultural differences were too great.  This was a type of warfare our government was not prepared to fight, nor were they ever totally commited to do so.  America's military men were being destroyed from the inside out because our government didn't back them up.  I believe that was supposed to be the message.  Now, any farmer can tell you, you don't torture an animal, you kill it as quickly as you can.  War is an animal.  And for what ever reason, the U.S. government couldn't kill the beast.  
 That was one of the things the "Peace Movement" was about.  It started out with defending black civil rights.  And I think one of the reasons our government named our part in this war a "Police Action", and I don't think this has really been discussed in total before, was to "spin" the cause with the young people because, that IS a "civil rights" term.  It had the reverse affect.  
 U.S. government began to excel in double-speak and labeling.  They labled the protestors "Hippies" in an attempt to belittle the cause and scare anybody who wasn't.  It worked too.  But, the core was good and many solid citizens, such as the people mentioned above and more, died for their beliefs, much like the fore-fathers of our nation, much like our brothers who were currently giving up their lives in arms, which was very hard to swallow at the time.  These are the people who deserve to be remembered well. 
 The movement turned into a mob.  When you have a mob, you have a mob mentality.  Add drugs, booze, youth and sex to that and what do you get?  Anybody who has served in the Military can attest to that.  
 BUt, to anybody who actually served in the military in Vietnam, or at that time, and was "belittled or heckled" by the people you vowed to protect and serve, remember the source; it was our government who betrayed us all.  What you heard was a tiny mis-guided minority of hanger-oners who never got the total message.    
 Forgive me, I am still a patriot at heart.  I do not believe anybody who fought in Vietnam, fought in vain.  It's Freedom that calls us to arms and that is what you were fighting for.  But, I know what I saw.  
 Here in America, we were given the particular privilege of watching an existing President, President Nixon, hold more than just this country for ransom by telling the voters of our nation that if he were re-elected, he would bring "our boys" home in his NEXT term.  My question was this: "How many lives will be lost in the year it takes you to get "re-elected; and what kind of life have you created for the people left behind?"  That have you done to them?  What have you done to us?  
 Power is a terrible thing in the wrong hands, no matter what country you live in but, thousands of times worse if you are being tortured and killed there, if it's kill or be killed, if you are living the nightmare.  The rest is all crap.  
 This is what I remember.