"Bravery"

It takes a whole lot more "bravery" to do the unpopular--such as protest US involvement in Viet Nam--than to just go along, such as being going unquestioning along with orders to kill.

What your father needs to accept is that he accepted an order to participate in a mistake, with little or no question, not that others did the opposite, in the face of vicious attacks. The First Amendment exists to protect the unpopular view, not the poular, not the unquestioned obedience to gov't policy.

I no of no instances in which veterans were spit on, and few in which they were directly criticized--and the protesters took on those who acted so. Moreover, the instances of spitting on were few and far between.

I do know that shooting unarmed civilians--My Lai and Kent State aer examples--by soldiers is a great deal more harmful and permanent than being spit on.

Those who worry about the latter should reevaluate their under- lying reason for go no Viet Nam: to "elevate" themselves as "heroes" in the eyes of everyone else. And that is an ego trip. That that ego trip was in the wrong time and place, however, is not the fault of the protesters or other critics of US involvement in Viet Nam.