No Spit / No Support

I am a USMC Vietnam Vet. I read your article "I would like to have a nickel for every vet who said we spit on them"

Although I still to this day, do not agree with the early protest of the Vietnam war, I do agree that very few returning Vets were actually spit on by the protesters or anyone else for that matter.

My tour of duty was from mid 1965 to mid 1966. While in Vietnam I was wounded in combat on three occasions and received the Bronze Star with Combat "V".

I returned home as a respected war hero and was treated well by all.

It wasn't really until 1967 that the war protests became a main stream activity. Parents were protesting to save their sons, wives were protesting to save their husbands, siblings were protesting to save their brothers and college students were protesting to save their own individual butts from the Draft.

As an ex combat vet and still an active duty Marine at the time, I viewed the war protests as counter productive and potentally distructive.

You have to place yourself in the minds of those of us who were actually fighting. Most of the vets who claim to have been "spit on" by the war protesters, feel that the lack of support for their effort was a litteral "Spit in the Face" Protesting the war ment that you were protesting against them.

Yes, the Vietnam war was a bad war. You will not find many Vietnam Vets who will dissagree, but by the late 60's, Vietnam Vets, unlike all other US combat vets before them, lost all support from the home front.

Picture yourself in some strange far away land, sent there by Presidential Order, with only the bare escentials to life, death all around and your only concern is survival.

This isn't your war but you're an American in uniform and you've taken an oath to uphold the Constitution and obey your President. So you follow orders and go to Vietnam, you don't question orders, you do your job.

The War in Vietnam was fauight on two fronts. First there was the actual blood and guts War itself. The second front was at home, fought initially by college students who were more concerned about not having to go to war themselves, than those of us doing the actual fighting at the time.

I understand fear, I understand fear better than anyone who has never gone to war. But, as an enlistee, having volenteered to enter the USMC in early 1964, I do not claim to understand the fear of the draft during a time of war.

I guess it was the draft that brought out the protest and in retrospect, if I hadn't been in unuform and very well prepared for my entry into the war, I may have panicked along with the rest of the non combatents and began my own protest in order to avoid the draft. I would like to think that I would have taken my medicine, kept my mouth shut and quietly hoped that my number wouldn't be called, but I can't be certain.

I can't compare the Vietnam draft to the WWII draft. The Vietnam war was not about national security, it never was! Vietnam was a human rights issue from begining to end. For those of us who were able to walk among the people of Vietnam, we understood why we were there and accepted the reality of our war.

Unfortunately, that war was not managed very well by the Generals and Statesman in DC, but I am here to tell you that in 1965 and 1966 we had a real edge in Vietnam. We were gaining respect and aid from the general population and making major inroads to stopping communist aggressions.

If it haden't been for the draft, I do not believe there would have been mass protest and it clearly was mass protest that effected the decissions made by Presiedent Johnson and his war councel.

No, I don't blame the protesters, I understand their motivations and mind set. And afterall, it was the protest that finally ended the war.

I blame President Johnson and Robert McNamara for grossley missunderstanding and misshandling the entire Vietnam situation.

"Spit in the face" no I have never been spit in the face by anyone for my part in the Vietnam War. I will say that in some circles I was looked upon as a dangerous blood thursty individual because I supported the war through its first 4 years.

"Spit in the face" maybe not in reality but, I think that most Vietnam vets are proud that they served their country both during and after, but took the protest very personally and felt deserted by the very ones whom they vowed to protect.

So, protest in my opinion had both negitive and positive effects on the Vietnam War. negitive, because protest most probably effected our ability to win the war at a point in time when we were both mentally positive and physically strong. Positive, because protest ultimately ended the war at a point in time when winning was out of the question.

Fact is, we could have won and we should have one. We went there to win and in June 1966 we were winning when I came home!