Saturday, February 27, 2010

Anti-war = anti-soldier for Vietnam?

Just saw a Rambo move end with Stallone wishing for America to love its soldiers as much as they loved their country.   The common wisdom is that returning soldiers were shunned by an anti-war public leading to bitterness and scars.   Who wouldn't feel horrible and betrayed if that was what you experienced as a returning Vietnam soldier.

I can say with all honesty that in nearly ten years in the Anti Vietnam war movement, I never experienced, heard, or sensed one bit of hostility to the men who fought the war.   Our wish was to save not spurn them.   They were brave victims of that war.

If that is what returning soldiers experienced, I can't say when or where it happened because I never saw it happen.

How to make sense of that???

Does it seem that soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are already more doubtful about the war they fought, and so are less damaged by the public's ambivalence?

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