Why did Vietnam veterans recive a cold homecoming?

Question

Why did Vietnam veterans recive a cold homecoming?

Answer 1

you know i feel bad for those men who were sent to Vietnam.

They got shafted all around. First most were forced to go

second they were engaging an enemy that was hard to distinguish from a rice farmer.

third the us government strangled the troops with all these rules of engagement when it was quite obvious there enemy had free roam to do things however they wanted with no rules at all.

Next you have our own government shoving all this propganda down the throats of the american pple.

Why they received a cold homecoming is because the us government turned its back on them and refused to take responsibility.

This was the war that set the media war dogs loose and news reporters in the field were filming every little thing that happend with little or no explanation of it. Americans were left to deduce things for themselves.

Answer 2

That is an interesting question.



Well all considered the US government probably implied by giving this cold homecoming to the Vietnam veterans that they had not been courageous and tough enough to win that war : if they had been considered brave enough, the government would have pointed out its own failure, its incapacity to win a war against a technically weak but politically strong country like Vietnam.



In addition the American citizens had failed to support that war and the public opinion had been outraged by atrocities perpetrated in the name of America against civilians and the natural environment (loads of dioxin made by American chemical firms were poured over the tropical forest cover in Vietnam, thus poisoning the soil and the water for future generations and resulting in misformed babies) by defeated troops in a far off country where people had fought against foreign interference (Vietnamese casualties reached a staggering figure of 3 millions during that war even if ot was never officially declared by the US Government).



So the Vietnam veterans not only brought home a bitter sense of defeat, they also gave to the US citizens a bad image of their own country, while the American Nation looked morally bankrupt.



The methods used by the Pentagon to manage B 52s missions over the countryside, performimg massive bombing of civilians and destroying the natural environment were eventually emulated after the war by consultants and sold as new methods of management.



So it seems that dying in Vietnam could not be hailed as a sacrifice to the Nation symbolised nor supported by official discourse, let alone public monuments (unlike after the Pacific war), since it came to be viewed as mere accidents met by anonymous soldiers manipulated as objective statistics, not as heroes anymore.



Thus the Vietnam War opened an new era of technical and unspoken sacrifice that is now implied and accepted by the Globalization process unleashed under the flag of liberalisation, another untold and undeclared war waged against the weaker among human civilisations in the name of a one dimensional modermisation process. The problem this time is that some emerging countries appear to be among the winners and a growing number of casualties is spreading among the middle class right in the center of the western civilisation.

Answer 3

This is a very old question, but someone might actually come by and want an honest answer so here is one from a man that was there. The actual average god loving American people never gave our service men a hard time. The Government of the United States never held a victory parade after the Paris Peace Accords. The Soldiers came back to the states and went home by and large to loving families that hugged them and kissed them and on Sunday went to church and thanked God. Those who chose to do their duty and nor run from it had all the honor they needed at that time. Now who were those that disrespected our military and showed them in a bad light when ever the opportunity cam up, our mainstream media, that's who. Who said we lost the war, our mainstream media. My generations war was called a loss, a quagmire, and a disaster, by our erstwhile friends and the liberal intelligentsia. It was of course and in all actuality, none of those things. For those of us, the brave fighting men and women who gave their time, souls, and lives to it. I will speak more on the real disaster of our war in a moment, but let it be known, we were not losers we were winner's and it is about time all of you knew it. Our forces fought an evil enemy, much like we do today. The communist North Vietnamese will admit to the loss of 1.2 million soldiers, while the Viet Cong will give no numbers we know that the year I was there, (67-68), they lost around 200,000 fighters. We list as dead around 58,400 during ten years with most of those coming in the last six years. We won every major battle to include TET contrary to what Uncle Walter said. We made the North come to the peace table and in the Paris Peace Accords of 1973 they sued for peace. They said that they would stop fighting and go home. They said that they would never again cross the 17th parallel. They said that they would live in peaceful coexistence with their neighbor to the south. Well I guess that proves the trustworthiness of a Communist. Now, let’s talk about the loss of South Vietnam to the Communist North. We left as winners, the south still had some Viet-Cong to take care of, but they were in no major trouble. How then could they happen to fall to communist’s forces ‘within a matter of months, well to put it simply they were sold out by America, but not by all Americans, just a certain group of Americans. In October of 1974 after President had been removed from office the Communists in the North started panning for another invasion of the South with their large Army, at the time the fifth largest in the world. They sensed that the American people and particularly one of our political Party’s would do nothing about it. Remember, we were honor bound by the Paris Peace Accords to go to the aid of the South Vietnamese people if the North ever attacked them again. In December 1974, the North attacked and we did nothing even though we promised. President Ford begged the Democratic House and Senate to live up to our obligations, but they sat back and just smiled as hundreds of thousands of South Vietnamese died. They sat back and smiled as the communists set up their reeducation camps, at the dictatorship that drove hundreds of thousands to risk death at sea while trying to escape the communist tyranny. Now, you might not believe what I've written here, all you must do is read the real history of the time and you will know the answers also and perhaps a better understanding of what we really did back then. It is my hope that at some point everyone learns the truth, hopefully before I die.

Answer 4

Technically, the US lost the war.



The Americans are poor losers. Say if they were victorious in that war, the reception would have been euphoric.



For all those who fought there, I salute and thank you for enabling me to write as a free person.

Answer 5

The people in the USA were very ignorant at this time.