Why is that ? I remember this stuff, when they were called "baby killers." why don't people spit on the iraqi freedom soldiers and call them the baby killers that they are? Naval officers were hardly treated better than their comrades in the army, as Mr Vierveyzer found out when she went ashore. The Spitting Image: Myth, Memory and the Legacy of Vietnam is a 1998 book by Vietnam veteran and sociology professor Jerry Lembcke. Once Republicans point out the brutality and insensitivity that Democrats have toward the pre-born, they would win easily. If it's not an urban legend -- if it really was a common occurrence -- then there should be contemporary news accounts of such incidents. Vietnam veterans were called baby killers when they returned home. In the Vietnam war, there were more than 58,000 deaths and more than 300,000 wounded as well as more than 700,000 veterans who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. ... the watt called all irishmen baby killers but because he was a OUSA rep no action was taken against his bigoted, racist views. It was spread in entertainment and of course guys looking for attention, LYING about it happening. The epithet, "baby killers", was often used by anti-war activists against U.S. soldiers, largely as a result of the My Lai Massacre. The war was slow to take action against PTSD and to provide veterans with the help they needed because of the public's general disapproval of the entire war. For Vietnam vet Johnny Strouth, he said when he came home from the war, his homecoming was not celebrated. Although such incidents were rare, the stories were often repeated among U.S. soldiers in Vietnam. Another topic covered was“Back in the World.” The following Veterans returning from Vietnam were met with an institutional response marked by indifference. By the late 1960s, troops in Vietnam were battling authorities over hair length, and the right to wear love-bead necklaces and draw peace symbols on their helmets. In News Corp’s and Nine’s digital archives, the first mention of “baby killers” in relation to Vietnam veterans doesn’t appear until 1997. The popular media called it "America’s costliest and longest war" (1965 to 1975). About 17,000 soldiers remain unaccounted for today and remain listed as missing in action. During the 80's when everything "Vietnam" was popular, movies, books, tv shows, that the "they called me a baby killer and spit on me" thing became popular. By a Vietnam war veteran. That's the phrase returning veterans from Vietnam had to hear, including [former senator] Max Cleland, when they came home, when they were spit on in airports. These stories added to the soldiers' resentment of the antiwar movement. From revcom.us | Original Article. None of the other issues matter if you aren't alive. "I remember being spat on and called 'baby killer'", he says, adding in an understated manner: "It was a little bit irritating." A derogatory term used to identify Vietnam-era veterans returning from the war in the late 1960's and early 1970's. Why were Vietnam Veterans called Baby Killers and given Agent Orange then never given their money for it and made homeless or just gave up? Soldiers were NOT welcomed home with happiness. 19 18. bumper stickers. And of course, the real cases of American war atrocities like the MyLai Massacre, only helped to insure that more and more people back in the states believed that all veterans were baby killers. Soldiers that came home from the Vietnam War were called baby killers and were often spat on. who wants to support people like that? For years I had been hearing stories that when American troops returned home from Vietnam, they were spat upon by anti-war protesters. called the "remasculinization" of America after Vietnam. Many, like my husband, returned from Vietnam on "chartered" flights like Paper Tiger, and landed in LAX and SF. The baby killers are the neo-cons in the Pentagon, the White House and the computer peckers at the AEI and PNAC. The idea that returning veterans were spit on and called baby-killers appears to be primarily an urban legend. Vietnam veterans were treated horribly and were spat at and called … Vietnam was an unpopular war where 58,200-plus combat soldiers were killed and more than 300,000 were wounded. Yet when they returned home, many Vietnam veterans were greeted with vitriol and disrespect. The entire country was forced to re-think what it means to be a ... People stopped calling Vietnam vets "baby killers" and started applying In contrast, US civilians are now more supportive of the Iraq veterans. “We were called baby killers … He accused our Vietnam veterans of the oft-repeated atrocities. Many were called “baby killers,” spit at and looked at as criminals. That the returning Vietnam veterans were “spat on and called baby killers” has now reached the level of gospel truth, most distressingly among those who were themselves part of the very movement being vilified by those claims. Thirty three veterans gave interviews on various topics relating to Vietnam including: basic training, the trip to Vietnam, being in the field, helicopter and aircraft stories, support groups, the Vietnamese, and their general thoughts on the war and the country. HEDGECOCK: He [Kerry] was the one who coined the phrase "baby killers." Vietnam veterans. In the 1980s, however, the Americans most saddled with blame for abusing Vietnam veterans were the antiwar activists of the previous era. In some instances, antiwar protesters reportedly spit on returning veterans and called them baby-killers. Although Vietnam soldiers had been called "baby killers" since at least 1966, My Lai and the Haeberle photographs further solidified the stereotype of drug-addled soldiers who killed babies. I am writing to revcom.us/Revolution because this is the one place that consistently stands with the people of the world against all forms of oppression and for a radically different and far better world. It is not only veterans who were said to have suffered a crisis of masculinity as a result of failing in Vietnam. Contrary to the authors point that returning soldiers didn't go through commercial airports like LAX and SF, they certainly did. After 54 years I still wake up some nights with a sweaty pillow. Instead, he and his fellow soldiers were spat on and called “baby killers.” ... “It was definitely a better reception than from what Vietnam veterans had, you know,” Edwards said. We were rejected by the very people we were fighting for. are called warriors. My Dad was one some one tell me why when returned home no one cheered I mean in Vietnam they used kids, babies and women as … we all know that the soldiers in vietnam killed kids, but they are doing that in iraq right now, like with the slaughter of that 14 year old girls family, they set them on fire then they raped and killed her. "In the late 1960s, we were required to go to shore in uniform - that was mandatory,” he said. Now our vets. 1 2 3 No one saw or was a party to such attacks, yet everyone “knows” it happened. The stories were usually very specific. A soldier, fresh from Vietnam duty, wearing his uniform, gets off the plane at an American airport, where he is spat upon by "hippies." by watt is a racist June 23, 2004. 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