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American Veterans after Vietnam:

The Vietnam War, being one of the rawest and bloodiest wars in US history, impacted American soldiers in very significant ways. Their experiences within the war marked them forever and left them with memories that they can never take back. American Veteran Bob Gaskil said "You never get your soul back" As citizens of the United States some of them felt as if it was their duty to fight in the war, but what they didn't know was the effect the war would have on them as individuals. The fact that the United States participated and stayed in a war that could not be won incited certain behaviors on society as well as in the soldiers. The country knew that entering the war was not a smart decision but they did it anyway. Because of this, many soldiers participated in the Anti War Movement and became anti war activist themselves upon their return.

Soldiers in Vietnam experienced everything from murder to massacres to bombing and fighting in guerilla warfare. The amount of killings soldiers saw on a daily basis was something that they could never unsee. In the testimonies of Carter and Simpson we see how they talk about their experiences in My Lai Massacre. Carter says “Just after the man killed the Vietnamese, a woman came out of the village and someone knocked her down and Medina shot her with his M16 rifle. I was 50 to 60 feet from him and saw this. There was no reason to shoot this girl. Mitchell, Conti, Meadlo, Stanley and the rest of the squad and the command group must have seen this. It was pure out and out murder."This is one of the many examples of what soldiers went through on a daily basis. They witnessed what it was like to sleep with fear of being killed, fear of never seeing their families again and fear of dying alone during war.

Lyndon B. Johnson was faced with making the decision whether to escalate the war, choosing between what was good for the country and what benefited him as a leader. Fredrik Lodgevall, a distinguished historian, talks about this in his essay Choosing War He says:

 "What he really feared was the personal humiliation that he believed would come with failure in Vietnam. He saw the war as a test of his own manliness. Many have commented on the powerful element of machismo in Johnson's world view, rooted in his upbringing and fueled by his haunting fear that he would be judged insufficiently manly for the job, that he would lack the courage when the chips we down."

With the ongoing debate of if the United States should stay in the war or step out, individuals began showing their rejection towards the war through antiwar activism and protests. With this being said, when American veterans arrived to the United States, the country was somewhat divided into those who opposed the war and those who were for it. Because of this debate regarding the Vietnam War, soldiers were bound to be seen with scorn and disrespect. Their arrival to the United States showed the anger and resentment society felt towards them and their participation in the war.

Returning to the U.S.:

For many veterans, coming back to the U.S. was the moment they had been waiting for since they stepped foot in Vietnam. With their experiences in the war, going back home meant they could finally step out of the darkness of Vietnam and return home to their families. As mentioned before, when soldiers returned to the U.S. they were treated with disrespect and mostly anger. At this moment in time the war was something that incited disagreement and arguments between individuals. We began to see constant demonstrations on college campuses which helped the antiwar movement grow. By 1967 casualties in Vietnam reached 15,058 killings and 109,527 wounded, therefore the protests against the war kept growing in size. . Coming back from war was already a traumatizing experience and what soldiers did not expect was that coming home was going to be traumatizing as well. Because the topic of the Vietnam War was something very negative at the time, soldiers weren’t treated with respect or honor when they came back to their country. Dante A. Ciampaglia wrote, “American soldiers returning home from Vietnam often faced scorn as the war they had fought in became increasingly unpopular.”

The fact that the Vietnam War was a lost war influenced how people acted towards the soldiers who fought in the war because they were also having a hard time accepting that they lost. There were no welcome home parades or acts of gratitude towards these soldiers. Vietnam vet, Jerry Lembke, said “Vietnam was a lost war, and it was the first major lost war abroad in American history. You don’t have parades for soldiers coming home from a war they lost.”

According to historian James E. Wright, they were warned to receive a hostile reception.Many of them talk about how they were told to take off their uniforms in the airport because if people knew they served in the war they would most likely spit on them or say disrespectful comments towards them. Even though this is a topic of speculation there are some veterans that talk about it within their experience coming back home. For example, Ford Cole, naval officer, talks about how he remembers being spit on and how comparing it to World War II, they didn't have any fanfare or benefits.

Jim Frey, squad leader and sergeant, also talks about his experience coming home and he said, “Coming home was like when I went to Vietnam, everything had changed so much, people weren’t crazy about us at all. When I got off the plane they told us to get to the airport and not loiter around. We were 4 sitting at a table at the airport and people would get up and move away from us." For someone who had just come back from extreme conditions and life changing experiences, receiving this hatred and disrespect affected them in immense ways. Because of the fear of being judged, many soldiers didn’t express their traumas with anyone. They kept it inside of them. However, many chose to act.

Participating in Anti-War Movement:

Although some veterans didn’t express their traumas others didn't hesitate to act upon them. For many veterans, participating in antiwar movements was a way in which they could express their resentment and anger towards the war. Chuck Searcy, U.S. veteran, talked to us about his experience coming back to the U.S. after the war and how the Anti-War movement helped him overcome many issues from within that he had been battling with. The fact that veterans were now participating in the antiwar movement gave credibility to the movement itself. When the very own soldiers began to act against the war it showed that not even those who were supposed to show support were doing so. This act worked as a statement and a way to say that they were not going to continue to fight this unwinnable war.

Veteran’s began to unite and understand that they had the power to show society the reality of the war. For example, when the massacre at My Lai was exposed in 1969, a multitude of soldiers and veterans exposed crimes that their commanders had ordered them to commit. These acts of protest uncovered many of their experiences in the war and served as ways to release anger towards the war itself. This kind of revelation had a profound impact in American society because they unveiled what the government had been hiding from them for such a long time.

Soldiers also took their emotions to writing. Newspapers were one of the most effective ways that soldiers used to spread their message. More than 300 antiwar newspapers were published by and for active duty soldiers on military bases and ships from 1968 through 1972. The idea was to speak out against the war and the injustices that came with it.

The Vietnam War brought death, hatred and anger to the American people as well as it showed how power ruled the decisions made within the country. The obsession with being number one led the United States into a war that destroyed Indochina and divided the American society forever. With this being said, it is important for us to understand the war and the causes of it. In the same way, it is essential to educate ourselves and other people on how it came about so that we can prevent future disasters like this.

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