An Interview from a war vet, Bill Hunt:
Here are my thoughts on your theme, "How Vietnam Vets Were Treated Upon
Arriving Back In The United States."
Of course, there have been numerous magazine articles devoted to this subject.
They all say about the same thing: Vietnam Vets were treated poorly, and spat
upon, etc., etc.
Your theme by title is limited to a short time frame: the homecoming experience.
Vets were often met in airports by protestors, and that is the substance of most
of the stories that surround this particular post war experience.
If a vet did not experience protestors at airports, and most did not, then the
homecoming story is more limited to how they were treated by family and
friends and strangers.
I was met at the airport by my Korean War brother, and I remember being
silent and bitter after he made an innocent comment. He noted in jest that I was
now home and no longer "surrounded by the Viet Cong and all that jazz." It was
said in jest, but it sounded as though he was not inclined to believe that the war
in Vietnam was a real war, a war were in fact I felt the whole time that I was
there that I was indeed surrounded by a hostile force.
I got on another plane the next morning to be reunited with my wife and her
family. I'll never forget being re-introduced to my 16-month old daughter, who
treated me as a complete stranger. That was really hard. My wife had no real
concept of where I had been, even though I had written every day. There was a
new stress in our relationship that is hard to describe.
But more toward your theme, my wife's family barely acknowledged that I had
ever been gone. Did they know I had just returned from war? If they did, they
acted as though it didn't matter.
In about a week I checked in with the rest of my family, and I swear it was as if
I had been down the street buying a loaf of bread. They were very casual about
were I had been. I think that my war duty to them was just another military
assignment, another station. If I had been assigned to a post in Germany or in
Korea their reaction to my coming home would have been about the same.
Vietnam was just part of the background of everyday life, and now I was more
available for invites to family gatherings. No one asked me about the war. They
were totally apathetic on the subject.
Of course, my tour in Vietnam came later than most. I was there during 1972,
after most ground troops were withdrawn, and politicians were promising
"peace with honor". 1972 was the Easter Offensive, and that was just as
devastating as Tet 1968. But mostly it was the Vietnamese troops who died in
that offensive, and it got only a tiny amount of American press compared to
1968. But to me, it had been one long hellish experience, and I wondered if
everybody had been asleep.
At the time, this "treatment" didn't matter much. What was, was. My service in
Vietnam was just as normal to me as walking down the street was normal to
others (though I would have been more comfortable wearing my combat gear).
Vietnam Vets came home and tended stayed to themselves; they didn't talk
about the war, and generally they didn't even meet other vets� who were, after
all, staying quiet about their past. I met my first vet friend in 1974, and
experienced the reality that I knew more about him in 5 minutes than I knew the
other strangers around me, ever. After that, I began to seek out other vets
because they understood me and I understood them.
Unlike many, I did continue to bring up the subject of Vietnam routinely at
social gatherings until the early 1980's. Everything reminded me about the war,
especially food. I had lived with the Vietnamese, and I missed the food, believe
it or not. The war was an exciting period in my life, and many many interesting
things happened that under most circumstances people would find interesting,
though there was rarely much social feedback.
Then one day, I mentioned the war at a large lunch affair with various business
clients. I had said something very interesting, I thought, and I was stunned by
the silence that returned. I was so stunned, I stopped mentioning the war for
years.
I wasn't the only vet who stopped mentioning the war. Once, not that long ago,
I was in another business meeting with a group of about six men. Over
sandwiches they started talking about their military experiences. The guys who
shared were not war vets, they had been in the service and were quick to talk
about flying in planes and assignments on ships and various stuff that all ex-GI's
have in common. I didn't say anything, and after all but one of the members had
left the room, I pointed out to the last man seated that he hadn't said anything
either. Turns out he had been a platoon leader in Vietnam and had learned the
same social lesson I had learned. Case closed.
Arriving Back In The United States."
Of course, there have been numerous magazine articles devoted to this subject.
They all say about the same thing: Vietnam Vets were treated poorly, and spat
upon, etc., etc.
Your theme by title is limited to a short time frame: the homecoming experience.
Vets were often met in airports by protestors, and that is the substance of most
of the stories that surround this particular post war experience.
If a vet did not experience protestors at airports, and most did not, then the
homecoming story is more limited to how they were treated by family and
friends and strangers.
I was met at the airport by my Korean War brother, and I remember being
silent and bitter after he made an innocent comment. He noted in jest that I was
now home and no longer "surrounded by the Viet Cong and all that jazz." It was
said in jest, but it sounded as though he was not inclined to believe that the war
in Vietnam was a real war, a war were in fact I felt the whole time that I was
there that I was indeed surrounded by a hostile force.
I got on another plane the next morning to be reunited with my wife and her
family. I'll never forget being re-introduced to my 16-month old daughter, who
treated me as a complete stranger. That was really hard. My wife had no real
concept of where I had been, even though I had written every day. There was a
new stress in our relationship that is hard to describe.
But more toward your theme, my wife's family barely acknowledged that I had
ever been gone. Did they know I had just returned from war? If they did, they
acted as though it didn't matter.
In about a week I checked in with the rest of my family, and I swear it was as if
I had been down the street buying a loaf of bread. They were very casual about
were I had been. I think that my war duty to them was just another military
assignment, another station. If I had been assigned to a post in Germany or in
Korea their reaction to my coming home would have been about the same.
Vietnam was just part of the background of everyday life, and now I was more
available for invites to family gatherings. No one asked me about the war. They
were totally apathetic on the subject.
Of course, my tour in Vietnam came later than most. I was there during 1972,
after most ground troops were withdrawn, and politicians were promising
"peace with honor". 1972 was the Easter Offensive, and that was just as
devastating as Tet 1968. But mostly it was the Vietnamese troops who died in
that offensive, and it got only a tiny amount of American press compared to
1968. But to me, it had been one long hellish experience, and I wondered if
everybody had been asleep.
At the time, this "treatment" didn't matter much. What was, was. My service in
Vietnam was just as normal to me as walking down the street was normal to
others (though I would have been more comfortable wearing my combat gear).
Vietnam Vets came home and tended stayed to themselves; they didn't talk
about the war, and generally they didn't even meet other vets� who were, after
all, staying quiet about their past. I met my first vet friend in 1974, and
experienced the reality that I knew more about him in 5 minutes than I knew the
other strangers around me, ever. After that, I began to seek out other vets
because they understood me and I understood them.
Unlike many, I did continue to bring up the subject of Vietnam routinely at
social gatherings until the early 1980's. Everything reminded me about the war,
especially food. I had lived with the Vietnamese, and I missed the food, believe
it or not. The war was an exciting period in my life, and many many interesting
things happened that under most circumstances people would find interesting,
though there was rarely much social feedback.
Then one day, I mentioned the war at a large lunch affair with various business
clients. I had said something very interesting, I thought, and I was stunned by
the silence that returned. I was so stunned, I stopped mentioning the war for
years.
I wasn't the only vet who stopped mentioning the war. Once, not that long ago,
I was in another business meeting with a group of about six men. Over
sandwiches they started talking about their military experiences. The guys who
shared were not war vets, they had been in the service and were quick to talk
about flying in planes and assignments on ships and various stuff that all ex-GI's
have in common. I didn't say anything, and after all but one of the members had
left the room, I pointed out to the last man seated that he hadn't said anything
either. Turns out he had been a platoon leader in Vietnam and had learned the
same social lesson I had learned. Case closed.