Why were the U.S. Vietnam Soldiers ostracized instead of being honored on their return?

I have nothing but the utmost respect for the people who serve our country in wartime or not. I was young when the Vietnam took place but I did notice how our soldiers who served our country weren't thrown any parades or even acknowledged as an equal let alone an honorable man. Help! This is very disturbing to me. I have become an activist without a whole lot of knowledge on the subject. All I know is that they put their lives on the line in the same if not WORSE conditions as any other soldier in any war and their country has treated them like dirt. It just isn't right!

Walter B

At the start of the Second Indochina (Vietnam) War the returning soldiers were greeted with respect and were honoured.

It was not until the war grew larger and the people in the US started to look more deeply into the conflict that they started to disagree with the war. They found that the government had been lying to them constantly and that the war was another illegal conflict under international law. Unfortunately, it was the ordinary soldiers that received the greatest, and most open anger of the public when it should have been the government.

wanderer

It had more to do with the popularity of the war .. or I should say .. the unpopularity. It was the first televised war and many Americans could not accept the brutality. What they had never seen was how brutal previous wars had been. And people got tired of the protracted war

TV commentators also played a part. Walter Cronkite told the American people how the will to win had been lost after the TET offensive. Actually, the TET offensive was a victory for Allied and South Vietnamese forces.

Some of the ostracization was a result of the atrocities at a village called My Lai, where a number of women and children were killed.

rlbjr22

Because the liberals were out in full force, and spat on the troops that were providing them with the freedom to do so. God Bless you.

lugnut

Dope smoking. draft dodging Hippies also throw in Jane Fonda and you have it! And yes I still have a bad taste in my mouth from that time. edit.. I am proud of of our miltary men and women and thank God they get treated as the heroes they are!

Open your eyes

Because they killed women and children. Indiscriminantly. Much like they have done in Iraq where a million Iraqis have died already, many of them women, and children. Ask yourself why it is that an American can not buy a ticket to Iraq to view the ancient land and city of Babylon almost six years after the invasion was supposed to be greeted by flowers at the feet of the US soldiers and blessed for liberating them from their tyrant Saddam? I didn't think I would get a good reception with this answer, you rarely do with the truth. People especially Americans can't handle the truth but it's remains the same regardless. The facts are that if an invading army came into your country for whatever reason that they felt was important to them and proceeded to kill your brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, you wouldn't be calling that army great. The people of America during the time of the Vietnam war were a great people who knew right from wrong. The people of America today are sheep that wouldn't know how to dress themselves unless they had the illusion box on telling them what the latest fashion was.

Rhoda

No it isn't right. The war became too expensive and Washington didn't care about winning or our soldiers who fought and died. People hated this unnecessary war and the soldiers were booed when they came home. Another American debaucle.

Kat R

Partly because they lost the war. In every other conflict except the Korean war American soldiers have emerged victorious. And even in the Korean war it was a tie of sorts. Many people have viewed the vietnam vets as cowards and reminders of a conflict that went horribly wrong.

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