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> And one of the enduring myths in Australia is the claim that returning > veterans > were spat on in the street. No-one has been able to provide convincing > examples > where this happened. The image of the returning vet being spit on by anti-war protesters is one of the enduring myths of the Vietnam War. Jerry Lembcke, a sociologist at Holy Cross and a former activist in Vietnam Veterans Against the War, wrote a book, The Splitting Image: Myth, Memory, and the Legacy of Vietnam, showing not only that there wasn't a single documented case of this happening, but that anti-war demonstrators welcomed veterans into the movement and were inspired by the protests of VVAW. It was the government that ignored the needs of returning soldiers, as was vividly portrayed in Born on the Fourth of July (my favorite Oliver Stone film). Lembcke's book in still in print: http://www.amazon.com/Spitting-Image-Memory-Legacy-Vietnam/dp/0814751474/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1347673132&sr=1-1&keywords=jerry+lembcke As for the NLF, I'm sure they weren't choir boys, but they didn't develop mass support among South Vietnamese peasant villagers by cutting off the arms of children. Repeating such a Hollywood myth is repugnant. Glenn ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
