As a Baby Boomer who lived through the Vietnam War, I still cringe when I remember the treatment that most Vietnam veterans received when they came home from the war. At the time, we the youth, the young hippies of our day, spent much of our time polemicizing in Student Union Buildings on college campuses and demonstrating in the streets for causes we strongly believed in. We protested the war, yet most of us didn’t take into consideration that many of our former friends, our old classmates, kids our own age, were being drafted and shipped off to fight that war half way around the world.
No other American veteran was so poorly treated when they came home than the Vietnam veteran. By the time the war was over, I had been living in Europe for a number of years, but still it didn’t hit me how they must have felt until many years later when I was at the cinema theatre at Saint-Germain-des-Près one evening watching Rambo starring Sylvester Stallone. I can’t remember exactly what Stallone said, but I do remember at the end of the film he talks about how the soldiers going home were being mistreated; they were being spat upon and called baby killers. At the end he says something to the effect that all that the soldiers wanted was for the country to love them as much as they had fought for and loved the country.
I sat there and tears started rolling down my face. When the lights went on and the film ended, much to my surprise, as well as my French boy-friend at the time who didn’t understand what had happened to me, I was bawling like a baby!
Maya Muses: It happens to all of us, we grow up. Whenever I see a vet, I make it a point to say “Thank You!” whenever possible.
Photo Credits: Flickr
2 responses so far ↓
1 Patrick // Nov 13, 2008 at 4:19 am
Even though I grew up after WWII, my parents and my grandparents didn’t let me and my brothers forget that the Allies freed France. When you come from Normandy it’s something that you don’t forget. When you go to the American Cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer and the other cemeteries, and see all the young men and women who died for a country that they didn’t even know, it’s very emotional. On June 6, 1984, forty years after D-Day, I was interviewed on a radio station in New Orleans, WWNO, and was able to thank the American veterans who had helped liberate France.
2 Lynn // Nov 13, 2008 at 7:10 am
So true! The people of France and especially Normandy have not forgotten and it’s very impressive to walk around all those crosses and Stars of David and read just how young many of those soldiers were who lost their lives!
Leave a Comment