Vets from Nam were never spit on suggests studies [View All]

What Vietnam tells us about how we wage the propaganda war at home during the current occupation of Iraq
By Patrick G. Coy Wednesday, March 17, 2004


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With MORE THAN 550 US soldiers killed — so far — in the invasion and occupation of Iraq, our country is revisiting many of the images and issues of the Vietnam War. Thus we hear much about a quagmire in Iraq, about search-and-destroy missions that alienate the local populace, about soldiers depressed over their service as an invading and occupying power, and about the administration's controversial news blackout on filming the returning dead soldiers at Dover Air Force base, unlike during Vietnam.

The Vietnam legacy has become a pivotal issue in the presidential race too. George W. Bush's cavalier approach to meeting his privileged Air National Guard duties stands in stark relief next to John Kerry's heroic command of a Navy Swift boat patrolling the coastal canals of Vietnam. In response, even veteran groups have squared off. Some hit the campaign trail with Kerry, while others launch attacks on Kerry because when he returned from Vietnam he opposed the war, as a decorated veteran.

But in the rush to inflict damage on John Kerry for his peace activism, historical truth is sacrificed. The February 17, 2004, story by Plain Dealer reporter Sabrina Eaton, “Kerry's Bid Ignites Vet's Interest,” is a case in point.

The story quotes Ted Sampley, a Green Beret in Vietnam whose website has led the charge for some veterans against Kerry. Sampley says, “I truly believe that John Kerry's testimony before Congress had a big role in people who were supposedly peaceniks spitting on vets and calling them baby-killers when they got home.”

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