U.S. HISTORY -- COMPARATIVE PUBLIC RESPONSE TO WAR (150-200 wds)

Describe the differences in the public reception of veterans returning from the Vietnam and Iraq wars. What were the reasons behind the difference in the treatment of these two groups of veterans?

When U.S. troops returned from Vietnam, they were greeted by furious anti-war protesters (Farber, 1994). In many instances, they were subjected to verbal abuse and even spat upon as they walked past crowds waiting to greet other passengers in airports and train and bus stations. If they wore their dress uniforms in public or mentioned that they had recently returned from military service in Vietnam, they were called "baby killers," a reference to the few but highly-publicized incidents such as the Mai-Lai Massacre in which a U.S. combat unit had murdered dozens of innocent South Vietnamese civilians in the town by that name (Farber, 1994). By contrast, U.S. military veterans of the Iraq War were treated with the respect that they deserved for fulfilling their military obligations when their nation called (Harrison & Dye, 2008).

The most important reason that probably accounted for the tremendous difference is that the Vietnam War was the centerpiece of the ongoing countercultural revolution at the time and the general public did not distinguish between the responsibility of the political decision to prosecute that war and the soldiers who played no part in that decision. Today, in the age of digital communications and 'round-the-clock news coverage, the general public is much more aware of that distinction and of the fact that military servicemen are not responsible for even the worst decision to prosecute wars.

(222 words not including title, question, references, and citations)

References

Farber, D. (1994). The Age of Great Dreams: America in the 1960s. Hill & Wang.

Harrison, B.C. And Dye, T.R. (2008). Power and Society: An Introduction to the Social

Sciences. Thomson-Wadsworth.