I was the right age for the Hippies in the late 60's but shipped off to Vietnam in 1970. Can't say as I cared much for them when I came home. Wasn't our fault about that war, it was the politicians fault. Didn't care to be spit on when I honestly thought I was doing my country a service.
I don't blame you. I think to denigrate soldiers is AWFUL. BUT.... please understand a thing you may be in denial about. The soldiers were mostly FOR the war. We HIPPIES were against those people who were FOR the war. The innocents that just trusted and were shipped to die? Those people came back and grew their hair. I mean those that lived. I am not kidding, my friends DIED there. My young neighbor, Mike Havard? A beautiful boy, just went, trusted in America and died there. Why? He was only 18. I'm sure he had no clue what we were even fighting for. Most did not. They just figured my country right or wrong and that is why we had this movement in the first place. Our country is as big a DEVIL as the enemy. We were willing to be imprisoned rather than kill or be killed for no reason whatsoever except to fulfill Nixon and Regan's dreams of wiping out Communism.
My favorite teacher I have in my school is a gorgeous Viet Namese man that I am thrilled that I met. He lives here now, has a wife and baby and is one of the best contributers to the field of massage I have had the pleasure to meet. So, why would I support killing these wonderful people? Because his country may fall to communism? And we Righteous-minded lovers of all things GOD on OUR side knew we were meant to wipe out COMMUNISM? Oh sure. How convenient. All this was this whole freaking nightmare of a war was America trying to shove back at Russia. We just HAD to show the world we were most powerful. We lost that war. Our ego got in the way of the possibility that may those little geeks knew how to fight back.
So, while I sympathize and agree with your heart, your mind and mine are in separate rooms. That war was a travesty. No one should have defended our pathetic position in it. We were right. You needed to have stayed home.
This post was edited by WM BARR . =ABSOLUTE TRASH at December 2, 2016 10:00 AM MST
from that dirty war. The peace movement became a vessel used unwisely at times by children in the head.
This post was edited by Benedict Arnold at December 2, 2016 10:01 AM MST
CW name one unwise thing that the Hippies did. And calling them people of the HEAD was very accurate. We used our minds. We thought about things before we just obeyed a government from Hell that has not changed all that much since then. And the reasons for any positive change started WITH the hippies revolting.
Again, this is NOTHING to do with the pawns/soldiers that were forced to fight the war. This has to do with the reasons why it was even necessary. It was NOT. I am sorry, but my life means something. I cannot fathom killing anyone for any reason except life or death. We were not near that position. We had no reason to be there. NONE.
I met a Vietnam vet in Oz a couple of years ago. He was spat on in Hawaii on his way home to the States. He said, "They didn't teach us to fight in the Marines; they taught us to kill and maim." When the cops pulled him off the spitter the guy was in pretty bad shape. One of the cops wanted to arrest him but the other was a vet himself and talked him out of it. The way vets were treated -- especially in the US -- was appalling. I don't recall any spitting over here but, until recently, their service was completely overlooked. They were a reminder of the government's embarrassment at being involved.
Thank you, Didge. The war was a machine and we were our own enemy against our own people. Soldiers woke up too late. It was far better they were imprisoned here for being against the war, than winding up dead or worse. Alive and wishing they WERE dead. More lives were destroyed by us of our own people and how we treated them, than any "ENEMY" we created in the first place.
Thank you, Didge. The war was a machine and we were our own enemy against our own people. Soldiers woke up too late. It was far better they were imprisoned here for being against the war, than winding up dead or worse. Alive and wishing they WERE dead. More lives were destroyed by us of our own people and how we treated them, than any "ENEMY" we created in the first place.
I felt that way too. When I came back from Vietnam, I was a supporter. In fact, when I learned of an anti war march near me, I put on my uniform and went to the march to HECKLE the marchers.. I had a map in my hand, and I was asking them to SHOW ME where Vietnam was..
So, there I was, IN my uniform, peacefully standing on the sidelines, when the cops attacked. They DIDN'T care that I had a uniform on.. They attacked EVERYBODY. They only wanted to beat me senseless, and they did..
First of all, there were no yuppies before hippies so how can you be too young for yuppies if you are too old for hippies. There is not one lick of sense to it. But anyway, we progressed to the WAR. Please read me, I would welcome your comments.
I look at my birth date from a different point of view. I was too old for Vietnam but too young for Korea. MInd you, I had just completed my National Service when Nasser nationalised the Suez Canal and for a while it looked as thought I might have been called up again for a paid holiday in Egypt.
Benedict Arnold 