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When Vietnam vets came home (Soldiers being spit on is just an urban myth)

News and Observer ^ | Nov 10, 2004 | JOHN LLEWELLYN

Posted on by mykdsmom

WINSTON-SALEM -- Last week voters went to the polls to select a vision for the future. Now Americans must find a way forward together. This week, as we honor service and sacrifice on Veterans Day, an image from this political season must be put to rest.

The presidential campaign featured the resurgence of a myth from the early 1990s. That myth is that soldiers returning from Vietnam were spit upon by citizens or war protesters. That claim has been used to turn honest differences of opinion about the war into toxic indictments.

As a scholar of urban legends I am usually involved with accounts of vanishing hitchhikers and involuntary kidney donors. These stories are folklore that harmlessly reveals the public imagination. However, accounts of citizens spitting on returning soldiers -- any nation's soldiers -- are not harmless stories. These tales evoke an emotional firestorm.

I have studied urban legends for nearly 20 years and have been certified as an expert on the subject in the federal courts. Nonetheless, it dawned on me only recently that the spitting story was a rumor that has grown into an urban legend. I never wanted to believe the story but I was afraid to investigate it for fear that it could be true.

Why could I not identify this fiction sooner? The power of the story and the passion of its advocates offer a powerful alchemy of guilt and fear -- emotions not associated with clearheadedness.

Labeling the spitting story an urban legend does not mean that something of this sort did not happen to someone somewhere. You cannot prove the negative -- that something never happened. However, most accounts of spitting emerged in the mid-1980s only after a newspaper columnist asked his readers who were Vietnam vets if they had been spit upon after the war (an odd and leading question to ask a decade after the war's end). The framing of the question seemed to beg for an affirmative answer.

  

In 1998 sociologist and Vietnam veteran Jerry Lembcke published "The Spitting Image: Myth, Media and the Legacy of Viet Nam." He recounts a study of 495 news stories on returning veterans published from 1965 to 1971. That study shows only a handful (32) of instances were presented as in any way antagonistic to the soldiers. There were no instances of spitting on soldiers; what spitting was reported was done by citizens expressing displeasure with protesters.

Opinion polls of the time show no animosity between soldiers and opponents of the war. Only 3 percent of returning soldiers recounted any unfriendly experiences upon their return.

So records from that era offer no support for the spitting stories. Lembcke's research does show that similar spitting rumors arose in Germany after World War I and in France after its Indochina war. One of the persistent markers of urban legends is the re-emergence of certain themes across time and space.

There is also a common-sense method for debunking this urban legend. One frequent test is the story's plausibility: how likely is it that the incident could have happened as described? Do we really believe that a "dirty hippie" would spit upon a fit and trained soldier? If such a confrontation had occurred, would that combat-hardened soldier have just ignored the insult? Would there not be pictures, arrest reports, a trial record or a coroner's report after such an event? Years of research have produced no such records.

Lembcke underscores the enduring significance of the spitting story for this Veterans Day. He observes that as a society we are what we remember. The meaning of Vietnam and any other war is not static but is created through the stories we tell one another. To reinforce the principle that policy disagreements are not personal vendettas we must put this story to rest.

Our first step forward is to recognize that we are not a society that disrespects the sacrifices of our servicemembers. We should ignore anyone who tries to tell us otherwise. Whatever our aspirations for America, those hopes must begin with a clear awareness of who we are not.

(John Llewellyn is an associate professor of communication at Wake Forest University.)



TOPICS:

Culture/Society

US: North Carolina

KEYWORDS:

academiccesspool

dorkofwakeforest

hanoijohnnyacademic

idioteducator

incivility

leftspeak

liberalcollege

myth

politicalcorrectness

spit

spitspeaksvolumes

vietnamveterans

whaledungexpert

I just knew y'all would appreciate the opportunity to educate the 'so-called' educator. Dr. John Llewellyn

(336) 759-7229

llewelly@wfu.edu



To: mykdsmom; kdf1; AMERIKA; Lancey Howard; MudPuppy; SMEDLEYBUTLER; opbuzz; Snow Bunny; gitmogrunt; ...

The profanities that I am ready to expel are enormous.



Just who did this person speak to??



I was spit upon, I had people throw beer bottles at me from their cars, and I heard Baby Killer many times, and I graduated Parris Island in 1977...5 years after combat ended in Vietnam!



This woman needs to be Freeped and HOW!!



by 2 posted onby RaceBannon (Arab Media pulled out of Fallujah; Could we get the MSM to pull out of America??)

To: mykdsmom; kdf1; AMERIKA; Lancey Howard; MudPuppy; SMEDLEYBUTLER; opbuzz; Snow Bunny; gitmogrunt; ...

The profanities that I am ready to expel are enormous.



Just who did this person speak to??



I was spit upon, I had people throw beer bottles at me from their cars, and I heard Baby Killer many times, and I graduated Parris Island in 1977...5 years after combat ended in Vietnam!



This woman needs to be Freeped and HOW!!



by 3 posted onby RaceBannon (Arab Media pulled out of Fallujah; Could we get the MSM to pull out of America??)

To: RaceBannon

I think this is a guy.



by 4 posted onby Bahbah (Proud member of the pajamahadeen)

To: mykdsmom

He's calling me a liar. I wish he would do it to my face.



To: mykdsmom

"There is also a common-sense method for debunking this urban legend."



Which seems to be anything but surveying veterans.



by 6 posted onby Shermy (No More Al Quak Quaks!)

To: Constitution Day; TaxRelief; Helms

NC Ping Please



To: mykdsmom

Hey John... we're they called babykillers (or is that just another Urban Myth)



by 8 posted onby bikepacker67 ("This is the best election night in history." -- DNC chairman Terry McAuliffe 11/2/04 8pm)

To: RaceBannon

yeah right, not only was my brother in law spat upon on his return from Nam, when he finally got home "the Baby Killer", had to pay 3 xs what was on the cab meter before the sob would drive A Bronze Star winner home!



To: Bahbah

Maybe after the surgery she looks like a guy...



by 10 posted onby RaceBannon (Arab Media pulled out of Fallujah; Could we get the MSM to pull out of America??)

To: mykdsmom

The presidential campaign featured the resurgence of a myth from the early 1990s.



What is this moron talking about? I heard about this "myth" during the seventies when I was a kid.



by 11 posted onby Freepdonia (Victory is Ours! (I told you so :-))

Comment #12 Removed by Moderator

To: mykdsmom

hey buffoon go peddle your crap somewhere else, how dare you add salt to the wound



by 13 posted onby rockabyebaby (What goes around, comes around!)

To: mykdsmom

He can kiss my Veteran ASS!



I spent the night in a California jail for beating the crap out of a "love child" that spit on me while I was waiting for my duffle bag at the airport luggage carosel.



I ignored the chants, but the spit earned him some extensive dental work and my right boot rearranged his rib cage. I still have the scars on my knuckles from his dislodged teeth..





To: RaceBannon

Years of research COVERUP have produced no such records. I graduated PI July 73, I wore my UOD on boot leave and learned my lesson. The author of this article needs a good swift kick in the face.



by 15 posted onby JoeSixPack1 (Typing incoherently on FR since May '98.)

To: mykdsmom

Oh, really...the abuse still continues.....my hubby's major was just called a war criminal, baby and civilian killer among other things....they spent 15mos in Iraq in an AVN Co....



by 16 posted onby mystery-ak (This military family thanks America for re-electing our CinC)

To: mykdsmom

Who is this guy kidding??? I distinctly remember marching in a 4th of July parade when I was in the Boy Scouts in 19-73 or 1974 and we were the color guard for the local VFW. The Vets marched according to their service with the Viet Nam vets in the rear and they were jeered and booed and had things thrown at them. Most of the time whoever threw something was confronted by someone else in the crowd and the parade was only a couple of blocks long but it DID happen. I remember at first I was bewildered and then extremely angry. My dad was marching with the Korean Vets and he got a good dose of the hate too and he was fuming.



To: mykdsmom

My brother committed suicide after his return from Nam. Our family believes one reason was the "welcome" he received when he got home. And I saw people flip him off, turn their backs on him, etc. He told me about spitting and I saw the evidence of bar fights resulting from the name calling.



To: RaceBannon

And notice this puke publishes this crap on our birthday!!



Semper Fi



by 19 posted onby JoeSixPack1 (Typing incoherently on FR since May '98.)

To: RaceBannon

LOL, point taken.



by 20 posted onby Bahbah (Proud member of the pajamahadeen)

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