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The Vietnam veteranVeterans Day Wednesday finds Americans' consciences troubled anew by the case of Vietnam War veterans. Those who came back from that despised war feel they are ignored and unappreciated. Their frustration is illustrated by a veteran who took six newspaper employees hostage in Muncie last week, saying he was atigry because the former Iranian hostages received good treatment from the media but Viet vets were “stuffed in a corner.The nation did make a mistake in failing to welcome its soldiers home from Vietnam, and it knows it. The failure was not due to a lack of compassion for and pride in the men themselves, but to a revulsion against the war, a reaction fanned by antiwar activists. Americans celebrate when something has been won, and are quiet when something has been lost.Vietnam also is in the news because of a documentary Public Broadcasting Service has scheduled for Wednesday night, chronicling the sorry experiences of one Vietnam veteran. The American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars have protested the picture as portraying Vietnam veterans as a group of social and moral deviants.”The documentary, entitled ‘ Frank,’’ consists largely of a solitary man reciting his experiencesto the camera, relating his stryg-gles with alcohol, drugs and other problems. PBS defends it by contending it in no way implies that Frank’s experiences were universal ones.Viewers will have to judge for themselves whether the program is no more than the story of one individual or a debasing general picture of those who served in Vietnam.Television producers must be somewhat worried about the documentary’s impact, for they have planned as a feature to follow it a program for troubled veterans who need advice on how to seek help. Telephone lines will be kept open after the show and counselors will be available to talk with veterans.Whether that is compensation for the criticism TV may be expecting for presenting “Frank,” at least it offers something tangible to veterans who have been unable to find jobs or have been discouraged otherwise.Regardless of how viewers judge ‘Frank,’’ perceptions of the Vietnam vets fortunately have changed radically in the last decade, In the early 1970s the myth of the violent war — fostered in large part by movies and TV police dramas depicting Vietnam veterans as crazed killers — reigned supreme. It took severalyears before the word began to sink in that most Vietnam vets returned home to lead normal lives.Last year, residents of South Boston dedicated a stone monument to Vietnam veterans and to the 25 men from that neighborhood killed in the war. If all goes according to schedule, Veterans Day 1982 will see the unveiling of the nation’s first official Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington. The $7 million structure, to be financed solely through public contributions, will be a simple, black, V-shaped wall with the names of the 57,692 Americans killed in Vietnam engraved on it,Stone and marble monuments have their place, and it certainly is time the natic ionored those who served in Vietnam with a suitable memorial. Even more important is the country’s responsibility to help the Viet vets find employment and make sure none of them is denied medical treatment if he needs it. On this Veterans Day, every community might well ask itself if it has done all it could to help the veterans solve what other problems they may have.We ignored those men who endured a dirty war and came home to be greeted in silence, and we still have a way to go to make up for it.
Newspaper Details
Kokomo Tribune
Kokomo, Indiana, US
Sun, Nov 08, 1981
Page 4
Full Page
Clipped by
Kokomo-Howard C.
IN, USA 06 Jul 2022
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