The place they had been fighting to protect had turned them into spit jars when they finally did return home. They would take their uniforms off as fast as they could and hide them away because it wasn’t seen as a heroic uniform by civilians, but as a devilish villain costume. They were not able to hang their uniforms around with pride when returning home, they would change out of them before they could reach the air ports because there would be protestors waiting for them. Soldiers wouldn’t even arrive at the base when returning home they would have to walk there after landing. In single file lines there would be soldiers marching to their base.
Life after the war wasn’t too good either. Mostly because of the fact that most of the united states population held Vietnam veterans to be very bad people. They were viewed as murderers and druggies. The military’s part in the war was not seen as important or necessary. So for this reason it was very hard for the soldiers to come home and start their lives as civilians. They would be uninterested in going to college because when they did, most of their ideas or inputs were put down and not paid attention to. So most of the soldiers who did go to college ended up dropping out because of the way they were treated there. When they got jobs they wouldn’t be able to talk about their experiences in war because when they did, some civilians would end up being insulted. Even when the discussion would be a bunch of younger soldiers talking about their tours, the veterans would still remain hushed about their war stories because they learned that people really can’t handle them.
A lot of the soldiers had gotten PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) from the war, and some of their worst repeating nightmares aren’t even from their life threateningly dangerous encounters in Vietnam, but from their experiences after landing back in the United States. Finding work afterwards was very difficult and talking about war was not really an option if they wanted respect. Most of the veterans would not enjoy educating themselves at college because they would be treated poorly. Depression hit some of them and alcoholism and drug abuse was a common option. Would you say the segregation of veterans was justified or right? Would you treat them any different if you were a citizen in this time? Would you choose to serve your country in the Vietnam War knowing this treatment would be waiting at home for you when you return?
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