Twelve years after the Vietnam War ended, on 20 July 1987, syndicated columnist Bob Greene of the Chicago Tribune proposed testing the truth of what he considered an urban legend. The archetypical story became one of antiwar hippie protesters spitting upon returning veterans in an airport. Even as the citizenry's opposition to the war mounted, tales began to spread of returning veterans being mistreated. One of the contentious issues of the Vietnam War and its aftermath was the American public's response to its returning military veterans. Homecoming was later criticized by those who did not believe that Vietnam veterans had been spat upon. The reprinted letters show a steady pattern of mistreatment of Vietnam veterans by all segments of American society, and in a wide variety of settings. The overwhelming response to his original column led to four more columns, then to a book collection of the most notable responses.Īfter Greene made his best effort to check the truth of the accounts to be printed, he inserted a minimum of his own commentary in the text, preferring to let the veterans' words speak for themselves. Greene believed the tale was an urban legend. Its genesis was a controversial newspaper column of 20 July 1987 in which Chicago Tribune syndicated columnist Bob Greene asked whether there was any truth to the folklore that Vietnam veterans had been spat upon when they returned from the war zone. Homecoming: When the Soldiers Returned From Vietnam is a book of selected correspondence published in 1989. Homecoming: When the Soldiers Returned from Vietnam
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