Are YOU a Viet Nam Veteran?

I think anyone who served in the army deserves some respect really.

reply to post by Springer

---------------------------------
THE PENTAGON PAPERS
The New York Times began publishing excerpts of what came to be known as the Pentagon Papers on 13 June 1971. The first article in the series was titled "Vietnam Archive: Pentagon Study Traces Three Decades of Growing US Involvement". The name Pentagon Papers arose during the resulting media publicity. Street protests, political controversy and lawsuits followed helping to bring the war in Vietnam to an end. The soldiers could go home and become the Vietnam veterans found on this thread.

On 30 June 1971 the Supreme Court decided that the press of the nation had been prevented from publishing this important document. Five days later, as precisely as I can calculate after the passing of 40 years, my first wife and I flew from Canada to Australia to take up teaching positions in Whyalla South Australia and help with the teaching work in the last years of the Baha’i Nine Year Plan: 1964 to 1973.

Today I was reflecting on the 40th anniversary of the release of these excerpts of the Pentagon Papers. The National Archives and Records Administration announced that the Papers would be declassified and released, all 7000 pages, to the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, California yesterday, on 13 June 2011. The papers were also released to the Nixon, Kennedy, and LBJ Libraries, as well as the Archives office in Bethesda, Maryland. The full release was coordinated by the Archives' National Declassification Centre as a special project to mark the anniversary of the report. –Ron Price with thanks to Wikipedia, 14 June 2011.

I was really too busy to take it all in1
back then in the last half of June ’71.
That encyclopaedic history of the war
in Viet-Nam in 7000 pages-47 volumes
written while I was selling ice-cream,
teaching Inuit kids, and then recovering
from teaching Inuit kids, then driving an
armoured truck, doing security work and
finally teaching in that primary school in a
Cherry Valley southern Ontario. They were
all pioneering ventures from home towns
in the Golden Horseshoe so very long ago
in a war of my own far, far from Vietnam.

1 In June 1971 Daniel Ellsberg leaked this top-secret study of US decision-making in Vietnam. The documents became known as the Pentagon Papers. At the time, Ellsberg was a top US military analyst employed by the RAND Corporation & he and the Pentagon papers were just names in the news.

Ron Price
14 June 2011

great. i'm am just a new world order revolutionary.

Both of my parents were

My grand parents died from the war.

reply to post by SpookyFox


Totally agreed. Especially Vietnam vets. A tough war no doubt. They did not get the PTSD support our vets get now.

My dad was an air traffic controller on the U.S.S. Princeton (CV-37), a LPH, in that war. Not sure of the exact dates.

I'm not a Nam vet, (hell i'm not even American!) but this pic always chokes me up bad..



PS- is this pic displaying okay? I'm new here and don't know how to make it fill the screen so we don't have to scroll

Some of us take forgranted our freedoms bestowed on us by the the constitution. That constitution is reafermed evry day by those that serve in the military. You have the rights to be who you are because of what they sacrafise.

Originally posted by jvarga390
Some of us take forgranted our freedoms bestowed on us by the the constitution. That constitution is reafermed evry day by those that serve in the military. You have the rights to be who you are because of what they sacrafise.

The biggest cruelty is due to their sacrifice and hidden identities, and attendant "suicides..."
There is much to this story still not revealed that affects the everyday population on an every day basis.....
And soldiers still dying for nothing more than being soldiers, for all the right reasons--(not their deaths at all, but their choices to be soldiers).

No vietnam vet here. Have never served in any capacity in any service in this country or any other for that matter.
However, I do believe they deserve respect and better pay and better health care. I figure if you are willing to lay your life on the line for the rest of us then you should be payed well!

You are more of an American than most. The Picture says so much Hell of a post!

No. I am not a Vietnam veteran.

I'm not trying to hijack this thread but I'm new to ATS and for some reason can't seem to figure out how to start my own thread ( I've tried the "new topic"button) so sorry but I figured this is about Vietnam Vets so here we go.

I have a realtive that is a Vietnam Vet and he was affected by agent orange. He has recently been diagnosed with dementia and it has been really tough on his wife and family. Does anybody know anything about this or where to go for more info.

thanks and sorry again for the hijack

Would a Canadian who enlisted in Australia to fight in Vietnam count in your demographic?

(No, Ann Coulter, Canada didnt go to Vietnam. Yes, the rest of the world, Australia did.)

originally posted by: NelysStar
I think it's horrible that we have a national holiday for Veterans, yet the majority of those who "served their counrty" are now homeless and disregarded by humanity.

But then again....they chose to SERVE.

Serve...... = SLAVE.

I am a Vietnam vet. I am not nor have I ever been homeless. I also believe that most vets, now or then, are "not'" homeless or "disregarded." In fact, I have encouraged all of my children to serve our country in some capacity. In your mind, does this make me and family lower class?

The only thing that is obvious in your statement is you don't know many vets. Yes, I chose to serve. Do you think that it was an error or stupid?

I feel that you are of the same ilk that threw feces, urine and spit that returning GIs. You hold the vets responsible for the actions of the government but you can't spit at politicians without going to jail. You attack the easiest targets that has no recourse for you. What does this say about you and your statements?

a reply to: buddah6

Hear hear.

I come from an Army family, my grandad served in ww2, my dad served in europe and the states, and i served too.

We cannot blame people trying to better themselves and their lives, and their loved ones.

We have to look at how the military is being guided by those at the top for dishonorable means.

a reply to: Dave Rabbit

thanks for the link

My uncle was in vietnam also and it was realy hard(