that I wasn't out there in the real, civilian world for three years when maybe the worst of the coming-home experience happened to other vets. I don't know about the spitting although heard that version. I *do* know/believe that anti-military feelings ran deep in the protesters. I also have come to believe that a very significant component of the protests was more anti-DRAFT than just anti-WAR or for PEACE. And my corollary to this is that the only lesson the Neo-Cons of the Iraq Attack learned from Vietnam was *NOT* to use the Draft, hence the all-volunteer strategy - coddling against the anti-military attitude with "thank you for your service (to vets)" and the horrendous multi-years tours instead of the one-year Vietnam tour.
I was on a very active protester university campus, and back then 50 years ago, my third generation Democratic allegiance was totally there, but what now might be called "mainstream" (do we still say "DLC"? ) and fully supported LBJ. That said, I was nowhere so politically nuanced then as we are in DU, and I enlisted (not Drafted) in the middle of that campus. And as the Dem erstwhile hero Charlie RANGEL often said, that the reason there were more Minority members in the military, along with fatalities, was that the military was a way out for recruits who had very lessened opportunities for education and jobs. And I joined because of economic factors, not to kill Commies.
*** So I was core *civilian* in heart and reluctance to drink up the military authoritarian mindset. And when my enlistment was up, I never looked back, and almost put it out of mind to soak back my civilian life and outlook. I even joined the Reserves about ten years afterward out of a semi-nostalgia, which soon reminded me why I had resumed my civilian-ness. And it wasn't until another decade that I saw my service as service and actively honored it as a valuable part of my life and started a modified reconnection via joing the VFW (in a generic post, without participation in the rituals), basically wearing my ship's ball cap and dog tag everywhere without being pleased with the ty-for-ur-service thingy these provoke.
*** But to the OP's topic: So I was all civilian immediately after getting out and didn't experience the hostility to Vietnam vets, and when I started going to the VFW bar I saw some of the vets railing loudly (and drunkenly) about having been mistreated, not to mention PTSD.
One of the complaints was against the behavior of "the greatest generation" WW II vets, which I didn't pay that much attention to. Until years later my first hand experience (much milder than that of other vets) was this: I had long gone to a flea market and seen a WW II vet selling stuff there, him wearing his ship's ball cap. When I was wearing my cap, I went up to him and held out my hand to shake and said, "Hi, shipmate." He made no move to shake hands and said, "No. I was in the *BIG* war." I felt the blood rising to my eyeballs and grabbed his hand and said, "Give me your f***ing HAND!" And shook it HARD and THREW it back to him.
A local radio talkshow wingnut said, when I told about my rebuffing the W. Shrub/CHEENEE "ty-for-ur-service" thingy, "Can't you just be GRACIOUS?" I was always selective, was "gracious" when it was from sincere/naive persons and not for the obvious MAGAts. And that whole thing has seemed to lessen, to the point that when a young cashier said it, I responded, "Thank you for YOURS." And he was all flustered and said, "I'm not a veteran, sir." I said, "You perform service when you come to work and are courteous and helpful to others." And he was bursting with modest gratitude. And the radio wingnut said, "That was very nice what you did with that kid."
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