Homecoming, by Bob Greene contains a collection of letters written by Vietnam veterans about their reception when they returned to the United States. Bob Greene is a columnist who in one of his columns asked Vietnam veteran to write to him and tell if they were spit on when they returned to the United States. Surprisingly, many of them were. Many others, while not spit on, were called baby killers and war criminals by strangers, and occasionally by people they knew. A fairly small number were welcomed back and thanked for the sacrifices they had made. I was in the anti-war movement, beginning in 1969. I attended my last peace demonstration in 1974. During this time I felt a certain amount of fascination with combat veterans. Although I opposed the war, and still do for reasons I can easily explain, I felt, and feel, that war is the ultimate male experience. I feel what Samuel Johnson said, "Every man thinks less of himself for not having been a soldier." When I was in the anti-war movement I never saw a serviceman treated with disrespect. I never heard anyone talk about doing it, or experiencing it. Until reading this book I had thought it was an urban legend. Also, I discovered the new left when the new left was discovering the old left. Many fellow activists thought the United States was controlled by a ruling class that subverted democracy in order to maintain its wealth. That was a silly, and politically dysfunctional way of looking at things, and I thought so at the time. Nevertheless, a person thinking that way is unlikely to demonize combat veterans who are or were enlisted men. Most of the spitting and jeering incidents in the book happened in San Francisco, where a large number of returning veterans stopped on the way home. Nevertheless, they also happened in the south west and mid west. The veterans felt that the American people had turned against them. When I was in the anti-war movement I had a different perception. I thought the anti-war activists were hated. Although I never saw soldiers spit on, I did attend demonstrations that were violent and disruptive. I think that sort of thing angered the voters, and provoked them to vote for hawkish politicians who prolonged the war. My experiences as an anti-war activist soured me on political activism. It is next to impossible to change a person's political beliefs. Trying to do so usually makes the person angry. People's political opinions change when their circumstances in life change. Even then, changes seldom happen after the age of about forty. After the big four oh, socialists who become rich become rich socialists. Capitalists who lose their capital remain convinced of the benefits of the market place.
