If I get some free time this weekend, I am going to line up all the principal media types invovlved and start digging back and see where this all started. Somebody either has an axe to grind and /or thinks they can make some money. The Bible is right.... "the love of money is the root of all evil", and that old Watergate axiom, "follow the money", always holds true. It bothers me too, for several reasons. As outlined in the book "Stolen Valor", Vietnam Veterans were the targets of a barrage from the news media ( print and broadcast ), movies, books, a broken VA health care system, from wannabes of every stripe, con artists, liars and every other form of distortion from the time the Tet Offensive was won by us in 1968 and Walter Cronkite proclaimed it a loss...up thru "Apocalypse Now", the Rambo movies ( Brian Dennehy arch-wannabe) , Platoon ( 1986 ) and until "Stolen Valor" was released a few years ago. In my view, it wasn't until "We Were Soldiers" ( by Mel Gibson ), was released a few years ago, that the Vietnam War was finally revealed for what it was. Why did it take almost 30 years ??? I still have arguments and discussions with folks ( this fellow is a minister who preaches in prisons and should know better..non-veteran )who think they know what war is all about because their brother-in-law's cousin was a Marine grunt in Vietnam, and after talking to them you find out different. Or my dental hygienist who thinks her children are going to have a hard life, and has no clue what the draft was all about....or a co-worker ( non-veteran ) who is about 49 and is fascinated by "Apocalypse Now". I finally gave him a book that breaks down all the myths and bullshit in the movie and explains how and why it was made, and how unlike the real thing it is....
Anyway, if it turns out 2/3rds of these stories are bull-shit, the public will only remember the 1/3 and once again we will all be tarred by the same brush as we all were by My Lai.....
Larry
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