History channel rejects another look at Vietnam

[David]

Reposting this for Paco.


I know how difficult it can be to find useful information on the Internet so I decided to send you a note. While I was visiting TownHall.com's website, I came across this page, and I thought you might be interested in this material.

Sincerely,

tklane@beaufort.med.navy.mil

[sfc_darrel]

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/d...20020824.shtml

Special 4-Part Series on VHS
(Save $10 - plus free shipping)

$69.95

DIGITAL! 4-Part Series on DVD
(no charge for shipping & handling)


$79.95

http://www.longwayhome.net/

and some smarta$$ posted this information on the veterans@ the history channel. oh yea, that was ME

[Packo]

I don't believe that is what he meant at all. The vast majority of us are NOT basket cases nor dying of AO related sicknesses. It is the way we are portrayed and it is a myth. Well, on second glance around this forum, the vast majority of us are not dying from an AO related sickness. Now the psyc part........

Packo

[Arrow]

so where are the numbers to prove this statement found on the town hall intro..

Wouldn't it be constructive for Americans to learn, contrary to popular myth, that the overwhelming majority of Vietnam Vets served honorably, are not psychological basket cases and are not suffering from exposure to Agent-Orange or PTSD?

Charles Shelton's wife committed sucide because she was told she would have to prove he was alive and being held as a POW..she fought for years..and got tired of the fight...

the burden of proof was put on the families of those held and not the government

the way I see it that is what is happening to the families of those that have died from PTSD related sucide and Agent Orange related illness..

the burden of proof is on us

it's damn sure the government is not going to come up with the stats..


livin' the myth..

members.aol.com/vietwarmem/plaque2.htm

still tired of the fight..

[PHO127]

They don't suffer from AO related diseases and they do not suffer from PTSD. Why might you ask? Because the overwhelming majority of VN Vets did not see, serve or get near combat. If I remember correctly the ratio of support troops to combat troops is in the area of 12:1. (Somebody with War college help me out here). They did not spray base camps with AO, you had to go walk in it in the bush. In order to have PTSD you have to deal with blood, guts and gore. You have to experience the gut wrenching feeling of being on a patrol and knowing that green tracers may erupt at any second from anywhere. You have to sweat, puke and be so scared you cr@p or pi$$ in your pants. Sometimes you have to bleed. You have to build your alert system to such a high degree that it never comes down. You have to loose feeling because it hurts sometimes worse than being shot, and you NEVER, NEVER forget.


WAR IS HELL, BUT ACTUAL COMBAT IS A REAL SON-OF-A-BITCH.

[Boats]

pho127

You made a good point. I believe that statement.

Boats

[sfc_darrel]

This series looks at the men and women who went when called, served with honor and came home.

The series includes a look at the Vietnamese that came here to become part of our country. I've met and worked with some of them.

A series that treats our military as a fighting force doing their duty is much different than the crazed, rapist, baby killer, murderers that our Vets are usually protrayed as.


Men Versus Myth

the first in a multi-part documentary series on the Vietnam War. Among the startling revelations: the best and the brightest served in Vietnam, the rest stayed home. The soldiers in Vietnam had the highest rate of volunteerism, were the best educated, and served for higher ideals than any fighting force that America had ever fielded.

That he returned maligned and unwelcome is a travesty. That they were not "victims" but raised their families and became America's community and business leaders is the amazing inspirational message of "Men Versus Myth".


"How We Won the War."

It was the summer of 1970. In South Vietnam the Communist forces were decimated and the countryside returned to friendly hands.

After totally repelling desperate enemy attacks in 1968 and 1969, the American, Vietnamese, Australian and other Southeast Asia Treaty Organization forces had achieved what politicians and the media had said was impossible. Newly available historical information and the personal stories of the some of the major "players" of the period

"How We Lost the War"

Four successive administrations shed American blood and vowed to protect democratic South Vietnam from Communist takeover. The Long Way Home Project presents the television documentary "How We Lost the War". Even with the military war won, the U.S. Congress, their supporters in the media, and activists in the Left had other ideas.

The scale of our nation's betrayal was unprecedented in American history and unworthy of a great nation. And yet the lessons that can be learned from the story are worth learning and will inspire future generations to vigilance and to service.

The New Diaspora

Long overlooked in the story of the Vietnam war are the South Vietnamese themselves. The Long Way Home Project presents the television documentary "The New Diaspora", an inspirational look at their long history, their stories of hardship and struggle to reach freedom, and the success they found in their new countries.

Both older and younger generations alike seek to find meaning in their new lives and yet rediscover and maintain a link with their heritage and a country that was left behind -- a metaphor for a nation built by immigrants and refugees! With over a million Vietnamese-Americans in the U.S. and many thousands in other democratic nations around the world they form a living legacy to the commitment of the allied soldiers that fought for freedom and democracy.

[Packo]

what Pho says is true. The vast majority were not in combat nor in the AO areas. That is why it is a myth that the majority suffer from PTSD, AO, etc. That being said, I will also say the vast majority of homeless Vets I met and worked with in the VA were NOT, REPEAT NOT, combat vets. The vast majority of the Vets that camp out at The Wall who look like they haven't bathed since Nam, and still wearing the fatigues, etc. ain't real combat vets either, but that's who the media talks to. Not guys who can design lighting systems for the Olympics and serve with the 5th GP, or who own construction companies, or were police officers for over 20 years. Get my drift? I agree with you that there are a lot of us that hurt but we still get the job done. Just look at this forum. Most of us have problems, BUT ALL OF US HAVE OR HAD SOME SORT OF CAREER, OTHER THAN HANGING OUT AT THE WALL getting our picture taken on Veterans Day and telling how rough life has been and that we are victims.

So, while THC and Bravo Networks continue to portray us as psychotic killers, drug addicts, and losers.......I'll refuse

to live the myth.

AIRBORNE AND PROUD!

Packo

[colmurph]

Heck Packo, most of those losers who camp out at the wall aren't even veterans! Most of them were 14 or 15 when the war ended so how could they be veterans? Those jungle fatigues came out of E. Goldbergs. I've talked to a few of them during visits to the Wall and the stories I get just don't sound right. Especially the ones wearing Berets with the 5th Group Flash. I "coined" one of them and the reply I got was "What's that?"

[PHO127]

The majority of hard drug users and addicts were the REMFs, these are the guys who came back addicted and laid the blame on their "combat in VN experience". In porpotion, very few of the combat soldiers used drugs (not counting pot). We had to be straight because somebody else was depending on you. But when we were able to let go and "stand down" a little, We normally crammed a lot of living into a very short period of time. DMZLT and his mail bag girl for instance. VN was a very violent and dirty war. The losers picked up on this and blame it for all of their woes, unfortunately they are the ones who get the publicity. We pay the price both then and now. I guess Psyco Vets is mine and LTs way of striking back.