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Opinion

Kvaran: Recollections of Vietnam vet abuse don’t jive with author's report

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I was a bit disappointed to see that John Baie, in his otherwise fine tribute to our veterans, (“Thanks for honoring the combat vets,” Daily Independent, Nov. 16, 2021) dredge up that old story about anti-war protesters spitting on returning Vietnam veterans.

Jerry Lembcke, himself a Vietnam veteran, spent years tracking the story down and in his book, “The Spitting Image: Myth, Memory and the Legacy of Vietnam,” reports that he could not discover any instances where that actually occurred.

What our country seems to be having a very difficult time learning is that you cannot advance a truth by telling lies.