How did the US citizens view veterans of the Vietnam War?

Answer 1

Poorly in most cases, quite harshly in rare cases. Many troops had only rare exposure to the Vietnamese. Some Soldiers did treat the Vietnamese very well and bonded with them. It is hard to generalize about this. A Soldier could be mean to a villager while on patrol, but very nice to the ones he encoutered off duty. Cultural training wasn't very good and this did hamper their ability to develop relationships.

Answer 2

In the early 1960's it was a job that had to be done. By the late sixties, it was something that had to be removed from the lives of US citizens (it was US citizens that had to fight the war-drafted).

Answer 3

Any man in Vietnam who began to talk politics (why are we here? kind of talk) was usually quite quickly put in his place. He'd most likely hear, "aw knock off the whining, just do your job, when your time's up, go home, then you can whine about it! Until then we don't want to hear it!"

Bottom line: Most US fighting men just did their time, and went home. They could not control being drafted, they could not control being sent to Nam, so they just did their time (12 months in country).

Answer 4

The phrase "Baby Killer" was regularly used.

Also the the veterans were spat on, cursed at, and disrespected by many of the U.S. citizens.