expectoration

[James Devine]

Paul Rosenberg writes: >... I've just finished reading *The Spitting Image:
Myth Memory, and the Legacy of Vietnam.* by Jerry Lembcke.  It's a
brilliant debunking of the myth that anti-war protesters spat on returning
Vietnam vets, along with an analysis of the sources and context for the
cultural production of the myth, as well as it's fuction during the Gulf
War period--when Lembcke first confronted the myth, drawing on his own
background as a Vietnam vet and memeber of Vietnam Veterans Against the War.<

When Jerry presented his thesis in the L.A. TIMES, some Vietnam veteran
wrote in to say that he -- the vet -- had been spat upon. I doubt the guy
was lying.

Nonetheless, I think Jerry's thesis still makes sense: a little incident
got blown into big mythology, especially after 1980, years after it occurred. 

Jim Devine jdevine at popmail.lmu.edu &
http://clawww.lmu.edu/Departments/ECON/jdevine.html