Chip Berlet wrote:
>
>
> Incidently, another right-wing myth was that of returning veterans being spit on
> by antiwar activists. That this is a polticized urban legend was documented in:
>
> The Spitting Image: Myth, Memory, and the Legacy of Vietnam
> by Jerry Lembcke
>
Some months ago there was a post on this topic on the sixties-l list, which mentioned the Chicago Tribune colunmnist, Bob Greene (a real jerk). I fwd it ot Greene just for the hell of it and got a reply claiming he had interviewed veterans that had been spit on. I got along fine with all the combat veterans I had in my classes. Incidentally, I have also heard second-hand tales about Vietnam Veterans being abused _not_ by anti-war protestors but by older vets at VFW clubs for being "losers." That's probably an urban legend too, but it's more entertaining.
Carrol
Incidentally -- the way we "avoided" the draft in the '50s was by joining the Air Force or the Navy (or sometimes even the army, since volunteers had a bit more choice.) Many of my friends in grad school in the late '50s were, like me, Air Force or Navy veterans. The Air Force cut off enlistments Jan. 6, 1951 (I enlisted that night). And when I got to Lackland a few weeks later there were over 80,000 on a base built for 20,000. All draft dodgers. That's what we called each other.