>From a 1998 Weekly Standard (!) review of the Burkett
and Whitley book:
When Burkett optimistically set out to call on prominent business people in conservative Dallas, he was flabbergasted at the reactions he encountered. At big defense-contract companies which had profited handsomely from Vietnam, he heard repeated expressions of disdain for Vietnam veterans. Even the Dallas chapters of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, dominated by World War II vets, conveyed contempt. Well-adjusted Vietnam veterans were the exception, he heard again and again.
Finally, Burkett says, "The truth slapped me in the face. America accepted this pervasive stereotype, and it was constantly reinforced. . . . An entire generation of veterans had been tainted with the labels of victim, loser and moral degenerate." In the public perception, Vietnam veterans are "losers, bums, drug addicts, drunks, derelicts -- societal offal who had come back from the war plagued by nightmares and flashbacks that left them with the potential to go berserk at any moment."
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