-- Luke
----- Original Message ----- From: "Stephen E Philion" <philion at hawaii.edu> To: <lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org> Sent: Thursday, August 26, 2004 10:02 PM Subject: [lbo-talk] Marc Cooper and the myths that vets make up aboutbeingspat on
> Luke asked me about the vets' tales of being spat on:
> How would you know? I'd take their stories with a grain of salt, but I
> wouldn't feel confident dismissing them out of hand.
>
> --
> Luke, I'll let you read the exchanges:
>
> Rightwing prowar vet:
> Steve, you are not only dead wrong, you wrong a fairly large group of
> very good people. For your information, I was discharged from the US
> Army on Christmas Eve, 1970. Flying home I had a lay-over in New
> Orleans, La. Because I flew home in uniform as I walked down the
> concourse I was spat on by a young beauty of dubious intelligence and
> called a "Baby Killer." This, and I never went to Vietnam. So, take your
> myth about myths of vulgarity towards returning (and some who never
> left) and shove it buster.
>
> Me:
> Interesting, a soldier well trained in the art of self defense is 'spat
> upon' by a 'beauty' [Jerry Lembcke notes that it is almost always a
> woman the prowar vets claim to have been spat upon]. In an airport in
> the heart of the most conservative and pro-military section of the USA,
> GM was 'spat on' and 1) he chooses to do nothing even though he has been
> assaulted and 2) no one around him does anything nor does he seek out a
> guard or police officer to arrest this 'beauty' [maybe she was a
> sprinter? bionic woman, uncatchable in pursuit?].
> Jerry Lembcke,a Vietnam vet, who has been a guest on Marc's program no
> less, has written an outstanding book called the "Spitting Image", which
> recounts how this myth only became 'recalled' in the runup to the Gulf
> War 1 period.
>
>
http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0814751474/qid=1093542150/sr=1-2/r
ef=sr_1_2/002-7992493-2252810?v=glance&s=books
>
> The myth has its origins in earlier similar myths of woman spitting on
> soldiers returning from lost wars in Germany after WW 1 and French
> soldiers returning from colonial adventures in Algeria.
>
> Here's a story on the latest version of the myth, with Iraq bound
> soldiers being the latest "victims"
>
> http://www.mountainx.com/news/2003/0319troops.php
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Rightwing prowar "vet" 2:
> it is not a myth and serious critical thinking people look behind the
> motives of those who make such claims based on Newspaper research alone.
> I saw it happen to others and had it happen to me. One example: When I
> left for Thailand (USAF) we had to run a gauntlet of jerring 'flower
> children'. They were especially hard on the Army guys ahead of us (in
> full gear) going on a different plane to 'Nam. If I had known this was
> going to be challenged I would have photographed it and documented it at
> the time, since 35 years later some details get soft, especially when no
> one brought it up till now. I am sure other veterans have similar
memories.
>
> Me:
> they also searched out police reports from the time, claims made by
> prowar groups at the time, etc. your story sounds a lot like the other
> myths that float around on the web, again a very unusual phenomenon,
> WHOLE GROUPS of army grunts trained in the art of self defense and
> warfare didn't react to the 'hoards of hippies'. hippies were pacifists
> into drugs and free sex, the LEAST likely persons to dare to spit at a
> soldier who could easily defend himself.
> And hippies didn't get near soldiers on military bases, especially ones
> in countries like Thailand that had no room for basic forms of
> democratic dissent, forget assaulting soldiers.
>
> etc. etc.
>
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