A chilly reception. Some people who opposed American involvement in the Vietnam War treated U.S. soldiers and veterans poorly. They tended to blame American troops for the tragic situation in Vietnam, instead of blaming the government leaders who had sent them there.
Many Vietnam veterans claim that most people treated them with indifference and seemed uncomfortable listening to their stories from battle. Some people, however, saw returning soldiers as dangerous, violent symbols of an increasingly futile and terrible war—much like the individual Wowwk encountered.
These men were not given the hero's welcome that accompanies modern-day Soldiers when they return from their deployment overseas. Instead, they were spit on, frowned upon and basically shunned by the mainstream due to the unpopular conflict.
All Australian military personnel who returned from South Vietnam aboard HMAS Sydney received a 'welcome home' parade. Troops who arrived home by air were invited to join them, but few accepted the offer. Some returning veterans were subjected to abuse by anti-war protesters.
Unlike the hero status given to the returning soldiers form World War II, the soldiers that served in Vietnam were portrayed as baby killers, psychos, drug addicts and war mongers. It was not an uncommon scene for returning soldiers to be confronted at airports by protesters carrying signs with anti-war slogans.
Over the years, Australian veterans have reported that they were insulted and subjected to discriminatory treatment after returning home from Vietnam.
Many mental health professionals in Psychiatry attribute the high incidence of PTSD in Vietnam-era veterans to a lack of “decompression” time.
For a long time after the war large numbers of Vietnam veterans felt that many in Australia blamed them, rather than politicians, for the war and the way it had been conducted.
Historically, Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day is a holiday that has been celebrated since 1973 on either March 29th or March 30th of each year through a patchwork of state resolutions.
Australians feared infiltration of unions and political parties by communists, as well as communist expansion in Asia. 3. Closer ties with the US were established in the 1950s. The Menzies government signed the ANZUS treaty, joined SEATO and provided financial aid and support to South Vietnam.
No 'Welcome Home' parades for Vietnam vets.
This was partly due to the logistics of the never-ending conflict. The Vietnam War lasted from 1964-1973—the longest war in American history until it was overtaken by the one in Afghanistan—and servicemen typically did one-year tours of duty.
VA Benefits for Vietnam Veterans
VA benefits include disability compensation, pension, education and training, health care, home loans, insurance, vocational rehabilitation and employment, and burial.
For the first time in Australian history, the nation's troops received no universal embrace when they returned home. When that long war ended for Australia in 1972, Vietnam veterans were given no welcome home march. No cheering, no bunting.
Veterans who served in Vietnam, Cambodia, or Laos during the Vietnam War have a higher prevalence of mental health issues, particularly PTSD, compared with both other Vietnam-era Veterans and non-Veterans, according to an analysis of data from the Vietnam Era Health Retrospective Observational Study (VE-HEROeS).
Of 10,524 homeless veterans assessed in a 43-site VA program, 50 percent served during the Vietnam War era, compared to only 29 percent of all veterans in the general population.
Commemoration of Vietnam veterans
In 1987, veterans received the welcome home parade that some felt had been denied them when they returned from war. Around 22,000 Vietnam veterans marched through Sydney, in front of a crowd of some 100,000 Australians.
March 29, 1973: Two months after the signing of the Vietnam peace agreement, the last U.S. combat troops leave South Vietnam as Hanoi frees many of the remaining American prisoners of war held in North Vietnam.
Over 10% of Vietnam casualties were helicopter crew members, and most of those were the door gunners that protected the helicopter, its crew, and its transports, from their exposed position. The average lifespan of a door gunner on a Huey in Vietnam was just two weeks.
An Australian anti-war movement gathered momentum and by 1970-71 hundreds of thousands of people were attending Moratorium marches across Australia. Protestors, conscientious objectors, and draft-resisters were fined or gaoled. Soldiers returning to Australia met a hostile reception.
Many Australians saw the war in Vietnam as a way to meet the threat of the Viet Cong. They thought that communism needed to be stopped from taking over South East Asian countries. Australian media organisations reported on the fierce fighting in Vietnam.
Thirty-six Australian FACs served between 1966 and 1971. A third RAAF squadron (of Canberra jet bombers) was also committed in 1967, and destroyers of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) joined US patrols off the North Vietnamese coast.
Average age of men killed: 23.1 years Total Deaths: 23.11 years Enlisted: 50,274; 22.37 years Officers: 6,598; 28.43 years Warrants: 1,276; 24.73 years E1: 525; 20.34 years Five men killed in Vietnam were only 16 years old. The oldest man killed was 62 years old.
While PTSD veterans reported more distress than non-PTSD veterans, Vietnam veterans reported greater distress than WWII veterans.
Related to impaired relationship functioning, a high rate of separation and divorce exists in the veteran population (those with PTSD and those without PTSD). Approximately 38% of Vietnam veteran marriages failed within six months of the veteran's return from Southeast Asia.