They had to start their own organization- - - - -the American Legion and the VFW didn't want to have anything to do with us 50 years ago! I'm a member of both organizations now, but while the WW II and Korea vets were still around, we were looked down on like a whore in church!
I was too young to go Viet Nam. I remember watching Dan Rather a lot of nights embedded (that term was not invented yet) in combat. IIRC, once a week his report would show all of the body bags lined up for shipping ...."home". Made quite the impression on a 10-13 year old kid.
My Lai was the catalyst that gave all VN vets a really bad and unfounded reputation. The ones not at My Lai had to endure that collateral damage.
