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5/7/1967. Re-entry!

"The Re-Entry Problem of the Vietvets," by William Barry Furlong, New York Times Magazine, 05/07/67, 23, 115-21. "The feeling of total anonymity strikes the Vietnam veteran right down to the neighborhood level. 'On my block,' says one such veteran, 'nobody knows that I went away, much less that I got back alive.'" [FullText]

1/12/1968. No welcome back.

"[Veterans] Oh, You're Back?" Time, 01/12/68, 15. "This year, at least 900,000 more [veterans] will muster out -- all of them to face an adjustment problem unique among U.S. war vets. The men who fought in World Wars I and II and Korea found gratitude and the traditional heroes' welcome awaiting them at home: the Viet-vet returns with no fanfare to a nation whose response ranges from a non-committal 'Oh, you're back?' to -- in some cases -- downright hostility." [FullText]

7/4/1968. Opening of the John Wayne film The Green Berets based on the 1965 novel by Robin Moore. Often referred to as the first Vietnam war film.

See Alasdair Spark, "The Soldier at the Heart of the War: The Myth of the Green Beret," Journal of American Studies 18.1 (1984): 29-48. "The appeal of the Green Berets in the Kennedy era, in Moore's novel, and in subsequent popular culture, can be traced to three elements. Firstly, the Green Berets were an elite. . . . secondly, the Green Berets possessed a select knowledge based upon their own emulation of the enemy. . . . the third element . . . was action. . . . Wayne's expressed aim was to make a film to reveal America's ideological purpose in Vietnam, since he believed that 'it is extremely important that not only the people of the US, but people all over the world, should know why it is necessary for us to be in Vietnam.'" [FullText]

5/28/1969. Jan Scruggs is wounded near Xuan Loc.

6/27/1969. Life magazine humanizes the "body count" by publishing the photographs of all 242 soldiers killed that week:

"One Week's Dead," Life, 06/27/69, 20-32. "It is not the intention of this article to speak for the dead. We cannot tell with any precision what they thought of the political currents which drew them across the world. . . . Yet in a time when the numbers of Americans killed in this war -- 36,000 -- though far less than the Vietnamese losses, have exceeded the dead in the Korean War, when the nation continues week after week to be numbed by a three-digit statistic which is translated to direct anguish in hundreds of homes all over the country, we must pause to look into the faces. More than we must know how many, we must know who. The faces of one week's dead, unknown but to families and friends, are suddenly recognized by all in this gallery of young American eyes." [FullText]

11/12/1969. Seymour Hersh breaks the My Lai massacre story:

"Officer Kept in Army in Inquiry into Killing of Vietnam Civilians," by Robert M. Smith, New York Times, 11/13/69, 1-2. "The army has retained a 26-year-old first lieutenant on active duty for two and a half months beyond his term of service while it investigates charges that he shot 'quite a number' of Vietnamese civilians." [FullText]

11/14/1969. Peace protests.

""March Against Death Begun By Thousands in Washington," by David E. Rosenbaum, New York Times, 11/14/69, 1. "Antiwar demonstrators began a symbolic, single-file March Against Death last night that will send a continued stream of protestors past the White House and into a park across the street from the Capitol until tomorrow morning. . . . [Mrs. Droz] said she had come to Washington from Columbia, Mo., to express my feelings and those of my late husband that the United States should get out of Vietnam immediately." [FullText]

11/15/1969. Veterans respond to protests.

"Wounded Unembittered by War Critics," by Nan Robertson, New York Times, 11/15/69, 1: 20. [Patients at Walter Reed Army Medical Center] display no self-pity, on balance are glad they went to Vietnam, feel the army has made men of them and seldom show bitterness on how it ended for them or about the peace protestors who are conducting massive demonstrations this weekend." [FullText]

1/21/1970. Scruggs witnesses 12 friends killed while unloading an ammo truck.

1/31/1971. The Winter Soldier Investigation organized by Vietnam Veterans Against the War to publicize war crimes (reports later read into the Congressional Record by Senator Hatfield, April 6-7):

"Veterans Assess Atrocity Blame: 100 Who Served in Vietnam Hold Leaders at Fault," by Jerry M. Flints, New York Times, 02/07/71, 17. "Some veterans of the Vietnam war who say they saw and took part in atrocities insist that the burden of guilt should be passed upward. . . . 'the people who make the policy should be the first to burn.'" [FullText]

4/19/1971. The "March on Washington" organized by the Vietnam Veterans Against the War:

"Week of Protests on War to Start," New York Times, 04/19/71, 5. "One organizer said the demonstrations were 'the only way left to us to adequately to bring home to this country the true story of what has happened in Vietnam.'" [FullText]

4/22/1971. John Kerry, organizer of Vietnam Veterans Against the War and later Senator and presidential nominee, testifies before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.

[https://web.archive.org/web/20040322002920/http://www.c-span.org/vote2004/jkerrytestimony.asp]

5/26/1971. Representative story of a troubled veteran.

"From Dakto to Detroit: The Death of a Troubled Hero," by Jon Nordheimer, New York Times, 05/26/71, A1. "Dwight Johnson died one week from his 24th birthday, shot and killed as he tried to rob a grocery store a mile from his home. . . . when the detectives went through the dead man's wallet for identification, they found a small white card with its edges rubbed thin from wear. 'Congressional Medal of Honor Society -- United States of America,' it said. 'This certifies that Dwight H. Johnson is a member of this society.'" [FullText]

6/5/1971. The unemployment problem.

"Public Jobs for the Jobless," New York Times, 06/05/71, 1: 28. "With nearly five million persons out of work, including many recent veterans of Vietnam, the nation has a moral as well as an economic obligation to take effective action to offset the human consequences of a downswing in the business cycle." [FullText]

6/7/1971. The term "Post-Vietnam Syndrome" (later "Post-Traumatic Disorder") begins to appear:

"'Syndrome' Found in Returned G.I.'s," by Ralph Blumenthal, New York Times, 06/07/71, 1: 7. "[Officers] who counsel the afflicted soldiers agree that the syndrome is not a clear diagnostic category, but a combination of effects at least partially attributable to Vietnam duty." [FullText]

9/1971. Ronald Glasser's collection of war stories, 365 Days.

1/30/1972. The television film Welcome Home, Johnny Bristol about a returning P.O.W., starring Martin Landau and Jane Alexander.

5/3/1972. "Post-Vietnam Syndrome" (later "Post-Traumatic Disorder").

"Delayed Trauma in Veterans Cited," by Boyce Rensberger, New York Times, 05/03/72, 1: 19. "Evidence is accumulating that the Vietnam war, though it has produced the lowest rate of psychiatric casualties during combat of any major war, is causing a remarkable number of delayed psychiatric problems that emerge only after the veteran returns to civilian life." [FullText]

7/6/1972. The problem with writing about the war.

"The Next Nick Adams," by William Pelfrey, New York Times, 07/06/72, 1: 37. "Vietnam has yet to produce a Hemingway or Dos Passos. The very abhorrence for war that made these men heroes of their time may today be so rabid and so polemicized as to insure rejection for any writer who would follow their pattern. . . . Unlike the doughboy, [the Vietnam veteran's] problem is not merely to salvage the memories of combat in an unsympathetic and youthful decade but to salvage a sanctity for his having such memories in a time when his war is universally called a mistake." [FullText]

8/21/1972. Readjustment problems continue to get attention.

"Postwar Shock Besets Ex-G.I.s," by Jon Nordheimer, New York Times, 08/21/72, 1: 1, 22-34. "For it is now becoming clear, at a time when it is almost too late to do anything about it that a significant number of Vietnam veterans are encountering serious readjustment problems on return to civilian life that, for some at least, is as severe a test of emotional stability as any stress they encountered in the service." [FullText]

9/15/1972. Two contrasting views.

Untitled article by John O'Neill, New York Times, 09/15/72, 37. A seconding speech at the Republican convention by the executive director of Concerned Vietnam Veterans for Nixon: "It was Senator McGovern who in May, 1970, called the American role in Vietnam a 'series of war crimes,' in effect casting all three million Vietnam veterans as war criminals." [FullText]

"The Ones Who Came Back," by Arthur Egendorf, Jr., New York Times, 09/15/72, 36. "While most veterans have chosen to maintain a haunted silence, growing numbers of us have concluded from our experience that it is not we who need treatment, but rather the society that sent us to war." [FullText]

10/1972. An anthology of poetry, Winning Hearts & Minds: War Poems by Vietnam Veterans, by Larry Rottmann, Jan Barry, Basil T Paquet.

10/23/1972.

"President Praises Returning G.I.'s," by Linda Charlton, New York Times, 10/23/72, A1. "[Nixon] said that it was 'more important than ever' to honor those who served in the armed forces 'at a time when a small minority has tried to glorify the few who have refused to serve.'" [FullText]

2/1973.

"New Profiles in Courage," by Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, Reader's Digest, February 1973, 126-31. "More than 98 percent of the men who suffered crippling injuries in Vietnam are no longer in military or veterans hospitals. Back home, courageously seeking self-reliance and useful, productive lives, they reaffirm the character and strength of America's youth." [FullText]

2/8/1973. First try at a memorial: House Joint resolution 338 to honor the war dead with a grove of trees, introduced by Representative Paul Findley of Illinois, passes but goes nowhere.

2/14/1973. Prisoners of war return.

"Flag at Full Staff Today for Captives," New York Times, 02/14/73, 1: 16. "The first of the released men are scheduled to reach American soil tomorrow. . . . 'In an earlier war,' Mr. Nixon concluded, 'another American prisoner -- Francis Scott Key -- asked the stirring question whether the Star Spangled Banner yet waved o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave. As our prisoners come home to America, let our answer be the same today as it was then.'" [FullText]

2/28/1973. The Missing in Action.

"MIA Culpa," by Nicholas von Hoffman, Washington Post, 02/28/73, B1. "Contrary to what has generally been reported, we seem to have about two-and-a-half million men missing in action. These MIAs are the men who fought in Vietnam and the action they were lost in is the political action coming out of the White House." [FullText]

3/4/1973. Troubled Peace, An Epilogue to Vietnam: The Nader Report on Vietnam Veterans and the Veterans Administration by Paul Starr. [A Ralph Nader report] Center for Study of Responsive Law, 1973:

"Nader Report Says V.A. Is Failing Vietnam Veterans," New York Times, 03/04/73. "The Federal Government, the Veterans Administration in particular, has failed to meet the problems of returning Vietnam veterans because of the V.A.'s orientation toward older veterans." [FullText]

3/4/1973. Veterans' benefits lacking.

"Viet Combat G. I.'s Held Shortchanged," by Peter Braestrup, Washington Post, 03/04/73, 2: 25. "The Veterans Administration spends only 15 percent of its $12 billion budget on ex-GIs who actually served in Vietnam, shortchanging them on education, jobs, and drug help, while providing excessive benefits 'for those who neither need or merit its help.'" [FullText]

3/5/1973. More veterans' woes.

"The Vets: Heroes as Orphans," Newsweek, 03/05/73, 22-24. "At a time when much of the nation -- and much of the Federal publicity apparatus -- is hailing the return of U.S. prisoners of war with warm oratory and hot cash, some 3 million ordinary Vietnam vets are hoeing a tougher road than their counterparts from any American war in this century." [FullText]

"The Permanent War Prisoners," Newsweek, 03/05/73, 23-24. "There are 25,000 of them -- paraplegics, quadriplegics, men disassembled and totally disabled by the frags, mines and bullets of the Vietnam war -- and they have filled up veterans' hospitals thoughout the country." [FullText]

3/8/1973. A television broadcast of David Rabe's Sticks and Bones is cancelled:

"Stones for 'Sticks'," by Tom Shales, Washington Post, 03/08/73, E11. "A middle-class family reacts with indifference to the plight of its returning veteran son, who has been blinded in the Vietnam war. At the play's end, family members encourage him to commit suicide by slashing his wrists. His body ends up with the garbage." [FullText]

3/10/1973. Returning veterans overlooked.

"Neglected Veterans" [The Washington Merry-Go-Round: "Ultrasonic Dangers for the Unborn"]," by Jack Anderson, Washington Post, 03/10/73, D31. "Amid all the fanfare over return of POWs from Vietnam, the GIs arriving home at the same time have been overlooked. More than 250,000 servicemen have returned without the hoopla that greeted the POWs." [FullText]

"Texas Group Plans Salute to Vietnam Veterans at Cotton Bowl," Washington Post, 03/10/73, A4. [FullText]

3/12/1973. Forgotten warriors.

"Forgotten Warriors?" Time, 03/12/73, 17-18. "Veterans complain that a lack of schooling and training programs have placed them near the end of the line when it comes to jobs. The least fortunate are the hard-drug addicts, who have returned home to a country that is not prepared to take care of them." [FullText]

3/30/1973. Final U.S. troops withdrawn from Vietnam:

"U. S. Forces Out of Vietnam," by Joseph B. Treaster, New York Times, 03/30/73, 81-82. "The last American troops left South Vietnam today, leaving behind an unfinished war that has deeply scarred this country [South Vietnam] and the United States. . . . [To soldiers] 'You can hold your heads up high for having been a part of this selfless effort. . . . Our mission has been accomplished. I [General Weyand] depart with a strong feeling of pride in what we have achieved, and in what our achievement represents.'" [FullText]

5/25/1973. Watergate starts to appear.

"Ex-P.O.W.'s Cheer," John Herbers, New York Times, 05/25/73, 1: 1. "'It is time to quit making national heroes out of those who steal secrets and publish them in the newspapers,' Mr. Nixon said at the climax of his extended remarks. . . . [apparently marking] the beginning of . . . a counteroffensive to shift the focus from the Watergate case." [FullText]

6/2/1973. Feting P.O.W.'s.

"400 Ex-P.O.W.'s Are Given $400,000 Dallas Reception," New York Times, 06/02/73, 1: 8. [FullText]

11/20/1973. Senator Alan Cranston puts a Veteran's Administration letter asking for legislation to deal with the personal problems of returning vets into the Congressional Record (vol 119, Part 29, 37748-49); Scruggs refers to this letter in his 1977 Congressional testimony.

Congressional Record (vol 119, Part 29, 37748-49) [FullText]

Letter [PDF]

12/7/1973. House Joint Resolutions #381 and #865 establish a "Vietnam Veterans Day" for March 30, 1974.

3/29/1974. Vietnam Veterans Day:

"The Real Honors," New York Times, 03/29/74, A34. "President Nixon has proclaimed today as Vietnam Veterans Day because a year ago the last American combat soldier departed from that country of casualties. The most appropriate ceremonies to mark the occasion would be action in Washington to give these veterans improved rights." [FullText]

3/30/1974. Vietnam Veterans Day:

"Viet Vets: A Sad Reminder, Day of Tribute Evokes Pain, Rage," by William Greider, Washington Post, 03/30/74, A5. "The old anger, the old pain came back briefly to haunt the nation's capital yesterday, a melancholy reminder of Vietnam, the war everyone wants to forget. The day was meant to be a straightforward, if isolated, tribute to all the millions of Vietnam veterans, but somehow the event evoked, not so much glory, but the grief that still lingers in some sectors of American life." [FullText]

9/25/1974. Money, money, money.

"Meanwhile, On the Hill, Lobbying and Politicking As Usual," by William V. Shannon, New York Times, 09/25/74, 1: 39. "In human terms, the most dramatic struggle is between the House and Senate over a bill to improve education benefits for Vietnam veterans. Given the amount of patriotic speechmaking in Congress about Vietnam in particular and war veterans in general, one might think that this measure would be about as controversial as Mothers Day. . . . Why is it possible to treat Vietnam veterans in this shabby and inadequate manner." [FullText]

10/29/1974. Still an unemployment problem.

"Ford Orders Federal Agencies to Hire 70,000 Vietnam Era Veterans by July 1," by Philip Shabecoff, New York Times, 10/29/74, 1: 29. President Ford: "[These silent heroes] served in spite of the most difficult psychological pressures. They served at a time when many of their peers and their elders were denouncing service to one's sountry as immoral. They served while some avoided service. They served with out the full support this nation has usually given its fighting forces." [FullText]