Page 162 - Stand Down Vietnam

What would you have done with them? They were
Americans, they should be able to come back home.
Should they have been given community service, or
something, for what they'd done? Instead, they were
welcomed back, given a little money and a bus or
airplane ticket and sent home.

Vietnam-Era Veterans never received a welcome home;

they received ridicule and hateful comments. The
protesters had no way to discern between those who
served “In-Country” or those that never went to
Vietnam. Their outrage was voiced toward anyone in
uniform.

In hindsight, when you go back to the days of the
Huntley-Brinkley, Walter Cronkite, and Edward R. Murrow
reporting; those people were believable. They reported
the facts, so we could decide. Today, the news is
politically slanted.

I believe the Armed Forces Radio and Television, Army
Times, and many of the government publications leaned
toward whatever their objective was “at the moment”.
Was it outright lying? I don't know, I wasn’t there, I
was not on the ground, I wasn't in the White House.
Time will tell, and it is revealing, now that documents
are being released.

I believe the news media reported only what was put in
front of them and there was very little critical
thinking going on.

I don't think the news media has ever thought about the
individual soldier; they're trying to think in global
terms and gain readership and viewership. I have been
and will always be skeptical of the media.