Relations Between Vietnam Vets & The Anti-War Left Were Not Unremittingly Hostile, Claims New NYU Press Book

The Spitting Image: Myth, Memory And The Legacy Of Vietnam Published This Month

(To request a review copy of this book, contact Barbara Jester at (212) 998-6844, or by fax or e-mail.)

One of the most resilient images of the Vietnam era is that of an anti-war protester – often a woman – spitting on the uniformed veteran just off the plane. The lingering potency of this icon was evident during the Gulf War, when war supporters invoked it to discredit the opposition.

In a sure-to-be-controversial new book, The Spitting Image: Myth, Memory and the Legacy of Vietnam (272 pages/$24.95, cloth), published this month by the New York University Press, Jerry Lembcke, associate professor of sociology at Holy Cross College in Worcester, Massachusetts, demonstrates that not a single incident of this sort has been convincingly documented. According to Lembcke, the anti-war Left saw in veterans a natural ally, and the relationship between anti-war forces and most veterans was one of mutual respect. Indeed one soldier wrote to Vice President Spiro Agnew that the only Americans who seemed concerned about the soldiers’ welfare were the anti-war activists.

While veterans were sometimes made to feel uncomfortable about their service, this sense of unease, Lembcke argues, was often rooted in the political practices of the Right. "The belief that Vietnam War protesters spat at soldiers and veterans began to hatch several years after the war was over - and lost," Lembcke said. "At that point, the country was having to learn how to deal with losing the war." One way that the country did that, according to Lembcke, was to create the alibi that "we did not lose to the Vietnamese, but were betrayed by the anti-war movement."

Lembcke also examines how this embodiment of "betrayal" was portrayed in films, including "Coming Home" (1978) and the Rambo series, beginning in 1982 with "First Blood." These films helped perpetuate the myth even to this day, the author maintains.

Jerry Lembcke is himself a Vietnam veteran; in 1969 he served as a Chaplain’s Assistant assigned to the 41st Artillery Group.

8/18/98

08/18/98