Talk:The Spitting Image

message: The controversy over whether anyone spat on returning soldiers is the main them of a book which claims it never happened: The Spitting Image 
So I'm moving this article there.
:Ok, let's keep this page as strictly about this book, and I will move other stuff over, Including this:
A persistent criticism levelled against those who protested the United States's involvement in the Vietnam War is the complaint that protesters spat upon and otherwis derided returning soldiers, calling them "baby-killers", etc. The notion of soldiers being spat upon was featured in a number of American movies, including the Rambo series.
The American public was greatly divided during the war, with widespread acts of civil disobedience, flag burning and the like among the protesters, and government crackdowns such as those associated with COINTELPRO. Well-known figures such as Jane Fonda and groups like Vietnam Veterans Against The War were regularly in the public spotlight. In this environment, allegations began to surface, and have persisted to this day of spitting on returning soldiers as being a common occurence at the time.
Of course, there have been well recorded incidents of mistreatment of veterans in the US - such as the Bonus march of 1932, when World War I veterans rallied in Washington DC for more effective veterans benefits during the height of the Depression, which was broken up when the US army sent tanks and soldiers with bayonet-affixed rifles into the veteran camps to clear the veterans out and burn the camp down, killing some in the process like William Hushka, and injuring many more.
Mark Richards 19:08, 12 Mar 2004 (UTC)
thread_title: Page move

message: Ok, I started work on Attitudes and reactions to returning soldiers - please help and edit, comment and add material, but let's remember how emotionally charged this issue is on both sides, and try to document reactions that we can substantiate with independant sources. Thanks! Mark Richards 19:21, 12 Mar 2004 (UTC)
thread_title: New Page

message: I've made significant edits primarily to convert this Wikipedia article from one about Greene's book (with half the citations being to Greene's book) to one about Lembcke's book, so as to conform to the article name. Greene's book is mentioned in just 2 locations in The Spitting Image book, a proportion more closely reflected reflected in this article. I'm not sure why Greene's book didn't have its own article when this one was written. I also...  
* replaced deadlinks with archive links when available
* removed raw URLs from body of article, or converted them to references
* removed original research and POV presentation (i.e.; citing Amazon reviews sorted by 1-star rating and stating they are the largest number including "many vets", when there are actually more non-1-star, and all of the reviewers are actually anonymous and unverified, with some negative reviewers actually admitting they didn't read the book. Odd that these actually published editorial reviews were not noted.)
* removed uncited statement that "He denied the truthfulness of hundreds of accounts...", which doesn't jibe with his admission that he can't prove something did not happen, or his citing of actual spitting cases, or the fact that he has never called anyone a liar for claiming to have been spat on  
* returned PTSD content, since it is part of this book; removed text incorrectly stating Greene "verified their identity" (he did not, he only only got confirmation to print their stories) or that he "verified that the veterans had military service in Vietnam" (he did not, the Pentagon refused to disclose information, and the VA only consented to confirm a "limited number" of names were listed as in the military)  
* added infobox; +general copy editing and formatting
Xenophrenic (talk) 20:35, 16 October 2016 (UTC)
thread_title: October 2016 edits

message: In Episode 8 of Ken Burns's docu on Vietnam, Nancy Biberman, a anti-war activist who knew Tom Hayden and participated in student occupation of buildings at Columbia University admits to calling returning Veterans "baby killers". Should we add to this article?Rja13ww33 (talk) 00:44, 22 August 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  Ken Burns 2017 Documentary on Vietnam 

message: That is what Colonel (ret.) W. Patrick Lang said happened to him.
https://turcopolier.com/httpswwwnytimescom20171013opinionmyth-spitting-vietnam-protesterhtmlrrefcollection2fsection/
How can his first-person account be denied?
For all of what he wrote, see below.
I WAS SPAT UPON in March, 1968 while transiting San Francisco International Airport en route to Travis AFB to board the trans-Pacific airlift en route to Vietnam.  I was in uniform and waiting for the bus when a woman got out of her car and walked across the parking lot.  She chose to spit on my chest rather than on a sergeant standing next to me so perhaps she had a thing for officers.  I asked if the people at her house had a roster to schedule spitting on soldiers.  She said they did.  Perhaps they sent only women to do this.
I wrote to the NY Times yesterday to tell this story in comment on their article.  They did not publish my comment.  There are 217 comments on the article.
IMO the left is engaged in editing the narrative of that time so as to absolve itself of the ugliness of its own actions. KHarbaugh (talk) 00:21, 21 December 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  "I WAS SPAT UPON"