Another legend that this group might like to tackle is the
Vietnamese-kid-with-booby-trap. At the My Lai conference at Tulane, no
less a military voice than Col Harry Summers declared that he thought it
was a myth. Any thoughts? "
Dear list:
I came in somewhat late to this list and therefore do not have the
background on the questioning of the antiwar spitting. The posts I have seen
however speak of myth. There appears to be a need to dispel the possible
reality that some service personnel were spat upon and turn it into a
reflection of a feel of rejection. I do not know the age of the parties that
raise the question of myth versus reality (spitting upon veterans, were bras
really burned and now were Vietnamese children booby trapped).
I was invited to a bra burning but didn't go (the feminist movement
would have had a convert if they wanted me to burn my girdle. But I wanted
to keep the bra). Just because someone only saw one picture of it doesn't
mean it didn't happen.
People here have related that they have heard first hand stories from
individuals who say they were spat upon by protestors. This gets brushed
aside as repeating of urban legend. That implies a disbelief that the story
is true.
I do not understand the need/desire to change the allegations into
"never happened" had to be myth. Then, I question whether in an effort to
rewrite history, we might not do the same to what happened in Nazi Germany.
Call it an allegory. Discount the first hand accounts. Pictures can be
staged. How could human beings force other human beings to dig their own
graves then march them in a line to fall into the trenches as they were shot?
Those things the Nazis have been accused of had to be myth. Yeh, right
(disbelief).