Were Vietnam-era Vets Spat Upon For Being Vets? Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

If not, or if I cannot produce documentation thereof by next Wednesday, I owe an apology to a 1960's anti-war activist on MyDD.com, to be delivered here and there.

Your substantiation or refutation of this commonly-held version of Vietnam-era history would be greatly appreciated.

As an example of urban myths, a lot of Americans have a false "memory" of Johnny Carson telling a filthy off-hand joke on the Tonight Show to Raquel Welch about "petting her [cat]." This joke did not happen; had it happened, there would have been a front-page article about it in 200 newspapers, Carson being the textbook example of a "major public figure" in the 1970s and 1980s, and censors being more stringent then. Millions of Americans would have a present-sense recollection of hearing the joke and discussing it (blushing, one would think) with close friends, etc.

The memory of Vietnam Vets getting spat upon by antiwar activists may well be such a false urban myth. A brief survey on Google suggests that it may be just that, but many of the entries seem to quote the same sources again and again.

UPDATE: To clarify, I am the son of a Vietnam veteran and I was born in March, 1969.