Vietnam vets view anti-war protests through unique eyes

WASHINGTON — Ron Alred went to Vietnam in the late 1960s, just as anti-war activism was gaining momentum back home. The peace movement didn't really affect his work in the field — he didn't hear much about the protests — but he felt the impact when he returned.

"The demonstrations didn't bother me so much as the boos and hisses when we came back," said Alred, who served in the Marines.

With passionate, if smaller, protests being mounted today against the Iraq war, Vietnam vets wonder whether returning soldiers will get the respect that eluded them three decades ago.

Alred has seen evidence that U.S. troops in Iraq are getting backing, even from protesters. On his first visit to Washington's Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the Yakima, Wash., resident noted a conscious distinction in today's anti-war messages: "They're against the war, but they're supporting our troops," he said. "I think it's something they learned from the Vietnam era."

Tom Corey, president of Vietnam Veterans of America, questions whether the warrior can be separated from the war.

"I don't know how you can protest and not have an effect on those serving," he said in a phone interview from West Palm Beach, Fla.

Recalling his own return from Vietnam after a spinal cord injury left him paraplegic, Corey said U.S. attitudes toward soldiers were hurtful.

"It angered me. I said, 'How can we do this? How can we blame those serving?' "

Today's anti-war movement upsets Bill Taylor, mayor of Spicer, Minn. Protesters spat on him in 1971 during a layover in San Francisco's airport on his way home from Vietnam. The Army had advised him against wearing his uniform in public because it could draw a negative response.

Taylor hopes his daughter, a 26-year-old Army captain serving in Iraq, will receive a warmer welcome. Meanwhile, Taylor has trouble stomaching anti-war sentiment.

"I'm very disappointed in it, in the way they are doing things," he said in phone interview.

Some of the soldiers now in Iraq have expressed disappointment in stateside protests. But many are isolated from developments and wonder what's going on — not just in America, but in the next Iraqi town over.