Word: viets
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...have both guns and butter, the war brought on an inflation that, along with the oil crisis, destabilized the world's economy all through the 1970s. Then Carter gave way to Reagan, who has abetted if not entirely caused a resurgence of American self-confidence, an unexpected post- Viet Nam syndrome. The new mood of the nation is out of harmony with most of the countercultural forces that gave the U.S. a certain nihilistic energy in the '60s. The war and the counterculture could at certain moments seem part of the same rock 'n' roll, drawing their energy from...
...American mind. If time has moved on, it has also receded, in a psychological sense. Seven years ago, the war seemed much further away than it does now. During a long period in the '70s, the nation indulged in a remarkable exercise of recoil and denial and amnesia about Viet Nam. Americans did not want to hear about it, to think about...
That denial was part of the special ordeal of the Viet Nam veterans, an ordeal that began when they arrived back in the U.S. and found that even their families were not interested in talking about what they had just been through, or were embarrassed about it. "I went over there thinking I was doing something right and came back a bum," says Larry Langowski, now an administrator for Illinois Bell. "I came back decked with medals on my uniform, and I got spit on by a hippie girl...
Perhaps the most important change in American attitudes toward the war in the past few years has been the public acceptance of those who fought. The Viet Nam veteran, after a long struggle, has acquired a considerable respect--if not entirely the Government benefits (educational and medical) that he deserves. One sees the change in television shows, for example, or in movies. During the '70s, the Viet Nam veteran was often portrayed as a murderous psychotic (as in the 1978 movie Taxi Driver) or as a drug-wasted, haunted loser. In Coming Home, he became more sympathetic, though...
...Missing in Action, in which Chuck Norris returns to Indochina to rescue old buddies still held there by evil Vietnamese who look like the wily, despicable Japanese in World War II films. These changes reflect a very literal and significant transaction. They suggest that in the American imagination, the Viet Nam veteran, erstwhile psychotic, cripple and loser, has been given back his manhood...