They Spit on Him After Vietnam 😡
A Vietnam War veteran describes writing his memoir "Guns Up" as a response to the hostile treatment he and other Marines received upon returning home, including being spat upon and denied service. He explains how his anger-driven book evolved to counter American misconceptions about Marine conduct during the war.
Summary
The speaker shares his motivation for writing his military memoir "Guns Up." Upon returning from Vietnam, he and fellow Marines faced severe hostility from the American public. He describes a specific incident where servicemen were pelted with tomatoes and eggs at their arrival, with military police present—though their stated purpose was protection, they actually prevented Marines from confronting their attackers. At a bar, the speaker encountered a sign reading "no Marines or dogs allowed" and was spat upon by a civilian patron. After he retaliated against the man, police intervened and arrested him. However, during transport to jail, a police officer recognized his Fifth Marines affiliation through a military reference ("Poguey rope") and, showing solidarity, instead drove him to a bus station and released him with bus fare back to El Toro. The speaker indicates his initial motivation for writing the book came from anger and frustration with this treatment. However, he credits a larger purpose emerging from the project: addressing widespread American misconceptions about Marine conduct in Vietnam. People encouraged him to document what Marines were actually doing in the war, as the American public broadly believed false narratives that Marines were killing civilians, particularly women and children.
Key Insights
- The speaker was greeted upon returning from Vietnam with violence from civilians—being pelted with tomatoes and eggs—and the military police's stated role was to protect them but actually functioned to prevent retaliation
- Businesses openly discriminated against Marines, with bars displaying signs stating 'no Marines or dogs allowed'
- The speaker wrote his memoir initially out of anger in response to personal mistreatment and hostile homecoming experiences
- A police officer's recognition of Marine Corps culture and symbols led to mercy rather than prosecution, demonstrating inter-military respect
- The American public held false beliefs that Marines were indiscriminately killing women and children in Vietnam, and the speaker felt compelled to document the actual conduct of Marines to counter these narratives
Topics
Transcript
[0:00] What prompted you to write the memoir of your military experience and can you give any advice to a daughter wanting to preserve with her father's story and [music] or encourage him to write it? >> I wrote Guns Up out of anger. I came home from Nam. I was greeted with guys throwing tomatoes and eggs at us. They had a bunch of MPs there. We thought to protect us, but it was to keep us from getting to these guys. I went to a bar like most Marines. There was a sign on the bar that said no Marines or dogs allowed in the bar. These two guys come up. One of them spit on my shoes.…
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