Homecoming: When the Soldiers Returned from Vietnam [Hardcover]

Bob Greene (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Chicago Tribune staffer Greene composed several of his syndicated columns around responses he received from Vietnam vets after he asked whether any of them had been spat upon. Unfortunately, the enormous impact of the columns is lost in their expansion to book form. Some servicemen were spat upon on their return, but more suffered verbal abuse or icy indifference. Many contributors point out that they did what their country asked them to do, and they were stunned by the cruelty, even savagery, of some of the anti-war protesters, many of whom proclaimed belief in love and peace. Some are still not reconciled to the treatment they received, while others welcome the change in the attitude toward them as a chance "to wipe a little spit off our hearts."
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

"Were you ever spat upon when you returned home to the United States?" asked syndicated columnist Greene of the Vietnam veterans among his readership. He received over 1000 letters in reply, many recounting specific details of just such a painfully remembered incident. Evidently this recollection of "hippies" (as they are often called in the letters) spitting on combat veterans has become one of the war's most unpleasant, enduring images. Conversely, other letters describe acts of generosity toward servicemen, from the typical free beers at the bar to a free show. But the over 200 letters excerpted here do more than confirm popular notions. They bring back the incidents of 20 years ago vividly, but not always with bitterness. And they reveal healing solidarity among veterans in response to what for many was not a happy homecoming. Recommended. Richard W. Grefrath, Univ. of Nevada Lib., Reno
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 269 pages
• Publisher: G. P. Putnam's Sons; 1st edition (January 12, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399133860
• ISBN-13: 978-0399133862
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #436,418 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is heartbreaking., June 6, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Homecoming: When the Soldiers Returned from Vietnam (Hardcover)

To be brutally honest, parts of this book reduced me to tears. This book concentrates on the homecoming of the Vietnam Veteran. The author asks the question "were returning soldiers spat upon their arrival to the States". Some answered yes, some answered no and some answered with incidents far more worse than just being spit upon. Out of any book dealing with a homecoming of the Vietnam Veteran, this is the one that I would strongly recommend.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The truth about how Vietnam veterans were treated, November 30, 1999

By 

C. Thornton "chazt" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Homecoming: When the Soldiers Returned from Vietnam (Hardcover)

Syndicated columnist Bob Greene heard the stories about anti-war protesters abusing Vietnam veterans, and wondered if they were true. He asked his readers to tell their stories, and then he checked them out. Despite denials from the Left, Greene found that protesters and others did, indeed, spit on and abuse returning veterans. He found the stories so compelling that he compiled them in this fascinating book. I think 'Homecoming' provides valuable perspective on a troubled time in U.S. history.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the few truly essential books on American military history., November 4, 2010

By 

Alan Edward Creager (Henrico, VA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Homecoming: When the Soldiers Returned from Vietnam (Hardcover)

To begin, this book was published in 1989 by John Deadline Enterprises, Inc. but for some reason has the name Putnam- from G.P. Putnam's Sons of New York, NY- on the spine. But anyway. My copy is a 1989 hardcover, with a white background, mostly blue lettering, and an illustration of an American flag, a GI and his duffel bag, both in olive drab. I bought my copy at the Tuckahoe Branch of Henrico County Public Library for $1.00, which is a far cry from its self-listed price of $17.95 and an indescribably long way from what it is truly worth.

But the price of this book is immaterial, as is the price of any great work. Something that so many seem to forget, but in the past and present, is that the quality or lack thereof endures long after nobody cares to remember the price.
The original price of this book is already fading into memory, but its quality will surely endure.

"Homecoming" is a work of stunning force. It makes no deliberate effort to draw you in, but if the subject matter it discusses doesn't at all interest you I don't know what will. It is the product of an overwhelming response that Greene got to a newspaper column he printed, asking for veterans of the Vietnam War to write in and tell their take on the generic story that the typical veteran returning from Vietnam was spat on by hippies at the airport.
Greene noted being told several times that readers of the column and its responses had deliberately sought privacy before reading, and some were brought to tears. That's how much emotion this book, even before its creation, involved.

This is not some definitive history of the war in Vietnam. Not in any way. It is instead a collection of stories, responses to Bob Greene's original question to Vietnam veterans. The responses it contain cover just about every kind of response possible. Vehement "Yes"s, equally forceful "No"s, and all manner of in between's. One man was bitter enough, even after so many years, that he said that unless there was a war in Texas he wouldn't show up again. I don't blame him, and I don't think anybody should.

There's a lot more to the generic story of a soldier returning from Vietnam and being spat on by a hippie. This book shows that beyond a doubt. One man, in fact, after being ignored and rejected by such institutions as the American Legion, found acceptance among the war protestors and hippies you'd think would have treated him as a pariah.

This book makes no judgement on any of the men and women who wrote in. There are occasional sections where Greene breaks in and makes commentary on his own thoughts and feelings as he assembled "Homecoming", and I thank him for adding his own comments without passing judgement.

"Homecoming" ends with a woman's story of she and her son posting a banner over their garage one morning, ten years after the end of the Vietnam War. A young man delivering newspapers arrives and tearfully thanks her for putting the sign up. When she apologizes for the sign being ten years late, the young man says, "Lady, it's never too late."

Few books have ever left so powerful an impression upon me as this one did. If you never read even one book on the Vietnam War, I implore you to make this one an exception.