Customer Reviews

Homecoming: When the Soldiers Returned from Vietnam

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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.

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.

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.

This book is heartbreaking to read. It disgusts me to read about so called Americans, who treated our soldiers like scum.
While some of the stories shared were heartwarming, the negative treatment that many of the soldiers endured, overshadowed the positive stories.I read this book a long time ago, and recalling some of the stories still brings me to tears. This book is a must read.
To our Vietnam veterans, may God bless you.
To the maggots who spat on our soldiers.. may you rot in Hell.

3rd amtrac 1st mar div 1068-1969 marbke mt da nang. usmc. some of us were warned of spitters and advised not to return anything so that we werent arrested for asault. i missed the spitters but within a year i returned to work and tried to explain vietnam to co workers and had a strong negative response. thay were just common citizens. some time later many older vets-koresn and wwone at vfw gave me a cold shoulder. then after that at an employment agency a korean war vet stuck his finger right in my face and said----you lost the war---hipies didnt like vets and some older vets didnt like viet vets and a number of regular citizens didnt like vets. after that i was invisible. to me nam didnt exist. so to hell with your parades ....to hell with your-thank you for your service--im not beatin my head against a brick wall for anyone not my family or very very close friend. to hell with you.