The truth is that there are no verifiable first-hand accounts of returning veterans being spat on by anti-war protestors. I was a radical leftist in the 1960s (obviously not now) and deeply involved in the anti-war movement and as I recall any radical who spoke disdainfully about men in the service or blamed Vietnam veterans for the war would immediately be suspected of being a law-enforcement plant or agent provocateur. Nobody but a cop would use the phrase “baby killer” except in reference to LBJ, Nixon or Kissinger — if then.

The 60s were the draft era, and the men in uniform were our coevals, friends, neighbors, and relatives. We felt sorry for them, and we envied their macho credibility. But not even the biggest assholes I met in the anti-war movement (and there were plenty) blamed them for the war or anything they might have done overseas (Jane Fonda doesn’t count).

Also, I’m pretty sure that even the most deranged hippie wouldn’t care to risk the severe beating that would inevitably result from being close enough to spit on a man in uniform, and actually doing so. So let us lay this spitting on servicemen thing to rest — the truth about the anti-war left is repulsive enough.