Government’s Endless War Against Vietnam Veterans

In 1975, the fall of Saigon brought an end to the Vietnam War in Southeast Asia while our U.S. government generously welcomed more than 50,000 Vietnamese Refugees onto American soil in Southern California by sheltering, clothing and feeding them.

To prepare for them, an estimated 900 Marines and civilians had worked six days erecting more than 1,000 tents and Quonset huts at Camp Pendleton Marine Base that would provide the anxious Refugees with safe care and a hopeful future.

Most all of the Refugees arrived with no money or personal possessions and very few spoke any English. Nonetheless, they were compassionately accepted and sponsored by volunteer families, churches and corporations, eventually assimilating into our society. The vast majority became productive U.S. citizens

In addition to this gesture of goodwill, our government also provides shelter, beds, meals, TV, recreation and healthcare for hardened criminals in our local, state and federal prisons, and it offers the same safe and comfortable living conditions for violent thug terrorists at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

On the other hand, disabled and homeless Veterans who selflessly defended our nation have been forgotten and dispossessed by the same government and forced to live alone, homeless and hungry in back-alley squalor.

By the VA’s own admission, 47% of today’s homeless Veterans are from the Vietnam War era. Most of them are now in their 60’s and 70’s and many are in frail and declining health.

Incredulously, while the Vietnamese Refugees were welcomed into our country, America’s Veterans who had fought to defend them in their native homeland were insulted, demeaned and ostracized when they returned home to their own native country.

The fact that Vietnamese Refugees were given immediate attention and support decades ago while tens of thousands of our Vietnam War Veterans are still homeless and destitute is a national disgrace beyond comprehension.

As a supposedly moral and compassionate society, how can we allow the exclusively deeded property at the Los Angeles National Veterans Home to be leased for a public dog park, public community park, public golf course, public parking lots, used car storage, private school grounds, carnivals, entertainment, etc., while 20,000 disabled and disadvantaged Veterans are homeless and fending for their lives on the dangerous streets of Los Angeles?

The answer is simple. We can’t!

Read more here: http://www.veteranstoday.com/2012/08/10/governments-endless-war-against-vietnam-veterans/