Millions more Americans claim to have served in Vietnam than the total...
By ParaTed2k
@ParaTed2k (22940)
Sheboygan, Wisconsin
September 15, 2011 1:04am CST
According to The American War Library, there are an estimated 9-12 million Americans who claim to be Vietnam War Veterans. Records are faulty, but all estimates put the number of Americans who actually served in Vietnam during the war at a maximum of 3.17 million, with only about 850,000 still living. The truly sad part is, this makes all casual claims of vet status suspect.
Many who did serve came home to so much hostility, many refused to admit to any involvement in it. Now that they want to talk about it, so many are lying it's hard for the rest of us to tell the difference.
1 person likes this
3 responses
@sid556 (30953)
• United States
16 Sep 11
Hi Ted,
I'm not following just WHY would someone lie about such a thing? If they are lying for the sake of telling tall stories then that's on them. If they are lying to get benefits, there should be paperwork to prove that they served, right? They either enlisted or they were drafted. Wouldn't you need the proper paperwork to prove you served in order to recieve any benefits?
@opalina143 (1240)
• Morristown, New Jersey
15 Sep 11
wow, that's crazy. I never heard of anyone lying about being in the war before. Do they do it to get benefits that are not entitled to? I would think it would be pretty hard to fool the government. Or do they just doing it in general conversation? Maybe they're trying to make themselves seem better? You're right, for years people who served in Vietnam were ashamed to even tell anyone about it, because there was so much public anger towards the war. I hear that people used to call them baby killers. I wonder if people also lie about being in Iraq and Afghanistan you know, people who are now in the United States who claim that they used to be in the Army. To be honest, I know someone who I think lies about having been in the first Gulf War. I've never confronted him about it, of course – but he claims to been in the thick of things on the ground and as far as I know, there was no actual ground war in the first Gulf War. So pretty suspicious.
