WEBVTT

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- [Don Buzney] "Soldier, Sailor, Airman, Coast Guard, Marine.

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"Across the land they came, every race, every creed.

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"Although at a time when the nation was steeped

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"in bitter discord, when their 
country called, they stepped forward."

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- [Vince McGowan] The country 
has come a long way since we

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decided to blame the warrior, not the administration,

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that would send us off to wars that are not popular.

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I experienced a lot of negative attention in New York City

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when I came home in 1968.

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Then we had the largest anti-war demonstrations

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of the Columbia University.

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The students and the faculty and 
the administration of the school

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all had the mistaken belief that the

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problem lay with the people that were being directed to do it.

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And it had a very traumatic effect on the psyche of the young

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veterans transitioning from war into a civilian lifestyle.

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After about a decade of being angry,

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we got to the point of saying we're not taking this any longer,

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and a bunch of Vietnam veterans got together,

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petitioned the city under Mayor Koch to allocate

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space, and that was in the center of 
the development of lower Manhattan.

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It resulted in a change from

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condemnation to understanding and respect.

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But it took a lifetime.

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People didn't want a flag remembering

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service in Vietnam to be flown in public spaces.

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We obviously insisted that be the case because

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it represents our service and we were not going to take

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a back seat.

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There are some really interesting comments in here.

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One of them that sticks out is that we

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were soldiers when soldiers weren't fashionable.

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We wanted to have the most complete battle map

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of Vietnam, which you'll see right over here

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when we go up to it,

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that shows all the battles.

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There is a position up here, south of Chu Lai,

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(inaudible), that was my command.

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It's a great conversation piece

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built so the guys, they'll stand around and put their foot up.

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And then you can actually have a story

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to relate about your experience.

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This becomes a destination point and a teaching point

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so the other side understand that very, very dark period

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where the country turned against its veterans.