THE MYTH OF STOLEN VALOR
By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER/Senior Editor
World War 2 set the standard for judging manhood for generations to come. Unless you hit a beach under withering enemy fire or parachuted behind enemy lines, you would spend the rest of your life labeled a yellow dog. We forgot one reality of the human condition, not everyone is comfortable with the idea of dying a horrible death at 19 years old. Dozens of John Wayne movies weren’t enough to get millions of Americans over being scared stiff about the idea of serving in Vietnam. Reserve units, the National Guard, college deferments or a plethora of doctor’s excuses saved the rich and resourceful. Others, many with non combatant military service, more with none at all, took a different road and began living a lifetime of lies. Author B.G Burkette calls this: Stolen Valor.
More than half the veterans of Vietnam are dead, never living to see 60. No true count exists, the lowest numbers show nearly 2/3rds gone, but I suspect many of those listed "gone" are more likely "misplaced." To the guys who fought in Vietnam, coming home to a country full of people who hid being ashamed of not serving themselves and not really ever supporting the troops by labeling veterans as losers and misfits led many to simply keep their heads down. If you survived Vietnam, keeping your head down didn’t take much getting used to.
You could work next to someone who fought in the toughest fights in Vietnam, work next to him for 20 years, and never know. He might be sitting next to you drinking a beer while you watch one of the dozens of movies and hundreds of TV shows with Vietnam vets as homeless drug addicts, convicts or murderous thugs. You might turn to him and ask, "Weren’t you in Vietnam?" The answer you would get, with a shrug, "That was a long time ago."
By the mid 70s, I began noticing that the veterans I would meet, the ones who joined things, the ones who talked most about the war didn’t feel right. Some were too young. Mostly, they didn’t have that certain crazy behind the eyes "we " notice but others can’t.
Those of us who were combat vets, not the occasional rocket or convoy attack but the guys who fought the war ever day, started to notice "resume enhancement" by those who were cooks, technicians, admin guys, supply clerks. In Vietnam, they were all the same as us, except to us, the lucky ones. I never cared if someone ran phone lines or drove an ammo truck. It didn’t matter then, not until Chuck Norris, Sylvester Stallone and Arnie became the new John Wayne types, like Wayne, never serving in combat but more than willing to rake in millions pretending and showing the world what they thought we should be like.
At first, everyone was a Marine. Then they became Special Forces, Navy Seals and eventually POWs. Some claimed to be all of them. It wasn’t like it was a few, it was so many that I gave up talking to anyone claiming to be a veteran at all. I felt embarrassed for them. I will always stop and talk to a Marine about all the same stuff you can see in the movie Full Metal Jacket, the consummate USMC experience film.
When they would start making things up, I would just turn away, politely as possible and wonder what scarred their lives so much they needed to tell others they were me. Even I wasn’t all that comfortable being me. Who would want that, certainly not a sane person.
Some of the problem was made worse by the POWs coming home. Those of us in Vietnam thought about them every day. We were scared as hell of being captured. It was Marine Corps policy to never be caught, never leave wounded or even dead. It was always fight to the death. 14,000 Marines fought to the death in Vietnam, many more Army, Navy and Air Force did the same. Vietnam was not a game.
Every war had POWs. Those captured by the Japanese in WW2 suffered beyond comprehension. Few survived capture. POWs in Korea were subjected in psychological manipulation and many who returned were prosecuted for collaboration. We had the same problem in Vietnam, some POWs were collaborators. None of us judged them because none of us had walked in their shoes. We knew that those who spit in their captors faces, those who weren’t killed for it, were people we admired.
But when the POWs came home, they received a presidential pardon from Nixon. For years after this, the sheep, those who collaborated, worked for North Vietnam, made broadcasts, spied on their fellow POWs, some who committed serious crimes, cried out for recognition as heroes, many much louder than those who suffered with honor and returned home in silence.
It was one thing having thousands of phony POWs, some even combat vets, who wanted part of the attention the real POWs were getting, the rewards, the parades, the speaking engagements and more. Worse than this, the real POWs, some of them, the numbers vary, not only "broke" but may have gone further, much further than this.
With many POWs getting involved in politics, some backing extremist causes and some getting rich for attacking other veterans, some of us wanted to know who, exactly, we were listening to, lions or rats? Time has shown us that some of the noisiest were the rats.
Eventually vets started getting sick of the phonies. Many veteran’s organizations found themselves infiltrated, even at the highest levels with total phonies. Some of the organizations for units such as Navy Seals or Special Forces, started on the war path, defrocking phonies in their midst in the most public way possible.
As with any movement, flag protection acts, right to prayer, right to life, the anti-phony veteran movement became the bailiwick of something even worse than phony veterans, political extremists who either dodged the draft themselves, some thru deferments, some thru "special" placement in Reserve and Guard units not slated for activation and some whose service was peacetime only.
The common denominator for this group is the desire to organize disenfranchised veterans who would normally hate draft dodgers but who could be fooled into following tough talking patriots who joined them in pointing fingers at others.
As John Wayne and Ronald Reagan, the consummate WW2 draft dodgers became legendary heroes known for their patriotism and extremist views, a new breed, without the polish and acting ability moved in behind.
After 9/11, people like George ‘W’ Bush, Rudi Giuliani, Dick Cheney, Trent Lott, Tom DeLay, Rush Limbaugh, Donald Rumsfeld and scores of generals who had never seen a weapon more dangerous than a 9 iron became overnight idols, almost as though they were pro football or basketball players.
To them, the "Stolen Valor" movement could be used to shield them from scrutiny for their lack of service during wartime and put political enemies on the defensive through funding attack campaigns questioning the patriotism or even heroic military service of anyone who opposed them.
The ironic part, of course, is this became a movement that attracted even more phony vets who themselves needed "cover" for their years of lies, cover provided by the ability to line up behind heavily financed "finger pointers" who were, if anything, worse than them.
The results of this circus have, in the end, destroyed much of the credibility of all veterans. When any veteran disagrees with another, the first thing he does is attack his opponent as a phony. As can easily be predicted, those who do most of the attacking are those with the most to hide themselves.
The ones who escape all scrutiny, of course, are those whose acts have been the most unredeemable of all, POWs who collaborated and may even have caused the deaths of other Americans or those who push forward war but proved themselves uniquely unworthy when called upon to serve themselves. For those, money and power has been used to classify military records, criminal records, medical records, anything expected to be public information, especially vital when public office is involved.
And still it goes on, the hunt for small town phony heroes, exposed for wearing medals they don’t deserve gets front page exposure while the "big fish" swim free. How long will persecute minnows, sad people who feel bad about themselves, so bad that they will live with fear of exposure for years?
Are they the cowards or are the people who chase them down and ignore the big fish, the fish with teeth, the ones who really deserve exposure?
VT Senior Editor Gordon Duff is a Marine combat veteran and regular contributor on political and social issues.
Gordon Duff posted articles on VT from 2008 to 2022. He is a Marine combat veteran of the Vietnam War. A disabled veteran, he worked on veterans and POW issues for decades.
Gordon is an accredited diplomat and is generally accepted as one of the top global intelligence specialists. He manages the world’s largest private intelligence organization and regularly consults with governments challenged by security issues.
Duff has traveled extensively, is published around the world, and is a regular guest on TV and radio in more than “several” countries. He is also a trained chef, wine enthusiast, avid motorcyclist, and gunsmith specializing in historical weapons and restoration. Business experience and interests are in energy and defense technology.
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