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Protesters against the Vietnam War are regularly accused of demonstrating against soldiers at airports, spitting on them and calling them “baby killers”. But there is not a single newspaper report from the time of an airport demonstration. 1/7 https://insidestory.org.au/the-enduring-myth-of-the-abusive-protesters/
There were no protests at airports. Claims that have emerged some time since the war’s end (and after Hollywood started portraying abusive protesters) are not supported by any contemporary evidence. 2/7
#histedchat @PaulKiem @jvdallimore https://insidestory.org.au/the-enduring-myth-of-the-abusive-protesters/
#histedchat @PaulKiem @jvdallimore https://insidestory.org.au/the-enduring-myth-of-the-abusive-protesters/
In Australia’s Vietnam, Paul Ham wrote of the protesters who supposedly attacked troops: “Perhaps silence is the only refuge open to them. If so, their silence condemns them: none has publicly recanted; none has apologised.”
3/7 https://insidestory.org.au/the-enduring-myth-of-the-abusive-protesters/
3/7 https://insidestory.org.au/the-enduring-myth-of-the-abusive-protesters/
Paul Ham still defends what he wrote in his book. Ham: “Dapin is, in essence, calling them liars. I believe the soldiers’ accounts. And I stand firmly by my account of the history of the antiwar movement.” 4/7 https://insidestory.org.au/the-enduring-myth-of-the-abusive-protesters/
This is a malicious caricature of those Australians who actively devoted their energies to trying to end the war in Vietnam, a slur on the anti-Vietnam war movement, without any foundation. 5/ 7
@johnpilger @antloewenstein @Jeff_Sparrow https://insidestory.org.au/the-enduring-myth-of-the-abusive-protesters/
@johnpilger @antloewenstein @Jeff_Sparrow https://insidestory.org.au/the-enduring-myth-of-the-abusive-protesters/
In demonstrating this, Mark Dapin performed a great service. But bizarrely he ended up suggesting that the myths are nothing more than the harmless expression of veterans' subjective experience 6/7
@tevanrich @tomrgriffiths @fbongiornoanu @Stanleyhistory https://insidestory.org.au/the-enduring-myth-of-the-abusive-protesters/
@tevanrich @tomrgriffiths @fbongiornoanu @Stanleyhistory https://insidestory.org.au/the-enduring-myth-of-the-abusive-protesters/
The meaning of the mythology is as obvious as it is malign. Protesters become traitors and dissent collapses into disloyalty. 7/7 #honesthistory https://insidestory.org.au/the-enduring-myth-of-the-abusive-protesters/
