JASON VAN STEENWYK looks at efforts to erase history.

UPDATE: In the comments, a reference to Bob Greene’s The Homecoming, which is described this way by Library Journal:

“Were you ever spat upon when you returned home to the United States?” asked syndicated columnist Greene of the Vietnam veterans among his readership. He received over 1000 letters in reply, many recounting specific details of just such a painfully remembered incident. Evidently this recollection of “hippies” (as they are often called in the letters) spitting on combat veterans has become one of the war’s most unpleasant, enduring images.

This would seem to pose problems for the new crowd of spitting-denialists, though they will no doubt manage to maintain their unbelief.

UPDATE: Read this post from Jim Lindgren, too.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Much more on the troop-spitting debate.

MORE: The final word?

Yeah, and although this post doesn’t mention people like me, I was a red-hot leftist (marxist) revolutionary back then, and I did spit on a couple of returning vets. From the safety of a crowd, behind a barricade and a police line.

I was an America-hating asshole and a coward. I’ve learned better, and I’ve learned to feel regret for my shameful actions then.

Proof that people can change for the better. Read the whole thing.