Hi Troll:
Yes and no.... I was speaking with a fellow who landed at Normandy the other day, and found something interesting... he could not watch films about WWII, but could watch other war films. My friend Thomas who was a prisoner on the Burma Railway cannot watch Bridge on the River Kwai (though he thinks it is a stupid movie). I cannot watch films about the North of Ireland... tried watching Bloody Sunday and wept uncontrollably through it... because no other experience is more intense than one's personal view of war. But there is the emotional knowledge and then there is the knowledge that all citizens should acquire in a democracy, which is a familiarity with the facts behind our wars so we can make an informed decision and that needs some cross talk with those of us who have personal and emotional experience of war.
Some may have been spit on by anti war folds ... from my personal experience the anti war movement had huge numbers of vets in it, members of Viet Nam Veterans Against the War, an organisation whose members I stay in touch with to this day, and who do draft counseling at the start of wars that may see a draft. But, the real spiting on the vets came from a government which waged war than dropped the wounded vets, wounded in body or mind, onto the streets of America, into the jails of America, into neglect. They are the real MIAs, while Sylvester Stallone (who taught in a Swiss girl's school during the war) promotes the myth that the VC are keeping American slaves in VN, causing the majority to overlook the MIA on their doorstep while imagining slave labour camps over there.
Peace and healing friend
Hope to see ya in New York again soon
Larry