ABSTRACT
President George W. Bush entered the Vietnam legacy debate on August 22, 2007, when he gave a speech at a Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Kansas City, Missouri. The legacy of Vietnam lives. It is the war that never goes away. Neither Dan Quayle nor Bill Clinton appeared to suffer any serious political damage from the attacks, but the attacks against them attested to the continuing troublesome legacy of Vietnam War memories. Popular stereotypes of Vietnam veterans as deeply troubled and psychologically wounded young men adrift at the margins of society abounded, powerfully reinforced by popular television shows and movies. Returning veterans of the American War in Vietnam encountered uniquely difficult circumstances as they struggled to come to terms with their war experiences, readjust to civilian routines, and get on with their lives. They had fought in the first foreign war that America had ever lost.
