Calling it a time for “setting the record straight,” President Obama honored Vietnam veterans at a ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of the start of the war by lamenting their treatment upon returning home.
“You were often blamed for a war you didn’t start when you should have been commended for serving your country with valor,” Obama said. “You were sometimes blamed for misdeeds of a few when the honorable service of the many should have been praised. You came home and sometimes were denigrated when you should have been celebrated. It was a national shame, a disgrace that should have never happened. Thats why, here today, we resolve that it will not happen again.”
