Veterans Day is a time to honor those who have sacrificed so selflessly for our country; a time to bring attention to the people who left their families and fought for a cause they were told was right. They defended the country that they loved and cared for so deeply. While we should honor all Veterans and everything they have done for this country, we should honor the Veterans who served in Vietnam the most because of how they were treated by the public and how many believed that this war should not have been ours.

Vietnam is known as the war that the United States should not have been involved in. It was a war between communist North Vietnam and South Vietnam. The United States chose to become involved not only because of our ties in South Vietnam, but also because we did not want Communist China to take South Vietnam like they did North Vietnam. From the beginning of the war to the end, there were over two million American soldiers on active duty in Vietnam. Out of all those soldiers, around 58,000 were killed during the war. These numbers are astonishingly high for a war that was not supported by the public.

At the time, men who served in Vietnam were hated by the peace-loving public who believed that the war was not only a waste of resources, but also none of our concern. Protesters called the soldiers names and treated them horribly, not taking into consideration the horrors these soldiers must have seen during their time overseas. The protesters never realized that the majority of these men did not fight by choice, but were drafted. They were ripped from their families and their homes to fight in a war that barely even concerned them. The protesters never took these points into consideration while badmouthing the war and its soldiers.

These brave men witnessed constant violence and death while overseas during the war. They watched civilians, other soldiers, and their friends die and never had any time to mourn their losses, and, when they returned, they were expected to continue with their lives like they had never left in the first place. Their country did not give them any time to mourn nor any time to come to terms with exactly what they had witnessed and what they had done. These men who served in Vietnam are true heroes because they served their country faithfully, even though they were forever changed by what they saw and went through during the war, and for that, they deserve the utmost honor not just on Veterans Day, but every day.