Vietnam Veterans experience unemployment and homelessness at exactly the same rate as their non-Veteran peers.
I just clicked on your first link and read the sub-head and the first paragraph.
??
If you continue to read the article, despite the unqualified statements made in the opening paragraphs, the actual numbers provided paint a completely different picture.
Just as other numbers dispell many other Vietnam myths.
For example, that most soldiers who fought in Vietnam were draftees.
27 million men came of draft age from 1964 to 1972
Total draftees (1965-1973): 1,728,344
Actually served in Vietnam: 38%
25% (648,500) of total forces in country were draftees (In WWII, 67% were draftees; 33% were volunteers)
Draftees accounted for 30.4% (17,725) of combat deaths in Vietnam
National Guard: 6,140 served; 101 died
Last man drafted: June 30, 1973
(Which leads me to believe that we do a tremendous disservice to our Vietnam Vets by failing to recognize them as the Greatest Generation).
The numbers also don't support the other commonly-held beliefs that blacks, the uneducated and the poor were drafted at a higher rate than white, upper-middle class males.
88.4% of the men who actually served in Vietnam were Caucasian: 10.6% (275,000) were African-American; 1% belonged to other races
26% of combat deaths came from the families in the highest third of income levels
76% of the men sent to Vietnam were from middle/working class backgrounds
Three-fourths had family incomes above the poverty level; 50% were from middle income backgrounds
Some 23% of Vietnam veterans had fathers with professional, managerial or technical occupations
79% of the men who served in Vietnam had a high school education or better when they entered military service. (63% of Korean War vets and only 45% of WWII vets had completed high school upon separation)
97% of Vietnam veterans were honorably discharged
91% of actual Vietnam War era veterans and 90% of those who saw heavy combat are proud to have served their country
66% of Vietnam veterans say they would serve again if called upon
As of 1985, on 9% of Vietnam veterans had not graduated high school as opposed to 23% of their non-military peers
As of 1985, a Vietnam veteran was more likely to have gone to college than a man of his age who did not serve: Vietnam veterans – 30%; non-military peer – 24%
In 1985, 8 of every 10 Vietnam veterans were married to their first spouse and 90% had children
In every major study of Vietnam veterans where the military records were pulled from the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis and the veterans were then located, an insignificant number had been found in prison.
In 1994, the unemployment rate for all males over 18 was 6%; for Vietnam veterans – 3.9%
In a study conducted by the Labor Department and Department of Veterans’ Affairs – more African-American Vietnam veterans work in white-collar, public-sector jobs than do African-American males who never served.
The Long Way Home Project (which compiled many of the statistics used here) has done a tremendous job of compiling the facts about our Nation's Veterans.
The picture we have painted of broken, scarred, ruined Veterans is patently false...
...for the overwhelming majority of Combat Vets, combat did not ruin them- it made them better, and they would gladly do it again.
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