While veterans of World War II prospered, Vietnam veterans suffered economically after coming home

By their nature military conflicts produce veterans, but all veterans do not have the same experiences when they come home; World War II veterans generally prospered after 1945, while Vietnam Veterans have often been viewed as being ‘damaged goods’. In new research, Alair MacLean examines the socioeconomic status of groups of veterans, finding that veterans of World War II and Korea benefited from the country’s growing postwar economy which included government benefits, whereas those returning from Vietnam in the 1970s received far less generous benefits, earned less, and were relatively less equal by comparison.