Still Living with the War

For Viet Nam veterans, the battle for better care continues

Eight years after the Viet Nam War ended, Americans who fought it have not yet won a hero's homecoming. That condition became especially galling to them when the Iran hostages returned to cheering crowds this winter. Yet, increasingly, the veterans' demands are shifting from spiritual appreciation for their sacrifices to material help of the kind sought by past generations of warriors: tuition aid comparable to the G.I. Bill of Rights; generous and inclusive disability pensions; and, more and more, better treatment at the nation's...