How Were The Veterans Treated When They Returned Home From The Vietnam War?

There was a generally mixed reaction.

side note, most people don't know the full story of the vietnam war, even most veterans are unaware of key details of *why* the other side was fighting.  The vietnam war was an extension of the vietnamese war for independence from the french during the 50's.  The most successful group to fight for independence in vietnam was the communist party, and so- they were getting results in getting the french out- they gained popular support. Vietnam didn't become communist because they liked communism. They became communist because they didn't want to be oppressed by the frankly barbaric treatment they got from the french.  Then america said "no, communists bad" and that was enough to go to war over, and the rest is history: The khmer rogue, the thai royalty popularity cult (which was started as propaganda against communism and funded by the US at it's beginning), all of these were directly affected by this.

and so the war was a very long and confused mess. There were so many layers of stupidity that it's hard to know where to start.  All war is horrible, but this was senseless conflict in all ways.  Barbarism was used to discourage communism ("if you help the communists, we'll burn your house down", "if you are communist we'll kill you") and for the first time was widely documented by journalists, and so the people at home seeing this were able to react the way they would if they knew the whole story.  And so you had people who 'understood the soldiers' thanking them, and you had people who 'understood the victims' who protested them going to war not happy that they were back and who didn't care that they had suffered, because they'd made so many people suffer.