History Main / TheVietnamVet

* Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'', [[BlackBestFriend Gerald's]] dad was a Vietnam War veteran, but was never in the armed forces due to being sick from basic training. He did however saved a life of a soldier who the two reunited in Veteran's Day, where the soldier thanked him for it.

As can be seen in several of the examples below, any Vietnam vet character still around in the 2010s will be a BadassGrandpa and any action works made during and after it use this term as a short-hand term for "experienced badass". Some characters who were at one time depicted as serving in Vietnam have had that element toned down via ComicBookTime.

As can be seen in several of the examples below, any Vietnam vet character still around in the 2010s will be a BadassGrandpa. Some characters who were at one time depicted as serving in Vietnam have had that element toned down via ComicBookTime.

* Angus ''Series/McGyver'' served as a bomb disposal expert in Vietnam War.

* ''{{Series/Emergency}}'': Roy Desoto was one, but never had any problems from it. And there was an episode with a vet who seemed to be having a PTSD episode, thinking he was back in the war. But the doctors aren't immediately sure it's psychiatric, and the tests and exams show he actually had a brain tumor causing it. He was doing better after surgery.

* This was played with for laughs in ''TeenMovie'' where the protagonist's father keeps having flashbacks.

* In Brian Keene's ''TheRising'', it is revealed that ''BadassPreacher'' Martin was an army chaplain in Vietnam, and these skills save his life after a deserting soldier attempts to use him as cannon fodder and a distraction to escape.

* ''Film/{{SWAT}}'' brings up Hondo's backstory as a [[SemperFi Marine vet]] with two tours in Vietnam (in addition to four teaching combat survival) as a way of establishing his {{badass}} cred.

* ''HappyTreeFriends'': Flippy/Fiqpy. While he didn't fight in the actual Vietnam War rather fighting in a in-universe war, his character is heavily inspired by such veterans. He frequency has flashbacks to the war, which cause him to become very violent.

* LAPD detective Harry Bosch, hero of most of MichaelConnelly's mystery novels, was a "tunnel rat" who engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the VC and the NVA in underground tunnels. This is most relevant in the first Bosch novel, ''Literature/TheBlackEcho'', in which Bosch discovers that the murder victim he's investigating was another member of his unit. Bosch further finds out that said murder victim was putting his experience as a Vietnam tunnel rat to use by participating in a conspiracy to tunnel into and rob a bank.

* Parodied in the ''{{Discworld}}'' novel ''Discworld/MonstrousRegiment'', where the vampire soldier Maledict has "flashsides" - a PTSD-like condition affecting vampires under great psychic strain - which basically means the sufferer has "flashbacks" to ''somebody else'''s trigger-events. These can come from anywhere across the vast Multiversal gulfs of space and time. Maladict hallucinates scenes from the Vietnam War which are not wholly unlike those seen in films like ''Film/ApocalypseNow'' and ''Film/FullMetalJacket''. These are so powerful that anyone nearby is also drawn into them and, lacking the frame of reference, wonders what those insect-like metal things in the sky are that go "whokka-whokka-whokka". Maldict also talks of fragging the officers and uses other 1960's GI slang.

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* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' has Uncle Jimbo and Ned, a pair of the titular town's residents who are seemingly HeterosexualLifePartners. The two met in the war, and Ned lost one of his arms when a grenade went off in his hand. One episode has them tell Stan stories about the war, claiming that their base had a water park and that they took on the entire Vietcong army all by themselves ''on horseback''. [[spoiler:It's implied that part about the water park was true.]]

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* The ''Manga/{{Area 88}}'' manga and OAV has Mickey Simon and Nguyen Van Com, both veterans in the USAF and in the VNAF. Both pilots were recruited to work alongside Asranian military forces as freelancers as both men have a hard time adjusting to civilian life. While Mickey is friendly and approachable despite having signs of [=PTSD=], Nguyen shows off his sadistic side when he takes out pro-communist fighter planes out and even kills the pilots after they bailed out.

The trope has different forms. In the most mild version of this trope, the character is simply just a veteran of the war. Little is brought up about it, save for perhaps a VerySpecialEpisode on [=PTSD=], Veterans Day, Memorial Day, or small references throughout the work. In other instances, their service can be a major feature of the plot. Perhaps because of troubles after the war, they are working dead-end jobs, or perhaps even homeless, with the horrors of war causing them to be isolated from society.

* In the ''Literature/LegacyOfTheAldenata'' series, thanks to rejuvenation tech from the Galactics many Vietnam vets are returned to service against the [[HordeOfAlienLocusts Posleen]]. On seeing the utter chaos at the Indiantown training facility caused by monumental personnel screwups, Gunny Sgt Papas is uncomfortably reminded of the mess in Vietnam caused by low morale among the troops.

* Frank Castle, aka ''ComicBook/ThePunisher'', has his history as a Vietnam vet and what they went through once they came back as a key part of his backstory and why the murder of his entire family rattled him particularly badly as he was just getting back to normalcy. As a result the character is FrozenInTime and will presumably keep being a Vietnam vet even if it makes him unrealistically old.

As can be seen in several of the examples below, any Vietnam vet character in a non-historical work produced in the 2010s, or created earlier and still getting new canon, is either a BadassGrandpa or has had that element toned down via ComicBookTime.

As can be seen in several of the examples below, any Vietname vet character in a non-historical work produced in the 2010s, or created earlier and still getting new canon, is either a BadassGrandpa or has had that element toned down via ComicBookTime.

As can be seen in several of the examples below, any character who was initially or is still depicted as a Vietnam vet in the 2010s is either a BadassGrandpa or has had that element toned down via ComicBookTime.

The VietnamWar was one of the most controversial wars fought in American history. The conflict resulted in many veterans coming back shell-shocked and to a country that didn't always support them. Since this is such a large aspect in American society, many creators have factored it into their works.

The trope has different forms. In the most mild version of this trope, the character is simply just a veteran of the war. Little is brought up about it, save for perhaps a VerySpecialEpisode on [=PTSD=], Veterans Day, Memorial Day, or small references throughout the work. In other instances, their service can be a major feature of the plot. Perhaps because of troubles after the war, they are working dead-end jobs, or perhaps even homeless, with the horrors of war causing them to be isolated from society.