Vietnam: A History (1983) by Stanley Karnow--- p26-27
American soldiers in other wars gauged progress by conquering territory; seizing the next town on the route to victory sustained their morale. In Vietnam, by contrast, GIs captured and recaptured the same ground. and not even the generals could explain the aim of the fighting. The only measure of success was the "body count," the pile of enemy slaughtered- a futile standard that made the war as glorious as an abattoir. So homecoming troops were often denounced for bestiality or berated for the defeat- or simply shunned. John Kerry, later elected lieutenant governor of Massachusetts, recalled his return: "There I was, a week out of the jungle, flying from San Francisco to New York. I fell asleep and woke up yelling, probably a nightmare. The other passengers moved away from me- a reaction I noticed more and more in the months ahead. The country didn't give a shit about the guys coming back, or what they'd gone through. The feeling toward them was, 'Stay away-don't contaminate us with whatever you've brought back from Vietnam.' "