The Psychological Point of View

The Psychological Effects of the Vietnam War
Josh Hochgesang, Tracye Lawyer, Toby Stevenson
War & Peace: Media and War

Fifty-eight thousand were killed, two thousand captured, and three hundred fifty thousand maimed and wounded. Almost everyone in this country still feels the effects of theVietnam War conflict.Today, the young people of this country cringe in response to the senselessness and waste of this struggle.A new generation of college students, workers and young parents bring a unique perspective to the analysis of the consequences of this particular war.These are the sons and daughters of the men that fought to their death in the jungles of South East Asia.

The Psychological Point of View

For many Americans, the Vietnam War is over and long forgotten.Among those still suffering are several veterans who have felt forgotten, unappreciated, and even discriminated against.For some of them ' the trauma of their battle experiences or their physical disabilities have shattered their lives.For even more, adjustment to civilian life has not been easy."Imagine if you had just graduated out of high school and were sent to a guerrilla warfare far away from your home.During the war, you were exposed to a lot of stress, confusion, anxiety, pain, and hatred.Then you were sent back home with no readjustment to the lifestyle in the states, no deprogramming of what you learned from the military, and no "welcome home" parades.You are portrayed to the public as a crazed psychopathic killer with no morals or control over your aggression.You find that there's nobody you can talk to or who can understand what you've been through, noteven your family.As you re-emerge into civilization, you struggle to establish a personal identity or a place in society because you lack the proper education and job skills.In addition, there are no supportive groups to help you find your way, which makes you feel even more isolated, unappreciated, and exploited for serving your country."1This scenario is similar to what many Vietnam veterans have felt in their transition from battle to home.

War has always had a profound effect on those who engage in combat.The Vietnam War, however, was different in many ways.First, it was the unpopular war as viewed by most people today.Vietnam veterans were the first to fight in an American war that could not be recalled with pride.Second, it was the first to be reported in full detail by the media, historians, and scientists.And third, the Vietnam War became a metaphor for American society that connoted distrust in the government, and the sacrifice of American lives for poorly understood and deeply divided values and principles.Upon the veterans' return to the states, many exhibited significant psychiatric symptoms.These ranged from difficulty sleeping to vivid flashbacks, and are now recognized asPost Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

PTSD is a development of characteristic symptoms following a psychologically distressing event."It begins with an event in which the individual is threatened with his or her own death or the destruction of a body part, to such humiliation that their personal identity may be lost."2Vietnam veterans who experience PTSD have a feeling of helplessness, worthlessness, dejection, anger, depression, insomnia, and a tendency to react to tense situations by using survival tactics.Combat experience remains the variable most often linked to PTSD among Vietnam veterans.The frequency of PTSD was a lot higher among those with high levels of exposure to combat compared to the noncombatants.PTSD was not taken seriously until the 1980's when many Vietnam veterans were complaining of similar symptoms.These symptoms had been noticed after previous wars but there were only a couple of cases.In some cases, veterans did not experience their symptoms until a year after they returned.Thus, it was very easy for the government to ignore the effects of PTSD because it had such a delayed reaction.

Before the war, there were many reasons why men wanted to participate.Some felt that it was their duty to fight for their country and for freedom.The majority of them were drafted without a prior notice, while others escaped the drafting process and remained at home.Most of the books cited in this paper gloss over the reasons for going to war simply because there is nothing to analyze.Either they got drafted or they volunteered.

During the war, the main factor that affected the adjustments made by American soldiers and their attitudes was the DEROS system (date of expected return from overseas).Every individual serving in Vietnam knew before leaving the U.S. when he was scheduled to return.An individual's rotation lasted twelve to thirteen months.Thus, for the individual American soldier, the main attribute affecting combat motivation in the war was the operation of the rotation system.The soldier's primary concern was focused on reaching his personal DEROS instead of preparing and fighting in battle.Upon arrival to his unit and the first weeks thereafter, the soldier was excited to be in the war zone and may even have looked forward to engaging with the enemy."However, after the first serious encounter, he lost his enthusiasm for combat.As he began to approach the end of his tour, the soldier noticeably began to give up; he became reluctant to engage in offensive combat operations."3Thus, as soldiers came closer to their expected departure, they either withdrew themselves from battle or just became more careful in order to survive and return home safely.

From interviews and studies conducted on Vietnam veterans, the overall consensus is that American soldiers despised as well as feared the Vietnamese.Race was a critical factor affecting both the military and social experiences of American troops in Vietnam.Psychologists believe that there were two types of war.The first was considered the "good" war which took place from 1964-1968.The second was the "bad" war which occurred from 1968-1972.The earlier war was very conventional and traditional in that it involved the usual confrontation between opposing armies."From the American G.l.'s point of view, the enemy was the North Vietnamese army whose members could be easily recognized and thus killed legally.The G.l.'s could relate easily to Vietnamese villagers, talk to them, and eat with them.The later war involved the confrontation between American troops and Vietnamese guerrillas as well as civilians who sometimes shielded the troops.The guerrilla warfare had booby traps and mines planted by an invisible enemy, or it seemed like to the Americans."4 These traps caused a lot of casualties among the American troops.At this stage of the war, Americans began to view all Vietnamese soldiers and civilians as the enemy and as racially inferior.Since the initial contact in Vietnam occurred in customary warfare activity, American's race awareness was hidden, practically dormant.However, when the enemy went into civilian villages and countryside to fight a guerrilla war, consisting of ambushes, mines, and booby traps, this resulted in closer contact with the Vietnamese people blurring the distinction between soldier and civilian.With the transformation of the war from "good" to "bad", American troops came to intensify their racial conceptions.

In a "good" war, armies meet on a battlefield where there are set rules and boundaries.It is a very formal situation.On the other hand, in guerrilla warfare there are no formalities, rules, or boundaries; there is no way of telling who was friend or foe.This unpredictable environment posed to be dangerous to the Americans because they were not accustomed to this type of battle.So when contacts between the Americans and Vietnamese came closer and more common, the G.l.'s became more prejudiced because it was their way of distinguishing between themselves and the Vietnamese.At the start of the war, it was the North Vietnamese army and the Vietcong who were considered4 4gooks".South Vietnamese and civilians were friends to the American troops, they were not viewed as "gooks"."But when the war began to go bad, the American troops began to respect and de-racialize the North Vietnamese army and the Vietcong because they saw how dedicated they were as fighters and how well they defended their homeland.5At the same time, South Vietnamese and civilians became more racially inferior to the American troops because they got in the way of the war and thus were to blame for most of the casualties.There were many instances where woman and children would confront a group of Americans and have a grenade planted on their body ready to blow up.They didn't seem to realize that the Americans were there to help them, thus they were not trusted and were considered more racially inferior than the Vietnamese troops.All Vietnamese were initially viewed by Americans as members of a racially inferior group.However, the nature and conditions of their contact, that is as the war shifted from good to bad, changed how they viewed the Vietnamese.

Drugs and alcohol played a major role in the lives of the American soldiers during the Vietnam war.In the beginning of the war, marijuana was the main drug of choice.However, news that American soldiers were using drugs came back to the U.S., which resulted in immediate action by the military to suppress drugs, especially marijuana.After marijuana was banned, many soldiers turned to heroin in order to get their "high".Many soldiers enjoyed heroin better than marijuana because it sped up the perception of time, whereas marijuana slowed it down.Because marijuana, heroin, and alcohol were so abundant and inexpensive in Vietnam, veterans used them to ease the stress and sometimes to forget what they saw on the battlefield.As they returned to the states, drugs were not as easy to obtain.Some of the veterans were too young to legally buy alcohol.Other veterans actually stopped using drugs and alcohol, because it was hurting their marriage or relationships with others.These were usually the men who had left a stable home and were a little older.However, those young men who came back between the age of 19 and 23 had a much harder time adjusting to society.One of the tragic effects of the Vietnam drug situation was that some men were refused employment because they had served in Vietnam and employers considered this evidence of drug addiction.Since veterans had many problems adjusting to society, some continued to drink alcohol and do drugs not only to forget what they saw in Vietnam but to cope with the frustration and anguish of not being accepted into society.

The media had an immense effect on many individuals during the war.The public were informed about the war's progress through the media, television, and newspapers.Consequently, much of their opinions and beliefs about war and American soldiers were shaped by how the media viewed the war.Photographers were very influential in forming, changing, and molding public opinion.Some photographers were interested in showing the suffering and anguish of the soldier, whereas others wanted to emphasize the dignity, strength, and fearlessness of the American soldier.Those at home had no experience of how the soldier lived or what he had to deal with during the war.The media built up a stereotype of the soldier's life.These stereotypes are formed, directed, and censored for military and political reasons, which were designed to build up morale at home or show that there was progression and production of the war.When the soldier returned home, he was confused and annoyed to have seen that his family and friends did not understand what he had experienced and how he had changed.What the people at home had learned and discovered about the war, they had seen mostly through the media.Thus, whatever the media portrayed was what the public believed, but this didn't necessarily agree with what the soldier actually experienced.Psychologists found that it was important not only to prepare the veteran for the necessary process of adjustment, but it was also important to prepare the people at home."They have to learn through the media, that the man whom they await will be somebody different from what they imagined him to be."6In order to have facilitated the process of re-adjustment for the veteran, the public should have been told the truth as to what these men endured.

Many veterans were profoundly affected by the Vietnam war after they left.It changed their sense of identity and perspective of society.The various social, moral, and psychological conflicts that they encountered in battle changed their lives.Upon returning home, the veteran felt a sense of uncertainty and alienation from himself and society.He found that he was questioning himself pertaining to his sense of identity and his existence.After many cases of PTSD had arisen, psychologists engaged themselves in extensive studies that analyzed the process of identity formation and integration.They concluded that identity formation begins at birth and progresses until death."As one grows up, there is a constant relationship, almost tug of war, between genetically based aspects of personality and the cultural influences that shape the personality and motivation of a person."7As a child reaches adolescence or their teens, there seems to be a pressure on the formation of identity in order to integrate with the rest of society.This is the time when teens think they're responsible and they feel a sense of freedom and liberation from their parents.As the individual goes through this critical process of growing up, there must be some set of beliefs or values that will help them in forming a personal identity.This allows them to feel a sense of integration and acceptance within society.

Typically, the Vietnam soldier was between the ages of 17-25 years old.The fact that they were either drafted or volunteered for war had a big effect on their identity formation, depending on the kind and quality of their experiences in Vietnam.If, for example, these kids had good role models and a good sense of purpose and commitment while they were in Vietnam, then it would have been easier for them to cope with the horrifying events that took place there.Unfortunately, there was no commitment to the war, most of the soldiers had no idea why they were fighting, and there was a lot ofcontroversy and confusion over the U.S. involvement in Vietnam that got widespread anti-war protests within the U.S. Thus, in Vietnam, due to a lack of a strong moral and political avocation for the war in addition to the guerrilla warfare, it was difficult for the soldier to control and predict the events occurring around him.During the war, the soldier often felt that all was hopeless, and nothing or nobody could be counted on to provide a sense of continuity necessary to a feeling of integration or connectedness.

After they returned home, in the process of establishing a personal identity and constructing new values, most veterans had to deal with rejections and criticisms by a non-accepting society.Many individuals struggled in trying to achieve self-unity which led to PTSD.The returning veteran needed social support, affection, and a positive welcoming from his community in order to work through the war experiences while establishing his sense of identity.Because he was unable to share his war experience with his family and friends, this led to loneliness and alienation and sometimes complete hatred of oneself.

There was a general feeling of hostility from the veterans towards the government, anti-war protesters, and even towards family and friends.The veterans were forgotten by the government and PTSD was swept under the bed.Unfortunately, PTSD had a delayed stress reaction so most veterans did not experience their symptoms until a year after they were discharged.There was a time limit of one year after which the Veterans Administration would not recognize neuropsychiatric problems as service connected.Thus the veteran couldn't get any disability compensation after one year, a time when they needed it the most.This provoked depression and temper problems.In general, there was a loss of faith in political leaders, political processes and trust in the worthiness of authority and institutions.When veterans came back to the states they were despised by protesters, isolated from their family and friends, and dejected by society.They were the victims of the worst injustice because they had given everything for their country, physically and emotionally, and received nothing, not even welcome home parades.It came to a point that veterans were in rage and felt used.They hated many people, but mainly those in the government."They hated their peers who somehow escaped military service and now live a wonderful life.They hated profiteers and politicians because while soldiers were dying, they were getting rich and making capital of campaigns that cost the lives of many.To veterans, politicians and government officials were hated the most because all they did was talk about ideals and morals, and how to fight for them, when they had no idea of the process of enforcing these ideals meant in terms of pain, starvation, fear, and death."8It seemed as though the federal government wanted to place veterans at a disadvantage to those that did not go to war as administrations cut off veterans' preferences in the civil service, and the educational benefits given to them contained less than half of the benefits of the GI bill of WWII.Some veterans had been exposed to Agent Orange, one of the first chemical warfare devices used, and wanted some sort of compensation, but the government didn't want to acknowledge that they had caused it.It was common for veterans to feel hostility towards their own government who allowed them to die off while those who survived were forgotten.