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- Sep 19, 2005
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saw something on the Internet about our Vietnam Vets..so I am on a tirade...I am a big patriot and love my country...fuck you who arent....(that live here)...
of all our military campaigns, our Vietnam Vets were the most ir-revered and never received a thank you or a hero's welcome....God Bless our Vietnam Vets..
The Stuck Veteran
Many Vietnam veterans remain in an uncompleted initiation state; they are "stuck." There are a number of issues which keep them stuck:
1) difficulties in readjusting to civilian life;
2) differences between Vietnam veterans and veterans of other wars;
3) relationship of the Vietnam veteran 5 pre-combat dispositional factors to his adjustment problems after the war;
4) the combat ordeal producing post-war adjustment problems;
5) current psychological strategies for treating disturbed Vietnam veterans; and
6) the social and political alienation of Vietnam veterans.
A majority of Vietnam combat veterans have faced problems adjusting to civilian life, the first category mentioned. Upon their return to the United States, many veterans felt as though they were aliens on a strange planet. They were misfits, no longer in the military, but no longer able to "fit in" with their friends or to function smoothly in society. Even today, they are no more integrated into civilian life than they were twenty-five years ago. Many have had a string of unsuccessful marital relationships; many cannot get or hold meaningful jobs, while others drift from city to city, year after year trying to "get their heads on straight." Quite a few have tried to numb their pain by excessive use of alcohol and/or drugs. In the final analysis, they are stuck in a hellish limbo. They are filled with emotional pain and suffering accompanied by feelings of anguish, total despair, rejection, self-hate, and an almost unbearable guilt for their involvement in Vietnam.
The second category of stress the Vietnam veteran experiences is based in the fundamental difference between him and veterans of other wars. The Vietnam veteran did not win the war and has been reminded of this repeatedly by both World War II and Korean veterans, as well as Desert Storm veterans. The shame Vietnam veterans experience over this loss has caused them to repress many aspects of the war; this has prevented them from being able to work through it psychologically.
For Pete, a former Army infantry officer, his life sums this up well. Pete's father was a highly decorated B-17 bomber pilot during World War II. Two of his brothers were killed in action, one in Iwo Jima and the other in France. Pete had to follow in those footsteps in Vietnam. When he came back, however, he just could not face his father. Pete felt as though he had let both his father and his country down by losing the war. When Pete and his father went to the local VFW post for a couple of drinks, not a word was spoken about Vietnam. Yet Pete could see the frustration in his father?s eyes. Pete thought all his efforts had been for naught. As Pete put it, "How could I face anyone? I participated in a war we lost."
How could the United States have won the Vietnam war? The military's hands were tied. Many United States politicians expected Hanoi's submission. In reality, we had to fight a tough, determined, and resistant opponent--the North Vietnamese soldier. We as a country just could not make a commitment to fight a war with little apparent purpose. We had a very powerful military, but we had no solid political and social support to back it. For political reasons, we could not just leave Vietnam. So infantrymen were essentially offered as a sacrifice, to buy a just retreat. This situation was not satisfactory to previous veterans. They could not understand how Vietnam was different from World War II.
The third category concerns psychological factors common to "stuck" veterans which significantly contributes to stress and adjustment. While not all Vietnam veterans were psychologically predisposed to adjustment difficulties, a number of those who are "stuck," who failed to make the return, are. Many volunteers were "running from themselves" by joining the military. They felt that going to Vietnam would somehow "straighten" them out. A very common perception among Marine Corps volunteers was that the Marine Corps could take you, an inadequate "boy," and mal(e you a "man." In fact, the recruitment slogan used was "The Marine Corps builds men." Since these men already felt inadequate and lacked self-confidence and self-direction, they were predisposed to psychological adjustment disorders. The burdens of the war were hard for them to bear; the social approval they had striven for turned out to be social rejection.
Roger, an Army helicopter gunner, stated that he joined the Army because it would make him a man. People would respect him then. He worked hard in boot camp, doing well in marksmanship, physical endurance, and combat sl4lls. In Vietnam, he worked hard at his mission: killing Vietnamese. Yet, upon his return to the United States, he found that instead of more respect from his peers, he now had less. Deeply troubled, he ultimately went into psychotherapy, only to discover that his problems were not solely Vietnam-caused. He found that he felt inadequate as a person many years before going into the military. For Roger, the military service was a way for him to compensate for feeling "weak" - an objective like that of Teddy Roosevelt, who joined the "Rough Riders" to compensate for his poor health and poor eyesight.
I think most who volunteered for the military share Roger's situation. We, too, felt a sense of inadequacy in ourselves. We needed a boost to our egos that we felt the military would provide. However, the military did not compensate for our feelings of inadequacy. When one needs to prove to himself that he is brave, strong and adequate, he will often put himself through a series of self-imposed tests and trials. No matter what the outcome, adequacy is never proven. Proof comes only through learning to accept oneself for what one is.
The fourth category of adjustment problems is rooted in the actual, traumatic combat experiences of the veterans. These experiences caused post-war adjustment problems, to some degree, in every combat veteran who served in Vietnam. True, many of the World War II veterans had this social readjustment problem when they returned home from the war, but not nearly to the degree we find it in the Vietnam veteran. The World War II veteran1s mission was clear; he also had tremendous support from his country. The Vietnam veteran had neither of these. More likely, he was belittled and made to feel like a criminal. He was alienated from a society that sent him to fight in a war it supported only halfheartedly. In my view, the noncommitted position of the United States has hurt more Vietnam veterans than all the physical and emotional wounds received in combat, at least tenfold. As the veteran perceived it, it was ultimate betrayal by his country.
Tom was an Army officer with the 101st Airborne Division in Vietnam. After being involved in college ROTC for four years and graduating in 1969, he was commissioned and sent to Vietnam. He felt pride in the military and strove to perform the best that he could in combat. Tom was wounded by a mortar round which severed his spinal cord, and he was paralyzed from the waist down. After he was discharged from the service, he found that he could not get a job in his field, finance, mainly due to his disability. He was told confidentially that customers coming into a bank for a loan did not want to deal with disabled people, especially one who was a Vietnam veteran. Tom was devastated. He had gone to Vietnam with the perception of protecting his society. Now he was permanently disabled - a consequence of his fighting for a society that now turned its back on him because his disability might remind them of the war. Tom gave up twenty years ago, lives solely on a government disability pension, and passes his days drinking.
The fifth category, that of the treatment strategies used for Vietnam veterans, has been a tremendous problem. The major reasons for this problem are: a) the wrong method of psychotherapeutic treatment and b) inadequate training of the counselor or therapist for the needs of the combat veteran.
By learning to see reality from the veteran's perspective, the healthcare professional can truly begin to help the veteran. It is critical to remember that each combat veteran is a unique individual with unique life experiences, and he must be treated as a unique person with unique problems. Otherwise, it is doubtful that the therapist will form a "therapeutic bridge" to work with the veteran. Once an authentic connection with the combat veteran?s unique, existential problems has begun, specific treatment modalities can be used as they are appropriate. While each healthcare professional has his/her own approach, he must consciously extend that approach to ameliorate the patient's existential situation. Each patient requires a unique, psychotherapeutic strategy--based on his needs, not the therapist's.
The sixth category of adjustment disorder stems from the general, political alienation of the veteran. By alienation, I mean to say that the veteran feels rejected and unsupported by the society he sought to support, denounced by both social and political systems in the United States. While this atmosphere was not meant to alienate Vietnam veterans, it did. Veterans went to Vietnam with at least the pseudo-support of their society, but they returned to ridicule and condemnation.
These six categories are the basis for the "limbo" state in which many Vietnam veterans find themselves. I seriously doubt if one can categorize a veteran's dilemma into just one of the specific categories. Rather, most post-war problems are combinations and permutations of all six categories, varying with the individual. and his life situation.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the Vietnam war and its effects on combat survivors has been devastating. However, this is their "thrown condition." It is important, then, not to focus on the "whys" of Vietnam but on the "hows" of growing and the process of assimilating the experience into the veteran's psyche. While the veteran has looked for the answer to his plight in healthcare professions, religions, work, philosophies, cultural practices and even in society, it will not be found there. Instead, it will be found in himself, as he moves toward being a whole person, feeling good about himself through self-acceptance, finding self-direction, and being responsible for his life and then toward expressing it in the wide community of his cultural life, while striving to contribute to his society.
of all our military campaigns, our Vietnam Vets were the most ir-revered and never received a thank you or a hero's welcome....God Bless our Vietnam Vets..
The Stuck Veteran
Many Vietnam veterans remain in an uncompleted initiation state; they are "stuck." There are a number of issues which keep them stuck:
1) difficulties in readjusting to civilian life;
2) differences between Vietnam veterans and veterans of other wars;
3) relationship of the Vietnam veteran 5 pre-combat dispositional factors to his adjustment problems after the war;
4) the combat ordeal producing post-war adjustment problems;
5) current psychological strategies for treating disturbed Vietnam veterans; and
6) the social and political alienation of Vietnam veterans.
A majority of Vietnam combat veterans have faced problems adjusting to civilian life, the first category mentioned. Upon their return to the United States, many veterans felt as though they were aliens on a strange planet. They were misfits, no longer in the military, but no longer able to "fit in" with their friends or to function smoothly in society. Even today, they are no more integrated into civilian life than they were twenty-five years ago. Many have had a string of unsuccessful marital relationships; many cannot get or hold meaningful jobs, while others drift from city to city, year after year trying to "get their heads on straight." Quite a few have tried to numb their pain by excessive use of alcohol and/or drugs. In the final analysis, they are stuck in a hellish limbo. They are filled with emotional pain and suffering accompanied by feelings of anguish, total despair, rejection, self-hate, and an almost unbearable guilt for their involvement in Vietnam.
The second category of stress the Vietnam veteran experiences is based in the fundamental difference between him and veterans of other wars. The Vietnam veteran did not win the war and has been reminded of this repeatedly by both World War II and Korean veterans, as well as Desert Storm veterans. The shame Vietnam veterans experience over this loss has caused them to repress many aspects of the war; this has prevented them from being able to work through it psychologically.
For Pete, a former Army infantry officer, his life sums this up well. Pete's father was a highly decorated B-17 bomber pilot during World War II. Two of his brothers were killed in action, one in Iwo Jima and the other in France. Pete had to follow in those footsteps in Vietnam. When he came back, however, he just could not face his father. Pete felt as though he had let both his father and his country down by losing the war. When Pete and his father went to the local VFW post for a couple of drinks, not a word was spoken about Vietnam. Yet Pete could see the frustration in his father?s eyes. Pete thought all his efforts had been for naught. As Pete put it, "How could I face anyone? I participated in a war we lost."
How could the United States have won the Vietnam war? The military's hands were tied. Many United States politicians expected Hanoi's submission. In reality, we had to fight a tough, determined, and resistant opponent--the North Vietnamese soldier. We as a country just could not make a commitment to fight a war with little apparent purpose. We had a very powerful military, but we had no solid political and social support to back it. For political reasons, we could not just leave Vietnam. So infantrymen were essentially offered as a sacrifice, to buy a just retreat. This situation was not satisfactory to previous veterans. They could not understand how Vietnam was different from World War II.
The third category concerns psychological factors common to "stuck" veterans which significantly contributes to stress and adjustment. While not all Vietnam veterans were psychologically predisposed to adjustment difficulties, a number of those who are "stuck," who failed to make the return, are. Many volunteers were "running from themselves" by joining the military. They felt that going to Vietnam would somehow "straighten" them out. A very common perception among Marine Corps volunteers was that the Marine Corps could take you, an inadequate "boy," and mal(e you a "man." In fact, the recruitment slogan used was "The Marine Corps builds men." Since these men already felt inadequate and lacked self-confidence and self-direction, they were predisposed to psychological adjustment disorders. The burdens of the war were hard for them to bear; the social approval they had striven for turned out to be social rejection.
Roger, an Army helicopter gunner, stated that he joined the Army because it would make him a man. People would respect him then. He worked hard in boot camp, doing well in marksmanship, physical endurance, and combat sl4lls. In Vietnam, he worked hard at his mission: killing Vietnamese. Yet, upon his return to the United States, he found that instead of more respect from his peers, he now had less. Deeply troubled, he ultimately went into psychotherapy, only to discover that his problems were not solely Vietnam-caused. He found that he felt inadequate as a person many years before going into the military. For Roger, the military service was a way for him to compensate for feeling "weak" - an objective like that of Teddy Roosevelt, who joined the "Rough Riders" to compensate for his poor health and poor eyesight.
I think most who volunteered for the military share Roger's situation. We, too, felt a sense of inadequacy in ourselves. We needed a boost to our egos that we felt the military would provide. However, the military did not compensate for our feelings of inadequacy. When one needs to prove to himself that he is brave, strong and adequate, he will often put himself through a series of self-imposed tests and trials. No matter what the outcome, adequacy is never proven. Proof comes only through learning to accept oneself for what one is.
The fourth category of adjustment problems is rooted in the actual, traumatic combat experiences of the veterans. These experiences caused post-war adjustment problems, to some degree, in every combat veteran who served in Vietnam. True, many of the World War II veterans had this social readjustment problem when they returned home from the war, but not nearly to the degree we find it in the Vietnam veteran. The World War II veteran1s mission was clear; he also had tremendous support from his country. The Vietnam veteran had neither of these. More likely, he was belittled and made to feel like a criminal. He was alienated from a society that sent him to fight in a war it supported only halfheartedly. In my view, the noncommitted position of the United States has hurt more Vietnam veterans than all the physical and emotional wounds received in combat, at least tenfold. As the veteran perceived it, it was ultimate betrayal by his country.
Tom was an Army officer with the 101st Airborne Division in Vietnam. After being involved in college ROTC for four years and graduating in 1969, he was commissioned and sent to Vietnam. He felt pride in the military and strove to perform the best that he could in combat. Tom was wounded by a mortar round which severed his spinal cord, and he was paralyzed from the waist down. After he was discharged from the service, he found that he could not get a job in his field, finance, mainly due to his disability. He was told confidentially that customers coming into a bank for a loan did not want to deal with disabled people, especially one who was a Vietnam veteran. Tom was devastated. He had gone to Vietnam with the perception of protecting his society. Now he was permanently disabled - a consequence of his fighting for a society that now turned its back on him because his disability might remind them of the war. Tom gave up twenty years ago, lives solely on a government disability pension, and passes his days drinking.
The fifth category, that of the treatment strategies used for Vietnam veterans, has been a tremendous problem. The major reasons for this problem are: a) the wrong method of psychotherapeutic treatment and b) inadequate training of the counselor or therapist for the needs of the combat veteran.
By learning to see reality from the veteran's perspective, the healthcare professional can truly begin to help the veteran. It is critical to remember that each combat veteran is a unique individual with unique life experiences, and he must be treated as a unique person with unique problems. Otherwise, it is doubtful that the therapist will form a "therapeutic bridge" to work with the veteran. Once an authentic connection with the combat veteran?s unique, existential problems has begun, specific treatment modalities can be used as they are appropriate. While each healthcare professional has his/her own approach, he must consciously extend that approach to ameliorate the patient's existential situation. Each patient requires a unique, psychotherapeutic strategy--based on his needs, not the therapist's.
The sixth category of adjustment disorder stems from the general, political alienation of the veteran. By alienation, I mean to say that the veteran feels rejected and unsupported by the society he sought to support, denounced by both social and political systems in the United States. While this atmosphere was not meant to alienate Vietnam veterans, it did. Veterans went to Vietnam with at least the pseudo-support of their society, but they returned to ridicule and condemnation.
These six categories are the basis for the "limbo" state in which many Vietnam veterans find themselves. I seriously doubt if one can categorize a veteran's dilemma into just one of the specific categories. Rather, most post-war problems are combinations and permutations of all six categories, varying with the individual. and his life situation.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the Vietnam war and its effects on combat survivors has been devastating. However, this is their "thrown condition." It is important, then, not to focus on the "whys" of Vietnam but on the "hows" of growing and the process of assimilating the experience into the veteran's psyche. While the veteran has looked for the answer to his plight in healthcare professions, religions, work, philosophies, cultural practices and even in society, it will not be found there. Instead, it will be found in himself, as he moves toward being a whole person, feeling good about himself through self-acceptance, finding self-direction, and being responsible for his life and then toward expressing it in the wide community of his cultural life, while striving to contribute to his society.
