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The Vietnam War’s legacy as a prolonged and gruesome conflict changed the lives of many individuals involved. Post-war impacts varied from the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, the People’s Army of Vietnam, the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam, as well as the United States forces. The matter of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) became an issue that American Vietnam War Veterans and the rest of the United States soon had to grapple with after the end of the war when soldiers returned home still carrying the weight of war.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) PTSD is a mental illness that can affect anybody. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the illness arises from the lived experience of a traumatic and largely impactful event such as a natural disaster, a car accident, or war, such as in the case of Vietnam Veterans. One can also develop PTSD by witnessing a terrible event. PTSD development varies from soon after a traumatic event to much later. There are a multitude of symptoms for this illness that include but are not limited to: flashbacks, bad dreams, prolonged states of feeling sad or alone, outbursts of anger, and thoughts of hurting yourself or others.

Military personnel are among the groups most prone to being diagnosed with PTSD, according to Longo et. al. Specifically, deployed military personnel typically experience PTSD in the form of a delayed expression in which the illness takes significant time to develop and affect the individual (Longo et. al, 2017). According to Charles Marmar, director of The Steven & Alexandra Cohen Veterans Center at the NYU Langone Medical Center, “Roughly 11 percent of Vietnam veterans, over a 40-year period, continue to suffer from clinically important PTSD symptoms, either having the full diagnosis or very strong features of the diagnosis that interfere with function.”

How soldiers developed PTSD The chaos and killing of the war stuck with those involved. Vermetten et. al cited a study in their article “PTSD and Vietnam Veterans” of 100 treatment-seeking veterans. This study found that 41% of them had documented “combat exposure” as their reason for seeking PTSD treatment (Vermetten et. al). Roy R. is a Vietnam Veteran who has struggled with PTSD and its side effects for 30 years. Roy was a combat engineer, not in infantry, but was still in a position susceptible to witnessing and encountering bloodshed. Roy said, “There weren’t any frontlines in Vietnam. If you were there, you were in it. Everyone had the opportunity to get killed. Rockets were regularly coming down on our heads, and we were constantly under fire.” Roy left Vietnam in 1969, though the war would come to never leave him as he found out upon return to the United States (Veteran’s Inc.). Like Roy’s experience, acts of war witnessed or performed by American soldiers were at the root of the PTSD diagnosis as these terrors stuck. Vietnam was filled with situations and environments that stuck with an individual for the sheer horror of guilt of committing or witnessing an unspeakable act. Herbert Carter’s testimony of the My Lai Massacre provides significant insight into the events that caused so many veterans trauma. Most of the events that Carter describes in his testimony are that of instances when his infantry troop was forced or willing to kill groups of civilians. Carter explained that during one of their missions, commanders in his platoon would order the killing of civilians as they went through My Lai. He said, “There was no reason for this killing. These were mainly women and children and a few old men. They weren’t trying to escape or attack or anything. It was murder.” Gruesome scenes, bombings, and killings are all things that have settled into PTSD among American troop members.

Impacts Effects of PTSD on Vietnam Veterans can be severely detrimental to their long term health. In many cases, a ripple effect occurs. PTSD can be a catalyst for issues with mood, anxiety, or substance abuse issues. According to Longo et. al, such effects occur is more than 50 percent of all diagnosed PTSD cases. When it comes to major depressive disorder specifically, more than one-third of the veterans with PTSD suffer (Handwerk, 2015). Homelessness is another serious effect that has plagued veterans suffering from PTSD. Since many veterans did not seek treatment for their experiences at war resulting in their PTSD, they struggled to readjust to everyday life. Maintaining jobs, family, and economic stability become an obstacle too hard to overcome. This all contributes to their vulnerable status at becoming homeless. In total, the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs estimates that nearly 40,000 veterans are homeless (Morin, 2019).

Moving back to the case of Vietnam Veteran Roy, his life became severely impacted by his PTSD and was forced to leave his job. Upon leaving, Roy moved to Massachusetts where he developed severe agoraphobia, a disorder that creates extreme fear and avoidance of environments that could evoke panic. Roy also became an alcoholic and suicidal. When he began to reach the point of committing suicide, he reached out for help (Veteran’s Inc.). Therapy and its increased effectiveness has been another effect of PTSD post-Vietnam. There was an increasingly high demand for better treatment upon soldiers’ arrival home. By the 1980’s the symptoms of PTSD that veterans experienced surmounted into the urgency for help and counseling. Dr. Arthur S. Blank Jr., the director of Vietnam Veteran Counseling Centers, said that in the mid 1980’s, their counseling center was receiving 6,300 cases a month of Vietnam Veterans suffering from PTSD and searching for help (Lyons, 1984). During the 1980’s when PTSD was first being addressed, psychiatrists used therapy, group therapy and drugs to treat individuals. John Russell Smith, director of the newly opened National Veterans Administration Stress Center in Cleveland, said that publicity surrounding veterans' battle with PTSD has increased attention and funding given to programs that provide counseling and other resources. Smith concludes that, “Vietnam veterans are less likely to be seen as crazy, out- of-control time bombs, and this enhances the probability that veterans will seek treatment, and benefit from it” (Lyons, 1984).