11/17/1982 BOARD OF SELECTMEN Minutes

Home Browse Search

(3) • country on individual assignments to units-- they usually did not start or complete their duty with a unit, especially as our escala- tion progressed. Jim Goodwin, a pyschologist who has studied the re- adjustment problems of Vietnam veterans, remarks that soldiers' Vietnam tours "were solitary, individual experiences." No continuity existed in a unit, as experienced soldiers left and were replaced by inexperienced soldiers, and this meant that unit morale, cohesion, and identity were low. The integrity of the unit in past wars acted as a therapeutic buffer against combat stress, but in Vietnam it did not always meet this purpose, denying the soldier a crucial coping mechanism. Fighting a basically guerilla war, too, hindered the soldier's adjustment to combat conditions. Territory wasn't won or lost in the traditional manner, while the entire Vietnamese population was a potential enemy. The people that the soldier, sailor, and aviator were risking their lives for day after day might kill him at any time. The return to the United States also was not a stabilizing experience for the veteran. For many vets a fantasy auora developed around their departure date: all problems would disappear when they again were at home and away from Vietnam. This expectation was unreal, of course, and also was dampened by two other factors. Few vets received adequate deprograming from their war experience-- on Monday they were in a • battle zone, on Thursday they were alone on the West Coast after a solitary departure from Vietnam, Secondly, the vet's reception back home was poor-- they were ignored or scourned, missing was the respect for them that they had earned. The American G.I. had fought an unpop- ular war, one without sound ideological underpinnings, one that often made them question their purpose for being in Vietnam. The vet had to wonder, "why was I there?" Acceptable reasons for his sacrifices were lacking for the returned vet as he considered his time in Indo- china. All these troubles thusfar mentioned, unfortunately, were bourne by young Americans. Most U.S. soldiers were teenagers, youth forced to deal with intense fear, stress, and violence. In World War II many combatants had been well into their twenties. The young Vietnam vet was forced to face too much, way too much. He knew the horror of violent battle; he wasn' t accepted on his return to his country; and he had aged beyond his years by the time he had returned. He was alone after his tour in Vietnam ended, as his family and friends could never understand what he had been through. A backlash from the war experience was thus inevitable. The Vietnam vet, unlike World War I and World War II vets, displayed. his greatest combat stress symptoms after leaving the war area, as said above. The clinical diagnosis for the after-combat difficulties that most often have afflicted Vietnam veterans is Post-Traumatic Stress Dis-