write in and tell of it. He received more than a thousand letters in response, collected in his book,
A typical account is that of Douglas Detmer:
I was spat upon in the San Francisco airport…. The man who spat on me ran up to me from my left rear, spat, and turned to face me. The spittle hit me on my left shoulder and on my few military decorations above my left breast pockets. He then shouted at me that I was a “mother f***ing murderer.” I was quite shocked and just stared at him….
That combat veterans returning from months of warfare should accept such acts without violence is an indication of their emotional state. They were euphoric over finally returning home alive; many were exhausted after days of travel, shell-shocked, confused, dehydrated, and emaciated from months in the bush, in culture shock after months in an alien land, under orders not to do anything to “disgrace the uniform,” and deeply worried about missing flights. Isolated and alone, the returning veterans in this condition were sought out and humiliated by war protesters who had learned from experience of the vulnerability of these men.
The accusations of their tormentors always revolved around the act of killing. When those who had in any way participated in killing activities were called baby killers and murderers, the result was often deep traumatization and scarring as a result of the hostile and accusing “homecoming” from the nation for which they had suffered and sacrificed. And this was the only homecoming they were to receive. At worst: open hostility and spittle. Or at best, as one put it in his letter to Greene, an “indifference that verged on insouciance.”
At some level every psychologically healthy human being who has engaged in or supported killing activities believes that his action was “wrong” and “bad,” and he must spend years rationalizing and accepting his actions. Many of the veterans who wrote to Greene stated that their letter to him was the first time they had
In the Vietnam veterans manifesting PTSD (and probably in many who don’t exhibit PTSD symptoms) the rationalization and acceptance process appears to have failed and is replaced with denial. The typical veteran of past wars, when asked “Did it bother you?” would answer, as a veteran did to Havighurst after World War II, “Hell yes…. You can’t go through that without being influenced.” The Vietnam veteran’s defensive response to a nation accusing him of being a baby killer and murderer is consistently, as it was to Mantell and has been so many times to me, “No, it never really bothered me…. You get used to it.” This defensive repression and denial of emotions appear to have been one of the major causes of post-traumatic stress disorder.
An Agony of Many Blows
American veterans of past wars have encountered all of these factors at one time or another, but never in American history has the combination of psychological blows inflicted upon a group of returning warriors been so intense. The soldiers of the Confederacy lost their war, but upon their return they were generally greeted and supported warmly by those for whom they had fought. Korean War veterans had no memorials and precious few parades, but they fought an invading army, not an insurgency, and they left behind them the free, healthy, thriving, and grateful nation of South Korea as their legacy. No one spat on them or called them murderers or baby killers when they returned. Only the veterans of Vietnam have endured a concerted, organized, psychological attack by their own people. Douglas Detmer shows remarkable insight into the organization and scope of this attack:
Opponents of the war used every means available to them to make the war effort ineffective. This was partially accomplished by usurping many of the traditional symbols of war and claiming them as their own. Among these were the two-fingered V-for-victory sign, which was claimed as a peace symbol; headlights on Memorial Day used as a call for ending the war, rather than denoting the memory of a lost loved one; utilizing old uniforms as anti-war attire, instead of proud symbols of prior service; legitimate deeds of valor denounced as bully-like acts of murder; and the welcome-home parade replaced with what I experienced.
Never in American history, perhaps never in all the history of Western civilization, has an army suffered such an agony of many blows from its own people. And today we reap the legacy of those blows.
CHAPTER THREE
The Legacy of Vietnam: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Before a presentation to the leadership of New York’s Jewish War Veterans, in a grand old hotel up in the Catskills, over a bowl of borscht, I met Claire, a woman who knew the meaning of PTSD. She had been a nurse in Burma during World War II and had seen more human suffering than any person should. It had never really bothered her, but when the Gulf War started, she began to have nightmares. Nightmares of an endless stream of torn and mangled bodies. She was suffering from PTSD. A mild case, but PTSD nonetheless.
After another presentation in New York, a veteran’s wife asked me to talk with her and her husband. At Anzio he had won the Distinguished Service Cross, our nation’s second-highest award for valor, and he continued to fight throughout World War II. Five years ago he retired. Now all he will do is sit around the house and watch war movies, and he is obsessed with the idea that he is a coward. He is suffering from PTSD.
Post-traumatic stress disorder has always been with us, but the long delay time and the erratic nature of its occurrence has made us like the ancient Celts who did not understand the link between sex and pregnancy.
What Is PTSD?
Vietnam was an American nightmare that hasn’t yet ended for veterans of the war. In the rush to forget the debacle that became our longest war, America found it necessary to conjure up a scapegoat and transferred the heavy burden of blame onto the shoulders of the Vietnam veteran. It’s been a crushing weight for them to carry. Rejected by the nation that sent them off to war, the veterans have been plagued with guilt and resentment which has created an identity crisis unknown to veterans of previous wars.
Post-traumatic stress disorder is described by the American Psychological Association’s
