Vietnam War overview
The two parties that were involved in the war can be mainly divided into two groups. First was the group of the anti communist forces which included the United States of America, The Republic of Vietnam, Australia, New Zealand and South Korea. On the other hand the other group can be called the communist forces and they comprised of with the coalition of Democratic republic of Vietnam, also known as North Vietnam, National Liberation Front which was a communist led guerilla movement. This guerilla movement was supported by the USSR both military and to some extent financially, but they themselves never got involved in the conflict.
From an American point of view the Vietnam War is not considered a very wise move from the state authorities at that time. For over fifteen years it became a daily part of life for most of the Americans, even though there is no proper consensus on the justification which has been given to support this act, its purpose and the results derived from this activity.
Some of the experts believe that the Vietnam War was a national policy blunder and a big failure of the part of the policy makers. As a result of this blunder there was a very heavy price which was paid by the Americans and the cost included 58000 Americans losing their lives and billions of tax dollars (Schroeder).
If we closely analyze the situation that time it would become quite evident that the war started out very benevolently, when the American advisors were sent to help the South Vietnamese. The primary objective of this was to give passage to the South Vietnamese army to resist the aggression which was caused from the north. Apart from that another purpose was to safeguard their sovereignty as a democratic nation.
As we have already stated that the war was fought for around fifteen years and during this time several American administrations changed. The role and influence of America in Vietnam also expanded until the war became an American lead financial conflict. At the early stages American was just a helping hand in the war but with the passage of time they became the most important stakeholder of the whole crisis. American troops were leading the coalition army and the size of the troops kept on increasing. Besides the land troops a massive air war was also started in order to eradicate the escalating resupply and enforcements of the North Vietnamese division in the South.
Besides America, the South Vietnamese received financial aid from a host of different nations. These included Thailand, South Korea, Philippines, and Australia from where the bulk of the manpower was received bus still the war was predominantly and American aggression shown.
As we have mentioned above that the war divided the American society into bits and pieces and soon after American involvement increased in the region protest and riots exploded around the country.
The implications of these riots and protests were quiet fruitful and soon the American government realized that this conflict seems endless and as a matter of fact they come into negotiations with the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese. The negotiations between both the parties were held in Paris and as talks were going the American combat strategy changed and soon it converted from an offensive battle into a defensive operation. The Americans had to do this as to show good faith and gesture but this strategic change had an adverse effect on the ground. The morale of the troops went low and the on ground situation became worse.
In the early 1970s another peace agreement was reached, the Americans were badly stuck in this crisis as the war was costing them very heavily. The American congress wanted to get rid of this cancer which was expanding with time. As a matter of fact the logistical aid was gradually pulled away from the South Vietnamese. After this development the North Vietnamese had a good chance of regaining ground and so they did. Many sections of the agreement were overlooked and they overran the remaining areas which were controlled by the South Vietnamese.
The year 1975 proved out to be decisive for this war as Saigon which is the capital of South Vietnamese fell and the accomplishment of the job of North over South was complete. Soon after that a large number of refugees arrived among which the Americans took many of them. The war was ended but the wound that were caused by this far can still be found also the pain and confusion from this misinterpreted war remain till day (Schroeder).
Drug use among U.S forces in Vietnam
The use of drug among American soldiers is not a new case, in the year 1898 the American forces acquired control of Philippines to suppress the guerilla uprisings and this was the first time when the American soldiers learned to smoke opium. The drug addiction between the American soldiers was escalating at a very high pace, so and so that in the year 1903 a meeting was called by the American pharmaceutical association to find the reason behind it. This drug addiction did not left the American soldiers and the next time when they entered Vietnam for a similar kind of an operation the drug use became epidemic. According to the author The single most important cause of the transformation was the decline in iatrogenic opiate addiction (Courtwright 110).
This time the drug of which the American became addicted was marijuana. Before the arrival of the American forces marijuana was very much present in Vietnam. Experts believe that the reason why the American became so much addictive of this drug is because in that part of the world drug was not very well defined and the punishment of using drug was not given much priority in their criminal justice. The government had little influence over the proliferation of marijuana which made it very easily accessible. A survey which was conducted in 1966 showed that at that point of time only in Saigon there were 29 outlets where marijuana was easily available (Prugh).
The American soldiers started using marijuana even before the war broke through as early as 1963 which was the advisory period. As we have said earlier that the marijuana was very easily available and one instance which can be quoted here just to have an idea that how much common this drug was in Vietnam can be known from that fact that some of the U.S marines were able to get this from street sellers as they used to pass through the urban areas of the country.
One thing which is of upmost importance here is that according to the American army code of conduct the use of drug was a court martial offense and a minor trace of marijuana was considered as a criminal offense. Another issue which affected the trial was the lack of crime laboratory in Vietnam and this haunted the process of punishment for the marijuana offenders. In the year 1968 crime laboratory was being placed in Vietnam which soothed the process to some extent. In the same year marijuana detecting dogs were also being brought in to search for marijuana among the soldiers (Solis). The use of drug became so much popular among the marines that in 1969 a drug treatment centre was established for the rehabilitation of the drug users of the infantry regiment.
Before 1968 the use of marijuana was not considered as a very big crime but with the increasing number of marijuana addicts things started to became very complicated for the American high officials. Stories became publicize that described the on ground situation of the soldiers and due to which the higher officials of the U.S army had to tag it as a problem which needed immediate consideration. After much thought and discussions a comprehensive program was designed to eliminate the use of this particular drug. To make this program more effective a widespread campaign was started in which media was also taken on board. The armed forces radio and television were used to announce the danger of marijuana consumption and other drug awareness lectures became compulsory for the soldiers. The quarters where the troops use to stay were checked, physicians and other legal officers use to advice the soldiers about the hazards associated with the use of marijuana. They use to tell that the use of marijuana would not only damage them psychologically but it would also have an adverse effect on the people dependent on them.
Besides the education of the soldiers another step which was taken by the American higher officials to get rid of this issue was that they pressurize the Vietnamese government to ban the sale and use of marijuana. Local authorities were ordered to prohibit its cultivation and the issue didnt stop here aircrafts were used to locate marijuana fields and after the confirmation of the location troops were sent there to destroy those crops.
The problem didnt end here besides marijuana numerous other drugs were also available to the U.S soldiers these drugs included opium that cost around 1 while morphine went for 5 per vial. Apart from these drugs addictive tablets of Binoctal which consisted of Amytal and Seconal were also consumed by the U.S forces. These tablets were very easily available from any of the Vietnamese pharmacy store. By the end of 1970 heroin also came into market, the soldiers used to pour heroin into the cigarette after which it was smoked. Eventually the U.S marines got rid of marijuana but it was replaced by heroin that made the condition even worse.
In the spring of 1971 two congress men presented a report which claimed that 15 percent of the U.S servicemen in Vietnam are addicted to heroin. As we have discussed before that the U.S officials were terrified with this situation and to cope up with this problem several technique were used including military discipline and amnesty. But these procedures didnt work up to what was expected as the soldiers had become serious heroin addicts (Robins).
While trying to investigate the reason why the use of drug was ever increasing one thing that came under notice was peer pressure. Soldiers in Vietnam used to take marijuana and other drugs and even those who would not do his back home were also indulged into these activity. Also when young soldiers used to come to a strange land with potential enemies around them then they were most likely to be influenced by their senior officers who preceded them to Vietnam.
Affect of Vietnam
The affect of the Vietnam War was badly faced by the American government both on the political side as well as at the societal side. The mounting price tag which was accumulated with the war slowed the pace of the American economy. This economic unrest became the centre of attention for most of the leaders of that time and nationwide protest started. Many of the critical people of that time started to raise their concerns over the war and labeled the American aggression as a waste of American lives and mishandling of American resources and money. According to them the billions of dollars that were put into fire by this American militancy could be used in a better way by providing the needy American citizens a better standard of living. According to the author The controversial defeat in Vietnam caused a painful, national catharsis in American Society, which represented a sea change in American cultural history (Wiest 88).
As we have discussed earlier that the Vietnam War divided the American society and one aspect of this division came into existence when some of the African-American leaders viewed this war in racial terms. Their main concern was that why the majority of men fighting in Vietnam were black. Just to have an idea that how much division was caused by this war can be judged from the event that took place in the year 1967 when Muhammad Ali the greatest boxer that the world have ever witnessed refused to serve for the American army. Ali willingly speak out against racism in America and his exact words are like this
I aint got no quarrel with the Vietcong no Vietcong Ever Called Me Nigger. No, I am not going 10,000 miles to help murder kill and burn other people to simply help continue the domination of white slave masters over dark people the world over. This is the day and age when such evil injustice must come to an end (Jackson 176).
This was just a sentiment of one person that was caught in the limelight, but at that time many people had similar kind of emotions attached with the Vietnam War regardless of their color and race.
A rejected armys on ground situation
The American army that fought in Vietnam was one of its kinds, so the question arises that what happened to such a prolific force. The answer to this question is that the social unrest caused the upheaval which directly affected the soldiers. By the end of 1970 the American soldiers were very well aware of the situation back home that their nation had abandoned them and the country have decided to withdraw from the conflict. The feeling of dejection and misery were increasing in the soldiers as they understood that they are being asked to fight a war which most people avoided many people hated and that the country has no intention of winning. With this situation the morale of the soldiers were plummeted and the mindset of most of the soldiers on ground changed as they had no will in sacrificing their lives for a lost war. The approach now was just to defend and survive one year and return home. Most of the units began to disrupt orders and started to practice the search and evade tactics which were formulated to minimize contact with the enemy (Wiest).
Because of the devastated result of the war many of the soldiers made their mind to quit army and make a career out of forces, and because of that some officers ordered their junior officers to do their duty. Adding up to the misery of the Americans was the issue of fragging in which soldiers killed their own officers and in the year 1970 the number of such cased rose to 209.
All these events which we have discussed earlier clearly indicate that there was a great amount of depression from which the soldiers were going through and this became one of the reason they started using drugs. When the forces were leaving Vietnam a poll was conducted that showed a mind boggling figure of 60 of the enlisted men that used marijuana and around 35000 soldiers became serious heroin addicts during their stay in Vietnam (Wiest).
The other side of the picture was even more treacherous when these discontented Vietnam veterans returned home they openly spoke against the war while many of the soldiers rejected to receive their medals which they had won in Vietnam at the same time many termed the war as the biggest nothing in the history. Many soldier posed the question that how do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake The protests against the war was increasing day by day and according to a poll 58 of the Americans considered this as morally wrong while only 29 disagreed (Lawrence).
The personal life of these drug addicted soldiers proved out to be more difficult. As the U.S was trying to resolve the war conflict in Vietnam, forces were withdrawing from the region. About 1,000 men were sent back home each day and most of them were being discharged soon after they reached home. This meant that hundreds of heroin drug attics were present in the American society that time. This really caused a huge concern for the authorities and a rapid policy change was made. According to the new policy the drug addicted soldiers were given proper treatment rather than leaving them with court martial.
PTSD the inner war
There were seven major factors that were associated with the Vietnam veterans these PTSD factors include
Depression and suicidal syndrome
Isolation and withdrawal
Consciousness
Mistrustfulness
Anesthetized
Pessimism and skeptical
Lack of intimacy
A study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine which found that the tendency of committing suicide were twice found in men that served in Vietnam as compared to those who did not served there. Experts believe that the reason of such high rate of suicidal attempts were because the soldiers were unable to find a proper satisfying answer to the question that why they fought in Vietnam. In the veterans min there is no resolution to the conflict in Vietnam, plus they were also they were lacking the proper support from their home which made their live even worse. Because of all this a feeling of helplessness and depression was created. Then the veteran also became isolated they were not interested in meeting with other people rather than they prefer to live alone (Cruz). Another research which was conducted on the veterans behavior after they reached home showed that because of their experiences in Vietnam 20 of all Vietnam veterans have failed to adjust into civilian life. Apart from that there is a great amount of mistrust which was found in the veterans. Primarily the mistrust is towards the authorities and the government which for no reason sent them there and secondly the mistrust in the society which rejected them. This also leads the veteran towards getting numb no feeling what so ever. Similarly as the nature of the war was guerilla war fare in which the veterans were subjected in killing women and children so they find it difficult to make the transaction to the role of a husband and parent (Cruz).
Stress has always been a synonymous with soldiers that involve in wars or conflicts. The events that take place on the combat places have a tremendous psychological strain upon an individual. Critics have always said that much more severe conditions were experienced by those who took part in the Second World War or in the Korean War so how can the Vietnam veterans be different from them (Tull). The answer to this is that the uniqueness of Vietnam War is that it was not a declared war, it was never declared as war plus the soldiers that were sent in Vietnam were relatively young and not much experienced thus they didnt have any experience of such kind prior of being sent here.
Also those who fought in other major wars were used to undergo a total of 60 days in combat like condition and as compared to them an infantryman in Vietnam spend 300 days in war like conditions. Even though the logistics, medical services and rest places were far better than the World War II but the primary reason which was identified for this post traumatic stress disorder was because the lengthy time that the soldiers spent in war infected areas (Scott). A comparison was made of the Vietnam veterans and the veterans of other major wars and the results that were derived are as follows.
As it was never declared as war, civilians and enemies were impossible to differentiate.
As it was guerilla warfare there was no continuity to it and continuously changing strategy damaged the war plan.
Several chemical compounded sprays were used against the soldiers, which proved out to be very harmful.
As there was no clear message that why the war is being fought many of the soldiers doubted why they were sent to Vietnam.
Lack of patriotism
The soldiers were not received warmly by the society when they returned back home
The average age of a Vietnam veteran was 20 years as compared to the veteran of World War II which was 26.
In a nutshell it could be said that the Vietnam War veterans experienced numerous phases of PTSD these included difficulty in feeling strong emotion, particularly love, feeling of guilty and the ability to move into society. Apart from that one of the soldiers who fought in the war told that he use to face extreme emotional outbursts, horrible rise in the temper, becoming nervous, bad dreams and flashbacks of the events of war were some common experiences that he faced in the life after war All these combined to make life miserable for the veterans and to continue their lives as a civilian citizen of U.S (Habelow).
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