Veterans'+Emotional+Pain



After the Vietnam War, veterans returned as changed individuals. They had witnessed the disturbing atrocities of battle and likely knew someone that was killed or badly wounded, if they had not been themselves. They were undoubtedly under large amounts of psychological stress and had been emotionally strained for months on end. They were homesick; they were physically exhausted. Most importantly, they were more than ready to come home. The warm welcome they expected, however, would never come. Upon their return, soldiers were negatively received. Many people stereotyped all soldiers as cruel and inhumane men that carried out atrocities like the burning of villages and the raping of women and children in My Lai. The media made the public feel personally connected to American warfare, and thusly judged them based on the images they saw. What they didn't know, though, was that most of the horrific actions were extreme cases, and that not every veteran deserved to be treated like a criminal. War protesters blamed soldiers, rather than policy makers, for the unsuccessful war and subsequently met their arrival with resentment and anger. As veteran Rick Rogers wrote, “Coming back to the world was a b! Years of foul accusations, stereotyping, lack of respect and not being accepted back into the mainstream of society. However, I dealt with it by using something I had learned in Vietnam. I just turned on the ol ‘f*** it’ attitude” (Palmer 212). The mental stress that came from bottling up their emotions was enough to cause severe psychological disorders for the veterans. Author of the book The Sorrow of War, Bao Ninh explains how the sufferings of the war were mostly emotional. ""The Vietnam War left a serious aftermath, especially for those who were injured without bullets" (Keenan). Soldiers shared a bond by having mutual (and mostly negative) experiences. As Robert Shockley wrote to his late friend in a letter left at the Vietnam Veterans War Memorial, he explains the pain he suffers as a veteran: “The day after you got it-I was hit in both legs and the back. Just my luck, I got the special ticket home and spent 3 years having operations and all that other sh** that ‘recovery’ means. I miss our talks Billy- sometimes I get scared and no one understands how I feel. I guess only those who were there know the fear and pain that is felt” (Palmer 213). The stress that veterans felt and still feel today is one of the most unfortunate legacies of the war.