Mental Effects Of Vietnam War On Soldiers Research Paper

Mental Effects Of Vietnam War On Soldiers - Research Paper Example Following the end of the war the Americans lost 58000 lives and almost 350,000 were seriously injured. After the end of the war when the Americans returned home majority of them did not either want to talk about the war or they were so much frightened by the devastations of the war that they remained stunned and silent. The only war which the United States lost was this. An essence of moral degeneration also played very strong in the minds of the Americans. The dangerous guerilla warfare was adopted by the Vietnamese and the U.S. succumbed under their tactics of warfare ending up being confused and losing their lives or being tremendously injured. Continuous war fought by them and barrage of continuous gun firing and ‘shell shock’ jeopardized the mental state of the U.S. soldiers as they were traumatized. They were seriously affected by mental disorders like depression, hallucinations suicidal tendencies, conflict in marriage relations etc. Mental shock among the soldier s also came from the pessimistic behavior of the country. They were treated as second class citizens and were cursed and sometimes recognized as ‘baby killers’. Discriminations were faced by them in unemployment scenario also. They were devoid of grants and pensions and proper healthcare. So the paper focuses on the description of the mental disorders faced by the Vietnam veterans like shell shock, combat exposure and mental disorders occurring from spraying herbicides like Agent Orange, effects on family satisfaction and functioning, treatment of the soldiers from the country and in the VA hospitals (Sitikoff). Research focus The research question addressed in this paper is what are the effects of Vietnam War on the mental state of the soldiers and what are its implications? The topic has been selected in order to examine the factors which led to the psychological disorders among the Vietnam War veterans. The justification behind the selection of this topic is to analy ze the kinds of mental constraints faced by these soldiers and also the reason why these brave heroes succumbed to mental disorders despite being a part of this prolonged warfare. Literature review The states of mental disorders prevalent among the soldiers are invasive memories, major depression, night mares and loss of concentration (Cromie). A reevaluated study of National Vietnam Veterans Readjustments Study (NVVRS) states that war related PTSD which was developed among the men during their lifetime was 18.7%. A study by the Centers for Disease Control found that Vietnam veterans suffering from psychological problems were approximately twice as compared to the military veterans of the other countries like Vietnam and Australia (Aneli and Hendrix, 87). Research Methods A study about the different types of mental challenges faced by the soldiers has been described in this paper. Firstly a backdrop of the war and an account of overall psychological torment and deprivations of the V ietnam War veterans is provided and then in a synchronized manner the paper concentrates on seeking answer to the research question. For analyzing the different aspects of the mental disorders faced by the Vietnam Veterans qualitative analysis have been adopted from secondary sources like journals and authentic books. The focus of the study is on issues like ‘Shell Shock’ (Wood), mental problems suffered from spraying toxic herbicides like Agent Orange for clearing the forests (Singer and Hodge). A major focus has been entailed on the comparative analysis between the Vietnamese soldiers and the American soldiers who fought the Vietnam War in order to