future of, 246
guilt and remorse of, 79, 109-10, 112
health worries of, 88-89
hostility toward women by, 65, 67, 68, 70, 73, 74, 136
information resources for, 261-62
job histories of, 56-59
marriages of,see marriages, of veterans
meaning of home to, 245-46
officers remembered by, 167
persistence of survival adaptations in, 40
political left’s treatment of, 249
political right’s treatment of, 249
postwar losses of, 84-85
pre-military trauma of, 142, 144
psychological injuries of, 1-2
recovery from psychological injuries of, 4, 5
safety needed by, 245
secondary traumatization of, 83
self-image of, 83
stereotype of, 34, 103
substance abuse of, 36
suppression of emotions by, 39, 137
treatment of,see treatment
troubled consciences of, 83
trust destroyed in, xv, 4, 64
truth as obsession of, 87-88, 95
value and respect needed by, 245-46
and World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks, 253
Vietnam veterans, case studies of:
Doc, drug abuse and death of, 93-95
Farmer, perfectionism of, 58, 90-91
Linc, search for truth by, 87-88, 89, 91, 92, 95
Mercer, Bear, in civilian uniformed service, 22-26
River, work experience of, 53
Timmy’s friend, memory and grief of, 81-82
Wilson, hostility to women shown by, 68, 69
Wiry, criminal activities, incarceration, and sexual activities of, 27-31, 114-18
Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Washington, D.C., 5, 163, 201, 244
veteran visits to, 169-73, 178-79
Web sites, 261
Vietnam War:
American self-deception in, 234
battle deaths and leadership experience in, 225
cohesion and unit integrity in, 213
as defeat, 293n
Khe Sanh siege in, 235
reform in military training after, 222
replacement system in, 214, 219
Tet Offensive in, 29, 30, 93, 235
Vietnam War Almanac (Summers), 183
Vietnam War protesters, 155
Vietnam Wives: Facing the Challenges of Life with Veterans Suffering Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (Matsakis), 39, 118, 137, 262
violence, 26, 32, 68, 69, 158
and honor, 250
philos and, 159, 249
and pre-military trauma, 142
VIP,see Veterans Improvement Program
Virgil (Roman poet, author of Aeneid), 233
Virtual Wall Web site, 193, 261
volunteer work, by veterans, 175
VWAR Internet discussion group, 178, 179, 180, 198-201, 288n
Wagner, Amy W., 281n
Wall, the,see Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Washington, D.C.
Waller, Willard, 21, 33, 113, 121, 135, 154, 222, 269n, 270n, 273n, 281n, 296n
Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR), 215, 291n
war:
abolition of, 249-53
origin of, 156
rules of, 225
and size of society, 251
War and Violence in Ancient Greece (van Wees, ed.), 300n
war crimes, 154
Warrior Dreams: Violence and Manhood in Post-Vietnam America (Gibson), 22
“War Story, The” (Hoffman), 86, 105
Wattenberg, M., 287n
weaponry:
celebration of, on Armed Forces Day posters, 206-7
fighting strength and, 213
low-tech, 223
Web sites, for veterans and families, 261-62
Wehrmacht (World War II German army), replacement system in, 212
Weimar Republic, 222, 277n, 295n
Weisaeth, L., 290n
“what’s right,” notion of, 206, 248
Agamemnon’s violation of, 240
and trust in leaders, 228
whirlpool, in Odyssey, 107, 112, 257 see also Scylla and Charybdis
WHO (World Health Organization), 151
Wilson, Donna, 268n, 269n, 278n, 279n, 282n
Wilson, D. S., 300n
Wilson, Jeremy, 271n
Wilson, William Julius, 301n
Wirtz, James J., 234-35, 298n
withdrawal, social, 40, 160
women, veteran hostility toward, 65, 67, 68, 70, 73, 74, 136
words, veteran suspicion of, 176
work,see employment and career opportunities of veterans
workaholism, 39, 57-59
World Health Organization (WHO), 151
World Trade Center, September 11 attack on, 236, 253
World War I, replacement system in, 209
World War I veterans, 21, 44, 155
German, 95
Graves, Robert, 31-32
World War II, 205
leadership culture in, 226, 227
replacement system in, 209, 210, 212-14, 295n
screening of recruits in, 214
underestimations in, 49
World War II veterans, 31-32, 154
impact of psychiatric hospitals on, 109
stoical silence of, 108-9
and Vietnam veterans, 103
work experiences of, 56
WRAIR (Walter Reed Army Institute of Research), 215, 291n
xeinia, 44
xenophobia, 250-51
Yom Kippur War, 205, 218, 219
Zeus (most powerful of Homeric gods), 107, 124, 145, 259, 272n, 278n
Zuckert, H., 285n, 299n
Zwygart, U. F., 296n
PERMISSIONS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Excerpts from The Odyssey by Homer, translated by Robert Fagles, copyright © 1996 by Robert Fagles. Used by permission of Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Putnam, Inc.
Excerpts from The Odyssey by Homer, translated by Robert Fitzgerald, copyright © 1961, 1963, by Robert Fitzgerald. Copyright renewed 1989 by Benedict R. C. Fitzgerald, on behalf of the Fitzgerald children. Reprinted by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC.
Excerpts from The Road Back by Erich Maria Remarque, copyright © 1930, 1931 by Erich Maria Remarque. Copyright renewed 1958 by Erich Maria Remarque. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright conventions.
“Insensibility” by Wilfred Owen, from The Collected Poems of Wilfred Owen, copyright © 1963 by Chatto & Windus, Ltd. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.
Chapter 19, “Group and Milieu Therapy for Veterans with Complex Posttraumatic Stress Disorder,” by Jonathan Shay, M.D., and James Munroe, Ed.D., in Philip A. Saigh and J. Douglas Bremner, editors, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Comprehensive Text, copyright © 1999 by Allyn & Bacon. Adapted by permission.
Excerpts from J. Shay, “Killing Rage: Physis or Nomos— or Both?,” copyright Jonathan Shay, all rights reserved. In War and Violence in Ancient Greece, edited by Hans van Wees. Duckworth and the Classical Press of Wales, 2000.
Narrative, “I Went to the Wall Once …,” used by permission of Michael Viehman, who reserves all rights.
Excerpts from The Exorcism of Vietnam [working title], mixed nonfiction history and interviews and pseudonymous autobiography, in preparation. Copyright © 2002 by Dennis Specter, All rights reserved. Used by permission.
“Lewis Puller Ain’t on the Wall” used by permission of W. T. Edmonds, Jr., who reserves all rights.
“Remembrance” used by permission of Joan Duffy Newberry, who reserves all rights.
“ReallyCare” and “A Prayer for Death and Life” used by permission of Judee Strott, who reserves all rights.
“Fortunate Son” and “A Valentine’s Card for Those Who Were Not There” used by permission of H. Palmer Hall, who reserves all rights.
Excerpts from
“The Lounge: We Can Never Leave” used by permission of Michael W. Rodriguez, who reserves all rights.
“Clearly one of the most original and most important scholarly works to have emerged from the Vietnam War. Beyond that, it is also an intensely moving work, intensely passionate, reaching back through the centuries to touch and heal.”
—TIM O’BRIEN, author of The Things They Carried and July, July
“A transcendent literary adventure.”
—HERBERT MITGANG, The New York Times
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