This entry is a subentry of Veterans.
The Department of Defense (DoD) and the Department of Veterans' Affairs (DVA) define the 9,656,000 men and 178,000 women who served on active duty in the armed forces between August 1964 and May 1975 as Vietnam‐era veterans. Of these, 2,586,152 men and 7,848 women served in the war in Vietnam.
Public attitudes toward veterans of the Vietnam War shifted from respect in 1965–67 to disdain following an antiwar movement that developed in 1968–70. Veterans and their problems became an embarrassment to the voters and the government as reminders of a war that had lost much popular support. The press highlighted veterans who engaged in violent crime, though they were not significantly overrepresented in crime, drinking, or drug use compared to nonveterans in their age cohort. In the early 1980s, popular sentiment began to change again. The dedication of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington in 1982 marked the beginning of a national commitment to honoring veterans of the war.
Veterans who served in Vietnam faced unique biological and psychological problems. The most serious and widespread biological matter was exposure to dioxin in Agent Orange, a defoliant sprayed by aircraft. The effects of dioxin poisoning, which appeared several months after exposure, included chloracne (skin lesions), peripheral neuropathy (loss of feeling in the extremities), hepatic dysfunction (liver failure), non‐Hodgkin's lymphoma and soft tissue sarcomas (cancers), and porphyrinuria and hypertriglyceridemia (metabolic disorders). None of these conditions was amenable to cure; treatment could only alleviate symptoms.
Approximately 30 percent of veterans of the war suffered from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Symptoms appeared gradually, and could include recurrent intrusive dreams and memories, feelings of estrangement from others, flat affect, survival guilt, impaired memory and concentration, exaggerated startle response, and sleep disorders. Veterans experienced higher than expected mortality rates from motor vehicle wrecks, suicide, homicide, and drug‐related medical conditions. PTSD resulted principally from the abrupt rupture of powerful emotional relationships when servicemembers left their comrades in the war zone, the lack of opportunity to process traumatic events with those who had shared them, and hostile or indifferent responses to veterans and their experiences by civilians back home. PTSD was most common among the psychologically vulnerable.
Vietnam veterans made up small minorities (24–28 percent) within the memberships of the existing veterans' organizations. The Veterans of Foreign Wars opposed measures that would benefit Vietnam veterans if those programs competed for dollars with programs to improve benefits for veterans of earlier wars. The American Legion was passive until 1982 with respect to programs for Vietnam veterans. The Disabled American Veterans, the most active advocate of Vietnam veterans' needs, took positive action to support veterans' mental health with storefront clinics.
The Veterans' Education and Training Amendments Act of 1970 (PL 91‐219) was the first of a series of acts to enhance educational benefits for Vietnam‐era veterans. Others include Public Laws 92‐540, 93‐508, 94‐502, and 95‐202. In 1979, 740,000 veterans were enrolled in education or vocational training under these programs. PL 93‐508 also required federal contractors to take affirmative action to hire disabled and Vietnam‐era veterans. Health benefits lagged until popular feelings toward veterans became more favorable in the 1980s. The DoD and DVA were slow to recognize dioxin poisoning and PTSD as service‐connected.
A measure to provide readjustment counseling to victims of PTSD was held up for several years in the House Veterans' Affairs Committee before it was enacted in 1979 (PL 96‐22). In 1981, the Congress gave the Veterans Administration discretionary authority to treat victims of dioxin poisoning, and in 1984, PL 98‐542 established standards for compensation. Not until 1991 was a presumption of service connection established for chloracne, non‐Hodgkin's lymphoma, and soft tissue sarcomas (PL 102‐4). In 1993, DVA established a presumptive service connection for porphyria, Hodgkin's disease, and other cancers.
[See also Toxic Agents: Agent Orange Exposure; Vietnam War.]
Bibliography
- David E. Bonier, Steven M. Champlin, and Timothy S. Kolly, The Vietnam Veteran: A History of Neglect, 1984.
- Joel Osler Brende and Erwin Randolph Person, Vietnam Veterans: The Road to Recovery, 1985.
- Ghislaine Boulanger and Charles Kadushin, The Vietnam Veteran Redefined, 1986
