Almost every Vietnam vet who has been in heavy combat has pretty much the same "story." Sleeping problems, nightmares, and a long period of reconciliation. Most enter into the workforce and live a reasonably successful life while coping with various symptoms of PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder).
During America's participation in the war, from 1959 into 1975, we lost 58,000 men and more. The Vietnamese recorded more than 1 million soldier deaths and perhaps at least 2 million civilians. One recovering combat Vietnam vet said something like this, which is so "right on." The process of training an infantryman for war is a dehumanizing process--we are transformed as just average "joes" to killers. We are forever changed by a type of brainwashing. The soldier comes home and is afraid to talk about his experiences for fear of losing control. Lost of control may have far reaching effects way past Vietnam but a direct result of the war. At its extremes, loss of control destroys lives in one way or another, i. e., jail or suicide, not to mention divorce, inability to cope, and all sorts of other results. At some point which is a gigantic trigger for the Vietnam combat vet, he grasps that Vietnam was a total waste of human life on both sides.
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