Suicides and Mental Health for Vietnam Vets.

     Like most all wars, the Vietnam war was full of violence and bloodshed. According to uswings.com, 58,148 American soldiers were killed, 75,000 soldiers were severely disabled, 23,214 were 100% disabled, 5,283 lost limbs and 1,081 sustained multiple amputations. These numbers alone jump off the page showing the immense toll this war took on those who served, not to mention all the collateral damage and civilian casualties that are estimated to be in the millions. This sheer death and destruction of humanity is hard for anyone to think about let alone having to experience it first hand like the 9,087,000 military personnel that served. During war one has no choice but to become immune to such catastrophes whether it is forced or welcomed. It is a key to trying to survive each day.

     Once a soldier returns home, returning to normal life can be a difficult task. For some it's hard to deal with the lack of excitement and need to be on edge, and for others it's a foreign feeling to feel safe and not under attack. Each soldier's experiences are different and each soldier adjusts to civilian life differently. For some the images and experiences cannot be deleted from ones mind, haunting them and causing daily struggles with a condition that many vets experience in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. It is caused by experiencing or witnessing a terrifying event. These events are all too common in war, leaving many veterans with a tough road when recovering from them. PTSD is known to cause depression and anxiety that in severe cases will lead to suicide death. Depression often provokes the use of alcohol or drugs to ease the pain and this also contributes to suicide in some cases. According to uswings.com the media has reported that suicide rates range from 50,000 to 100,000 or six times the non-Vietnam veteran population. The article states that during the first five years after discharge suicides were 1.7 times more likely among veterans than non-Vietnam veterans and that the true number of suicides based off of mortality studies shows that 9000 is a better estimate.

     This topic is important because with each war there are people that will be faced with harrowing experiences and will suffer from the effects of PTSD. This struggle for good mental health among veterans needs to be brought into light more than it currently is. More can be done to raise awareness and help those who have served our country.

(A Veteran visits the Vietnam Memorial in Washington DC to pay respects to his fellow soldiers who lost their lives)

(Site used for the research and symptoms of PTSD)

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/post-traumatic-stress-disorder/symptoms-causes/syc-20355967

(Site used for the research of statistics of war)

https://www.uswings.com/about-us-wings/vietnam-war-facts/
   

Anti War Protest

Christian Doss English
1100.01 MW
26 September 2018

Anti War Protest 

An anti-war protester places a flower on the barrel of rifles while blocking the Pentagon

 Abbie Hoffman was a political activist that believe in universal health care and the redistribution of wealth in America. Abbie Hoffman would use humor to criticize the government. He had always been protested but in 1968 Abbie Hoffman founded an anti-war organization call the Yippies. The Yippies organized an anti-war protest on the pentagon, but riots ensued and Abbie Hoffman was arrested on the charges of causing riots. Many people started to become very anti war, this was a time where there were civil rights activist and women’s activist then anti war activist began to emerge.Americans started to become more aware of the casualties and cost of the war. Americans grew weary of the idea of going to war to for the sake of stopping communism at the cost of American people. College students opposed the draft because it would send not only the less fortunate to the war but also college students at the age of 19 who could not by law drink but yet could fight in war, not to mention that is seven years younger than the average age of people who fought in world war two. Protesters felt they were being ignored so peaceful protest often turned into riots, when police showed up protests would retaliate, college students would block roads and bridges causing classes to be cancelled and ROTC buildings were burned. Richard Nixon had said he would slowly begin to draw troops out of Vietnam but protesters were not satisfied they wanted an immediate removal of troops from the war. The war caused Americans to become outraged and divided America among the youth.

Word Count: 297
Best source: http://www.ushistory.org/us/55e.asp

Monks suicides and protests...

In June of 1963, Vietnamese Mahayana Buddhist monk Thích Quang Duc burned himself to death at a busy intersection in Saigon. He was attempting to show that to fight all forms of oppression on equal terms, Buddhism too, needed to have its martyrs.  John F. Kennedy personally said in reference to a photograph of Duc on fire: “No news picture in history has generated so much emotion around the world as that one”. Photographer Malcolm Browne captured the scene in Saigon for the Associated Press, and the stark black and white image quickly became an iconic visual of the turbulent 1960's. The self-immolation was done in protest to the South Vietnamese Diem regime’s pro-catholic policies and discriminatory Buddhist laws.


On 10 June 1963, U.S. correspondents were informed that “something important” would happen the following morning on the road outside the Cambodian embassy in Saigon. Most of the reporters disregarded the message, since the Buddhist crisis had at that point been going on for more than a month and the next day only a few journalists turned up, including David Halberstam of The New York Times and Malcolm Browne, the Saigon bureau chief for the Associated Press. Duc arrived as part of a procession that had begun at a nearby pagoda. Around 350 monks and nuns marched carrying denouncing the Diem government and its policy towards Buddhists.
David Halberstam wrote:

“I was to see that sight again, but once was enough. Flames were coming from a human being; his body was slowly withering and shriveling up, his head blackening and charring. In the air was the smell of burning human flesh; human beings burn surprisingly quickly. Behind me I could hear the sobbing of the Vietnamese who were now gathering. I was too shocked to cry, too confused to take notes or ask questions, too bewildered to even think… As he burned he never moved a muscle, never uttered a sound, his outward composure in sharp contrast to the wailing people around him”.

The spectators were mostly stunned into silence, but some wailed and several began praying. It was a horrible incident, it is a embarrassment on us as humans. English and Vietnamese, a monk repeated into a microphone: “A Buddhist priest burns himself to death. A Buddhist priest becomes a martyr”.

Self immolation monk

Climate and Geography

Just like every other war that has ever been fought, the climate and geography played a major role in the Vietnam war. It posed a huge challenge for US forces. About 75% of Vietnam is not level, meaning troop movement could consist of traveling up a mountain one day and the very next day you're marching down into a valley. The vegetation is highly diverse, with each region of Vietnam containing vastly different vegetation throughout the country due to the different climates. All of Vietnam is covered in dense jungle, with some areas containing different plants and animals. One of the worst types of plants in Vietnam was elephant grass. Elephant grass is very tall, dense grass that is razor sharp. This almost always proved problematic for US forces. The local Vietnamese, however, used this kind of vegetation to their advantage.

The climate of Vietnam hardly changed. It is a tropical country, experiencing hot and humid temperatures almost all the time (located just above the equator). They have two major seasons, monsoon season and dry season. Monsoon season brought constant rain, heat, and flooding. The rain and flooding lead to a lot of problems. Cuts and scrapes would become infected because of the humidity. Foot and fungal infections became very common and would slow troop movement. Soldiers constantly stopped to pull leeches off their body and out of their boots. With monsoon season lasting about 8 months, it was almost impossible to stay dry or get dry. (247 words)

http://factsanddetails.com/southeast-asia/Vietnam/sub5_9h/entry-3488.html



Photo of troops moving through a typical "rice paddy"

Ho Chi Minh

Ho Chi Minh, born Nguyen Sinh Chung, was a Vietnamese nationalist that took control of North Vietnam during the Vietnam war. Minh was born and raised in Vietnam to a poor family of scholars but as a young boy he took a job as a cook on a French boat where he got to see many parts of the world but eventually settled down in France. While in France he became an active socialist and he demand that France give it’s colonies in Indochina equal rights, he got no response from France but the act made him a hero to many Vietnamese. Minh came to represent the working class in France which led him to Moscow to mourn the loss of the founder of the Soviet Union Vladimir Lenin. While in Moscow he first stated his belief that oppressed peasants should revolt against their oppressors and he took part in the congress of the Communist International. Eventually Minh would form the Indochinese Communist Party which started a movement in Vietnam against the repressive French. Soon World War Two broke out and Minh came up with a strategy to earn his people their independence, he would help the allied forces in hopes that the French would see this and give them their independence as a reward The plan unfortunately did not work and the Vietnamese were forced to kick France off their soil with force which was successful.
          After the war with France Minh agreed to hold an election that would decided the country’s government, communist or democratic, with Minh representing the communist side. The election was eventually postponed indefinitely by the United States which would lead to a split between the democratic south and the communist north. The North was poor and didn’t contain much farm land so they had to depend on help from the Soviet Union and China. Minh would step down as the leader of the North before the war was over but his party eventually arose successful in driving out the US using many of the same tactics they used against the French. In the end Minh was a man who loved his country and wanted to free his people from anyone other then their own government ruling them.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ho-Chi-Minh

Ho Chi Minh:A symbol of Independence to his people

The Fall of Saigon

During the Vietnam War, Saigon served as the capitol of South Vietnam also known as the Republic of Vietnam. It also functioned as a large base of operations for the United States Military during the war, as they were fighting alongside the South Vietnamese against the Communist North Vietnam. After years of fighting, the United States had finally opted out of the war, signing the Paris Peace Accords which was supposed to end firing between the North and South. However, this was far from how things turned out, as the North Vietnamese continued attacking after the US had left.
The United States leaving left the entirety of Vietnam in a state of complete and total chaos, and effectively having the South fend for themselves in their absence. Two years after the United States leaving, the true end of the year seemed to be nearing, but not in the favor of the South Vietnamese and anti-communists. At this point, there were a significant amount of innocent South Vietnamese citizens and orphans, along with a good deal of Americans, still residing in Saigon. With the communist victory coming closer and closer, Saigon itself fell under complete disarray as these people attempted to escape or fight. It was the year 1975 at this point, and the president of South of South Vietnam, Nguyen Van Thieu had resigned and left the country after being unable to receive help from President Ford. At this point, it was practically hopeless for the people of Saigon and the south.
Finally, in April of 1975, as a last resort, the United States sent in helicopters and troops to help evacuate the city of Saigon. They managed to save all of the Americans and a decent amount of Vietnamese, but many were still stuck amid the chaos. After the last of the transports had left, on April 30, 1975 Saigon had fallen, effectively establishing the end of the Vietnam War. The two opposing countries of Vietnam were immediately combined under the communist leadership and the city was renamed directly Ho Chi Minh. It is still called Ho Chi Minh City to this day.
The Fall of Saigon is famously recognized as the day the war truly ended.

Image depicting civialians on top of US embassy frantically trying to board helicopters

Source: https://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/30/april-30-1975-saigon-falls/

Word Count: 368

The DMZ

DMZ stands for demilitarized zone, which means combat-free zone between two enemies. There is a DMZ between North and South Korea, however there was a DMZ in Vietnam during the war. This zone was created by the Geneva Accords in 1954 during the First Indochina war because the French and Viet Minh wanted to secure peace in Vietnam. The zone ran along the Ben Hai River. It seperated North and South Vietnam  and the zone went from east to west borders of Vietnam. In June of 1966, the PAVN forces launched their first conventional attack on the US Marines. Because of that, US forces began to retaliate by shelling PAVN bases in the north of the DMZ. There was an artillery duel that lasted for more than a year until President Johnson decided to halt the bombing against North Vietnam. The US Army slowly withdrew from their fire bases due to the new policy of Vietnamization. In early 1972, The ARVN replaced the US troops in the south. After about a month of fighting between PAVN and ARVN, the border got shifted 20 kilometers further south. The battle went on for nearly three months and ARVN was able to retake most of their position back. After the fall of Saigon in 1975, The DMZ had no military meaning and was useless. On 3rd of July 1975, the National Assembly of Vietnam officially disestablished Vietnam’s DMZ. In Vietnam, the DMZ has become a popular tourist place. People can join tour groups, where they can see the DMZ and many other important facts about the Vietnam war.

Word Count: 265
https://thevietnamwar.info/vietnamese-dmz/

Map showing the DMZ between North and South Vietnam