Problems of Reality the Vietnam War

Problems of Reality the Vietnam War

During the Vietnam War the reality of warfare brought many soldiers back to a home that didn’t want them. Their feelings torn by atrocities, the loss of friends, and the condition of loneliness only made the experience worse. Did the issues on the home front affect the issues on the frontline? The novel Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers is a perfect example of the conflict and diversity among other soldiers during the Vietnam War. It shows the reality many soldiers faced and how they dealt with conflicts back home while they were alone and afraid of death creeping up on them. With the reality of war taking its toll, soldiers coming home to a world they didn’t know, a world that had changed and left them in Vietnam to fend for themselves. They slept with wives who didn’t know even the smallest of their problems. From nightmares to remembering bad memories, Vietnam veterans suffered it all from extreme depression to the worst, suicide. The real world didn’t know how to deal with them and just left them alone. The U.S. they left had changed on them. From people to the ways of life everything had changed and they didn’t know how to deal with it.

The reality of war changed many soldiers’ lives because of nightmares from firefights and small skirmishes to bombings and atrocities. Many places from Saigon to Khe Sanh are filled with stories from many veterans. A letter from a marine fighting in Khe Sanh said to his Parents “Since we began, we have lost 14 KIA and 44 men WIA. Our company is cut down to half strength, and I think we will be going to Okinawa to regroup. I hope so anyway because I have seen enough of war and its destruction.” From the death of close friends any person’s emotions would crumble. A normal everyday business person in the shoes of this soldier wouldn’t last a day. The experience a soldier goes through will change his view on life forever. This is just showing how it affects people. Seeing death and killing on a daily basis. The random occurrence of death would truly disturb any person. Seeing the death of friends and mangled bodies of South Vietnamese villagers left by Vietcong guerillas, the soldiers were left with the vivid visions of the bodies. The death of one close friend can upset you but the death of many will drive you mad. Many physiological problems can derive from military war service. Vietnam is infamous for this. Soldiers getting shell shock, combat stress, war neurosis, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder stay with them for life affecting everyday issues. “In the years after the Vietnam War veterans suffered many ongoing stress symptoms including, flashbacks, nightmares, anxiety and difficulty integrating back into civilian life.” Stated Megan Wood in her essay “Shell-shocked: The trauma of war”. In the novel Fallen Angels Perry and his platoon were in a South Vietnamese village and his experience was horrifying. Perry said “The VC had already struck. There were bodies all around. Some twisted awkwardly, others looking as if they were just resting, their legs bent for comfort…An old woman stumbled into the open space in front of her hut. Her face was covered in blood. She feel. I went over to her, looked at her, and saw the bones in her face where the flesh had been cut away. Turn away.”(Myers 176) Perry’s experience got him thinking about what he was doing there. Perry repressing his thoughts from his mother in his letters is just leading to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) from not expressing his feeling about them and getting it out. This is a problem with not just Perry but many other soldiers. PTSD can prevent soldiers returning home to find jobs and integrate back into normal life.

The visions of war not only affect a soldier for a day or two after it happens. The visions and memories stay for a lifetime. Physiological problems were plentiful after the war they just don’t go away with a blink of an eye. They affected the lives of the soldiers from preventing them to get back to reality and go on with life. The thought of facing danger 24 hours a day, seven days a week, from a 360 degree circle around them can be mind boggling. Soldiers during the Vietnam War came home to a home they thought would respect them and congratulate them because of their bravado during the war but they came back to a home that called them “Baby Killers” and saying “They were no better than the Commies”. Soldiers who went through the toughest fights couldn’t come back and forget about it. “40% of men in Vietnam came back home with a lifetime disease of PTSD” stated the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in the document “Epidemiological Facts about PTSD”. Just think about being a Prisoner of War (POW) in a Vietnamese Prison and being tortured and starved. This would cause tremendous problems for a person who kept all