BACKGROUND:"Wrong. Terrible wrong - The US in Vietnam"
As many as 30 % of all fighting soldiers developed Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) during the war and the in the
following years. The reasons why so many got this syndrome are many. One is that
the Vietnam War was different. It wasn’t like World War II where you had a big and dangerous enemy like the Nazis. The
only reason why this happened was because of a dominotheory; if South Vietnam become a communist state, the whole Asia
soon will be in the hands of the communists. This wasn’t a very “motivating” reason, and many soldiers thought
that they didn’t have anything to do down in ‘Nam.
The extreme circumstances is another reason. The guerilla warfare, in the jungle, was mentally very hard, and since the Viet
Cong was well known in their own jungle, they had a big advantage. The only thing the American soldiers had to do, was to
fight and try to survive.Soldiers fought for three weeks, then they have three
weeks off. A three weeks break give you time to think, think about what you have done out in the war, and since they didn’t
get any psychologic help during the three weeks off, it made many to develop PTSD.You
have to be mental strong to live under certain circumstances for a long period. Because of too less preparation, many got
symptoms of PTSD during the war, and as the war went on, the situation in 'Nam got even worse.
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