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CIAO DATE: 06/04
Returning from Iraq, Still Fighting Vietnam
On The Issues
March 2004
Sally Satel
Abstract
As soldiers return home from the conflict in Iraq, the press continues to link this war with the Vietnam War in tactical and diagnostic terms. Despite evidence that post-traumatic stress disorder may not have been as widespread as many mental health experts claimed, the debate surrounding this syndrome has been renewed with an eye toward helping soldiers from Iraq reintegrate into civilian society.
Over the next few months, 130,000 American troops will return home from Iraq. Their arrival will bring joy to their families and gratitude from the nation. It will also renew a debate over post-traumatic stress disorder. The House Veterans' Affairs Committee, for instance, has scheduled hearings on the disorder March 11, with a focus on soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Likewise, just as the press has spent a year comparing the invasion of Iraq to Vietnam, it has begun drawing parallels between today's troops and Vietnam veterans, who are believed to suffer from a high rate of war-related psychiatric disorders.
But as we try to help the soldiers of Operation Iraqi Freedom meld back into society, it would be a mistake to rely too heavily on the conventional wisdom about Vietnam. What is generally put forth as an established truth--that roughly one-third of returnees from Vietnam suffered psychological problems--is at best highly debatable.
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