Returning to the U.S.

1. Returning to the U.S. By Harry Arter and Dustin Walker

2. Facts not true about Vietnam vets that returned home. • People back home thought that the U.S. solders deserted there units but in reality the honorable discharge rate was exactly the same for the military in the ten years prior to the war • People also thought that Vietnam veterans turned to crime when they got back to the states when in actuality they had a lower crime rate then people that were not solders • Solders were higher employed then there pears • The rate of suicide was higher in the first five years of the war ending but was not entirely over whelming the rate of suicide soon declined and was reduced to the percent norm of the general population • It is a false fact that Nam vets turned to marijuana and heroin to dull the pain of war but this is a lie drug usage was the same for vets and non-vets

3. Effects on U.S. Soldiers • When the soldiers came home they were called "baby killers" and even had some people spitting at them. Not only did many men come back with loss of limbs, blind, but also spiritually and mentally broken. • Many formed groups to fight for the right of honor for fighting the Vietnam War and they did win some recognition. • There are still Vietnam Vets who suffer from terrible nightmares and find it difficult to function in civilian life. • The Vietnam War was the only war in American History that was not honored in the way it should have been.

4. Racial Differences- • There was some difficulty between whites and black Americans, but it really came to a head when Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated. • The blacks began to wonder why they were fighting side-by-side with whites when they were treated like garbage by the very country they were defending. • White and blacks began to wonder if they could rely on each other out on patrol. Many decided it was best to survive and so many of the whites and blacks worked side by side on these patrols.

5. War was a failure. Tough for U.S Soldiers to Return • Fifty-eight thousand were killed, two thousand captured, and three hundred fifty thousand; maimed and wounded, almost everyone in this country still feels the effects of this conflict. U.S. Soldiers • Today, the young people of this country cringe in response to the senselessness and waste of this struggle.

6. More Effects of U.S. Soldiers • Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition that's triggered by a terrifying event. • Symptoms may include flashbacks, nightmares and severe anxiety, as well as uncontrollable thoughts about the event. • Some Vietnam soldiers had this disorder.

7. Soldiers having more health problems when returning home. • Agent OrangeThe name “Agent Orange” came from the orange stripe on the 55-gallon drums in which the herbicide was stored. • Shortly following their military service in Vietnam, some Veterans reported a variety of health problems and concerns which some of them attributed to exposure to Agent Orange or other herbicides. • Some other health problems are soft tissue sarcoma, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease, respiratory cancers, multiple myeloma, prostate cancer, and spina bifida in offspring. As you can tell soldiers had to return home with being at risk of being sick later in life.

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