05+Imapct+of+the+War

=Impact of the War on Vietnam Veterans and their families = ​

Return Home
After the war was over and the Australian troops came home, they were angry and confused by the reaction they met. The anti-war protests led to many shunning the soldiers. They were not welcomed home as they had expected they would be. Many veterans felt like they were being blamed for the war - instead of the government. Unlike returning soldiers from previous wars that century, they were not victorious and there was no big welcome home parade for them. They also came home suffering effects of war that went beyond what had been suffered by veterans from the First and Second World Wars - no one knew how to deal with it. They did not receive an official 'Welcome Home' parade until 1987 - nearly 20 years after the last soldiers left Vietnam. Not surprisingly, many veterans felt their service to their country went unrecognised and un-thanked.

=The psychological effects of the Vietnam War= The Vietnam War was so unlike any other war Australian soldiers had fought in that no one really knew how to deal with the after effects of it. Vietnam was not a war fought on open fronts, with areas of safety to which they could retreat. There had been nowhere to relax in Vietnam, the soldiers had been constantly on alert for the enemy. What made it worse, was that they did not always know who the enemy was. It could be the women and children they thought they were protecting. The result of this was that many Vietnam veterans suffered psychological damage in the form of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Studies have proven that compared with other men of that generation Vietnam veterans have higher rates of psychiatric disorders, heart disease, alcoholism and alcohol-related diseases, as well as a higher suicide rate among their families. Many Veterans just could not cope with the things they had seen and the stress they had lived under for two years. Many veterans also could not understand why they were feeling the way they were. In many cases, PTSD was not diagnosed until years later. By that time a lot of damage had been done, both to the veterans and their families. A lot of the men became emotionally detached from their lives. They felt they could not love or show affection to their wives and children, even years after the war was over.

Agent Orange
Apart from the psychological damage inflicted on the veterans, by the late 1970s many believed they had also been poisoned while fighting in Vietnam. Between 1962 and 1971 over 17 million gallons of herbicide and insecticide were used in Vietnam to clear vegetation so the Viet Cong had nowhere to hide. Agent Orange was only one of the many insecticides used but that name has come to represent them all. This action was known as Operation Ranch Hand. During Ranch Hand, American and Australian soldiers were exposed to the chemicals. In 1978 a report appeared that linked Agent Orange with cancers of the soft tissues and blood, birth defects in children born to those exposed to the herbicide and toxic brain dysfunction. All three of these disorders were common enough among Vietnam veterans that the State Veterans Associations in Australia began to ask for a government inquiry to establish a link between Agent Orange and the large numbers of veterans with disabilities.



The Royal Commission
A royal commission was finally set up in 1982 to investigate the claims made by the Vietnam Veterans Association of Australia. It reported in 1985 and said that Australian exposure to chemicals had been very small, and that it had not affected the soldiers adversely. In fact the commission's report said the chemicals had prevented health problems 'which may have otherwise been a problem in the Vietnam environment.' The royal commission did state for the record that the Vietnam War had been particularly stressful for the soldiers because of the nature of the war, the fact Australia did not win and that they were shunned when they returned home. No comprehensive study was done to examine the extent of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in Australian Vietnam veterans, however the commission did accept many men suffered a range of psychological and physical symptoms that are associated with PTSD, but this was not associated with any chemicals to which they may have been exposed. The government admission that Australian men were suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder meant they could claim compensation for that - but nothing else. The Vietnam Veterans Association rejected the royal commission report and for the next nine years; fought to have the findings overturned. But it was not until 1994 that the Labor Government acknowledged Agent Orange was responsible for the cancers and other illnesses suffered by Australian veterans of the Vietnam War. American veterans had to fight a similar battle for recognition of their symptoms - they eventually won a legal action against seven chemical companies and received a multi-million-dollar compensation payment. In Australia the government began a compensation scheme for those who had cancer caused by their service in Vietnam and for the widows of those who had died from cancer. =**Student Activity - create a power point on** the impact of the Vietnam War on the veterens. You must use both primary and secondary sources.=