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Andrew Zanoni

Honoring the Sacrifices of Vietnam Veterans

Updated: Oct 27

Andrew M. Zanoni, IDSA

May 15, 2012


Sacrifice, is a key piece of our American identity. Our courageous veterans are people that should not be ignored; as citizens of the United States of America we should be doing everything we can to help them no matter what the cost. However, that does not always happen. War veterans today have it hard, much harder than their counterparts from World War I or World War II. Vietnam veterans today are suffering from numerous ailments and other problems. However, if they are treated properly they would not have to deal with these issues. They are suffering from severe PTSD, substance abuse problems, exposure to large amounts of harsh chemical agents while in Vietnam, and homelessness. These are all problems that are making it very hard for them to readjust from military lives back to their home lives. Since the majority of American people turned against all of the fighting in Vietnam and had no emotional vendetta to fight there, our veterans were not treated like heroes when they got home. When our loyal veterans needed help they had a hard time getting it. The United States veterans, particularly Vietnam veterans, sacrifice part of their lives to serve for their country but face many difficult challenges in readjusting to civilian life immediately after the war; therefore, all Americans need to make sacrifices when we decide to go to war, not just soldiers.


            The values of the American people during the Vietnam War differed from the values of the American people during World War I and World War II. One difference was the American people made sacrifices to help the veterans in World War II. American citizens showed support and sacrificed for their men and women in the service by planting victory gardens in their yards or in public parks, growing cucumbers, tomatoes, and other vegetables (Danzer 598). This allowed the government to use the goods grown in commercial farms as food for the soldiers overseas. Girls would not wear nylon stockings because the government needed to use nylon for parachutes. Instead they drew a line down their legs to make it look like they were wearing stockings (Danzer 774). In World War II the War Production Board organized drives throughout the whole country to get key raw materials to industries that needed them. They collected scrap iron, tin cans, paper, rags, and cooking fat. Children would look everywhere they could think of for items that could be donated to the WPB (Danzer 774). The government would sell Liberty Loans and Victory Loans to the public to help fund the war, promising to pay the bonds back later with interest. However, for the most part American Citizens were anti-war throughout the 60s and 70s and throughout the “feel good” generation. The American public was tired of all the fighting from these two World Wars, the Cold War, and the Korean War. They just wanted to sit back and lick their wounds, unless there was something that provoked them to join the war, such as an attack on US soil. During the Vietnam War the values of the American people twisted even more anti-war due to frustration with the American government. The American people were finding the credibility gap was growing at an alarming rate between what the Johnson administration was reporting and what was actually happening overseas in Vietnam (Danzer 947). For example, the Johnson administration would report there was a lot less casualties than their actually was and that our soldiers progress was more than it actually was (Danzer 947). This made it hard for the public to trust President Johnson. By the middle of the Vietnam War in 1965 the American public was evenly divided over supporting or resisting the war. Also, in 1965 our nation’s youth, mainly those who were high school and college age, started to protest the war through marches and demonstrations (Danzer 951). When the war started President Johnson and his administration told the American public that the war was supposed to end quickly. However, the war crawled on and support for the war was quickly falling. President Johnson did not anticipate the war was going to last so long and move so slowly. Consequently, his domestic programs for economic reform started to unravel (Danzer 947). As the war dragged along it became more costly; therefore the US economy began to suffer leaving Americans to try to save and find work anyway they could. The aggravation produced by the sinking economy would make the American people far less likely to make sacrifices for our veterans because they blamed the veterans for the suffering economy. The inflation rate spiked to its highest rate ever at 5.5% in 1969, which was nearly three times higher than it was in 1960 at 2%. Even today the inflation rate is only 2.87%. The only time in recent history when the inflation rate even approached 5.5% was in July of 2008 when our economy tanked (Danzer 947). In an effort to help the economy, President Johnson reduced the funding of the Great Society Programs by 6 billion dollars and increased taxes on the American people.

Other factors further influenced the values of the American people. The Vietnam War also became known as the “Living-Room War” because it was the first war where stark combat footage appeared on the nightly news (Danzer 947). Additionally, there were a lot of US soldiers being killed. Over 16,000 US soldiers died between 1961 and 1967 (Danzer 947). This was significantly more than the amount of communist North Vietnamese soldiers that were being killed (Danzer 947). This made the American soldiers seem incompetent, which influenced the perceptions the American people had toward Vietnam veterans. Also, the Vietnam War was not a declared war. Eventually, these factors contributed to the negative treatment of Vietnam veterans after the war.  


            The feelings the Americans had about entering the Vietnam War differed from the complete endorsement we experienced in previous wars. The initial endorsement of the Vietnam War from the American public came about solely because of America’s unmoving hatred of communism. The North Vietnamese, America’s opponent, were communists, thus, fighting against them could be justified by the American people (Hall 62). The Gulf of Tonkin incident was originally claimed by the US National Security Agency to have occurred on August 4, 1964. It was classified as a sea battle in which North Vietnamese motor torpedo boats fired nine torpedoes at the USS Maddox, all of which missed. However, this attack may have involved false radar images and not real North Vietnamese boat attacks. As a result of this attack, the US bombed several key points of interest in North Vietnam. In light of this incident was the passage of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which granted President Johnson the authority he needed to give assistance to any Southeastern Asian country whose government the US considers to be at risk of corruption through communist aggression (Kaiser 333). There were only two senators who voted against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (Hall 63). The Gulf of Tonkin incident helped push President Johnson closer to the declaration of war with virtually no resistance from the American people. In the United States when the president faced challenges in a country that has attacked American soldiers on foreign soil/water, the Americans would unite behind their president. “For example: laborers who might engage in militant strike action in more peaceful times line up with the Stars and Stripes when the fighting starts; women who are pacifists in peacetime support the military when there is a serious conflict; African Americans who have bitterly cried out against injustice are among the first to volunteer when America confronts an enemy” (Hall 63). Responses like these show there is more than just patriotism, but there is also a great deal of confidence and traditionalism, which help to bring acceptance and breakthrough in social and political status. However when the tides of war turned, the American people were no longer behind their president, they were against him. Once support for the war diminished, support for the people who fought in the war diminished, therefore giving our veterans many difficult challenges in readjusting to civilian life immediately after the war.


            There is a big difference between how our GIs were treated back in World War II, and the Middle Eastern War as opposed to the Vietnam War. In World War II, and the Middle Eastern War we were attacked so our involvement in the war was in direct defense of being attacked (Montgomery III 32). To bring us into World War II we were attacked by the Japanese, and on 9-11 the destruction of the Twin Towers brought us into the Middle Eastern War. However, we did not decide to join the Vietnam War because we were attacked on our soil, and this is why many Americans lacked the enthusiasm, unity, and support for the Vietnam War that we had for other wars. Since the American people felt no emotional connection to the war, they therefore did not support it, or the soldiers that fought in it (Montgomery III 34). Our soldiers received no warm sendoff, and welcome home parade chalk full of “pomp and circumstance”. After the war there were many cases in which the service member returned home and found that his wife or his girlfriend had left him for some other man (Montgomery III 57). This contrasts with the loyal wives and girlfriends of World War II soldiers. Since the Vietnam veterans were treated differently than their peers who fought in World War II, it caused the onset of many different emotional problems and other challenges in their readjustment to civilian life immediately after they returned from the war and later in life. 


            When a family member in the military is deployed somewhere overseas, or just coming home from an overseas deployment, this puts many anxieties on their family. When a family member in the service is home and between deployments, families often do not have a chance to readjust back into their normal routine when that service member is home (Cavanaugh, Maureen, Heilbrunn). It is especially difficult when they know there is another deployment looming ahead of them in the near future. “Often times I, [Cavanaugh] as a military family counselor, will see families where the active duty member will come home from a deployment and they will only be home for three to six months before they are called back to the base for another deployment” (Cavanaugh, Maureen, Heilbrunn). When the active duty service members are home for this short of time between deployments, they do not really have enough time to unwind, or de-stress. They need to be home for a long enough period of time where they can let their guard down and get back into a routine that they are familiar with, for a given amount of time, without having to worry about getting called back without any notice (Cavanaugh, Maureen, Heilbrunn). The service member is home and does not know exactly when he is going to be called back for another deployment, there is a good chance he will develop redeployment anxiety. Redeployment anxiety is where the service member never fully relaxes, they never fully let their guard down, and they also develop something like a heightened level of mindfulness, where they are much more aware of their surroundings (Cavanaugh, Maureen, Heilbrunn). This makes it difficult to settle down to an average level of familiarity with their family. Since they know they are going to have to leave again in the near future, they must keep a specific level of emotional readiness so they are able to handle another deployment while staying sane (Cavanaugh, Maureen, Heilbrunn). When the active duty member of the family is suffering from redeployment anxiety, their family life suffers immensely. Accordingly, raising a family requires a lot of energy, but when you are suffering from redeployment anxiety your average everyday tasks involved in raising a family, which can be difficult for two parents to manage, becomes very difficult for veterans to feel like they have an equal role in parenting (Cavanaugh, Maureen, Heilbrunn). When the active duty member of the family is suffering from redeployment anxiety more than just his spouse is affected, his children are also affected. When one of their parents is going to be going away soon, it is difficult for the children to understand because they strive on organization and certainty. Children, especially the younger ones, thrive when their routine is the same all day every day (Cavanaugh, Maureen, Heilbrunn). Children who do not have the structured life they need, more often than not there will be changes in their behavior. Some common changes are acting out in school, and a drop in their grades. This is more common than the children expressing things in a verbal way (Cavanaugh, Maureen, Heilbrunn). The children do this because they do not really know how to recognize and manage the feelings they are having. This is where it would be helpful for their parents to come in and talk to their children about their feelings, and how they could make them feel better. When a service member comes home from deployments, he may also be suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in addition to redeployment anxiety, which can lead to violent behavior towards family members (Cavanaugh, Maureen, Heilbrunn). Veterans of the United States military sacrifice part of their lives to serve their country, but when they come home the service member and their families will face many difficult challenges in readjusting back to their civilian life immediately after the war and between deployments.


Nowadays we hear the anagram PTSD everywhere, but not all of us know what it means. The anagram PTSD stands for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The trigger of a person’s PTSD is as unique as the individual (“Post”). What will cause one person to fall to the clutches of PTSD may not cause another person to. The onset of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder can be caused by any fearful trauma; it does not have to be something you experience while fighting in a war (“Post”).  There are different stages of PTSD. PTSD can be either acute or chronic; in the acute phase PTSD is treatable and curable and usually comes immediately after the trauma. Once the individual has moved on to the chronic phase they will have to learn to live with it and to cope with it as it is only treatable (“Post”). The veterans are sacrificing their future quality of life as a result of this.


            Post Traumatic Stress Disorder affects our veterans in many ways. Currently there are 1,649,875 US military veterans suffering from PTSD, and 5.2 million civilians suffering from PTSD brought on from other traumatic events, bringing the total amount of people who have PTSD in the United States to 6,849,875 people, that’s .022% of our population (“Post”). PTSD has many symptoms. They are, anger, suicide attempts, flashbacks/hallucinations, fear, dread, hyper vigilance, anxiety, intimacy issues, drug and alcohol abuse, sleep disorders, guilt, memory loss/cognitive dysfunction, intrusive thoughts, and depression (“Post”). Erik, a suicidal Vietnam veteran, with a severe case of PTSD had this to say when he called the suicide hotline.


I am thinking about ending it all … you are right on, compadre, but haven’t done anything yet that’s your question. I can kill myself with all the things you just said. In fact, I have a .38 Smith and Wesson right here in the table; I have a pharmacy of pills in my bedroom. As a matter a fact, I have a rope in the garage and I know how to make a hangmen’s noose. So what? Who the hell cares? I just can’t live with all the pain and nightmares anymore. I have daytime flashbacks when I watch the television. I see news special reports of the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan getting hit by roadside bombs and ambushes … snipers and things, booby traps like in ‘Nam.’ It brings back the tough times in our country. I still hear the mortar rounds of incoming Charlies sent our way relentlessly, daily, body parts flying when the hits found their marks. And yelling … ‘medic, medic’ … doc, I’m hit’ … all around me … still haunts me. I just can’t take it. Everywhere I turn, the memories and the sounds keep coming. You would think they would go away after decades, but not for me. I can’t get rid of them. (Montgomery III 120)

 

Erik exhibits all of the symptoms of chronic Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He is suicidal, he is in great pain and has bad nightmares, he has flashbacks, he is angry, he has fear, and he has depression. PTSD causes many problems for veterans who are trying to readjust back to civilian life after coming home from the war.


            Our military has been to many places such as the trenches of Western France in World War I to the beaches of Normandy in World War II. It is inevitable for at least some of our service members to come home with mental illnesses like PTSD. The worst place, causing the most cases of PTSD, was the jungle of Vietnam. There are more Vietnam veterans suffering from PTSD than from any other war. One of the main reasons why so many of the veterans who fought in this war are suffering from PTSD is that they were fighting in an unpopular war, and were never given a big and fancy welcome home in which they deserved, while their peers who fought in World War II received a big welcome home (“Post”). In addition, the Vietnam War was the first war America had lost. Therefore, when the Vietnam veterans came home a lot of them received disrespect from veterans who had served in other wars (“Post”). This was the first war where America’s service members where not seen as heroes when they returned from the war. Also, the style of fighting in the Vietnam War was very different from the style of fighting in previous wars. Many innocent civilians were inadvertently killed by our soldiers. Another reason why the Vietnam jungles cause a lot of soldiers to develop PTSD was the sheer amount of dead, and the degree of mutilation to those dead bodies was far worse than what the soldiers had seen in previous wars (Montgomery III 118). The soldiers that generally developed the most severe cases of PTSD were the ones given the job of “handler.” Someone who was a handler would walk around the battle ground and gather the dead bodies and carry them into a clearing out of sight of the reinforcements and the wounded (Montgomery III 118). They would then make sure they had all of their limbs and load them into a body bag and into a truck or chopper. If one of the bodies did not have all of their limbs they would go back out and look for it (Montgomery III 118). Imagine having to look for an arm or leg of your dead friend. Picture all of the dead bodies of D-day one giant pile waiting to be put into body bags. The foot soldiers had it pretty bad too. Everywhere they looked they would see the mangled bodies of their comrades, and they were always covered head to foot in the blood of their comrades. This man who fought in the jungles of Vietnam said in his interview with Victor Montgomery III, “In the months that followed, my squad and I fought the North Vietnamese in the dense jungle undergrowth. We saw bodies lying in the fields. My squad was put in charge of collecting our company’s dead. We were designated as the “handling team”. When our team was notified, we carried the remains of our comrades to a collection site, downhill, downwind and out of sight of the wounded and replacements” (118). Our veterans sacrifice their lives to fight for us, and then we repay them by not really helping them readjust back to civilian life when they return from the war. Instead we let them suffer from PTSD.


            This vastly different war contained unique events that were the most significant in causing a mental illness like PTSD in our service men and women. The biggest of these events was the blood, there was blood everywhere. This soldier tells us about his experiences with blood while being a handler. “I have nightmares about those ponchos … slippery with blood; I see my bloody boots and the body bag zippers bleeding … I felt sick and disgusted. The images of the dead, the faces when I was putting them in the bags … haunt me to this day” (Montgomery III 117). Another event that is one of the major causes of PTSD the veterans experienced in the jungle was all of the killing. The guilty feeling of killing that the soldiers experienced was more than enough to push them over the edge mentally especially because they are fighting and killing more than just soldiers; they are also having to fight and kill women and children, anyone who shoots at them (Montgomery III 130). The author of the book Healing Suicidal Veterans explains how the guilty feeling of killing affects the veterans, and why they are affected by it. “The guilty feeling of killing can be enormous and haunt the veteran warrior for many years after the combat experience. Many veterans express feelings of guilt, because they enjoyed the hunt and the kill” (Montgomery III 131). One of the other main causes of PTSD is when a soldier is drafted and does not want to serve, but has no choice. Dan, a Vietnam veteran, tells us about his experience in Vietnam: “I [Dan] was drafted. I had no choice but to go. I have always been against brutality and feel so guilty about the killing I had to do in the war. I had to survive. I had to fight back or die. I had to fight or die. I was there; my squad was counting on me” (Montgomery III 134).  The onset of PTSD when a Veteran comes home from the war will create an overabundance of difficult challenges in readjusting to civilian life.


            The exposure to chemical agents affected Vietnam veteran’s readjustments to civilian life immediately after the war and much after life. In the Vietnam War a powerful experimental pesticide, Agent Orange, was used to kill foliage, to eliminate places for the Viet Cong to hide, to destroy their crops, and to move the tree line back from the edges of the important rivers the US controlled to prevent the US PT boats, and supply boats from getting ambushed with small arm fire and RPGs (“Chemical”). Agent Orange was deployed from helicopters and planes. The military personnel who were in South Vietnam are recognized by the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) as being at a high risk for 14 different ailments due to exposure to Agent Orange (“Chemical”). Other service members who were exposed to the defoliating agent are struggling to get government assistance for their treatment. The ailments considered to be at a high risk of catching are: nerve disorders, skin disorders, respiratory disorders, throat cancer, acute/chronic leukemia, Hodgkin’s lymphoma and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, prostate cancer, lung cancer, colon cancer, soft tissue sarcoma, and liver cancer (“Chemical”). The US Department of Affairs does not want to compensate veterans for the medical problems they have developed because of their exposure to Agent Orange. Our service members started to file claims in 1977 with the Department of Veterans Affairs, in an attempt at receiving disability payments for their healthcare conditions believed to be associated with Agent Orange (Montgomery 175). As of April 1993, the US Department of Veterans Affairs had only compensated 486 veterans, even though they had received over 39,419 disability claims from soldiers who had been exposed to Agent Orange while serving in Vietnam (“Chemical”).  The claims were unfortunately denied, unless they could prove their symptoms began when they were in the service or within one year of their discharge (“Chemical”). Not everyone who was involved in Operation Ranch Hand is at risk to getting sick because of exposure to Agent Orange. Operation Ranch Hand is the U.S. Military operation during the Vietnam War, lasting from 1962 until 1971. It was part of the overall herbicidal warfare program during the war called "Operation Trail Dust". Ranch Hand involved spraying an estimated 20 million US gallons of defoliants and herbicides over rural areas of South Vietnam in an attempt to deprive the Viet Cong of vegetation cover and food. Areas of Laos and Cambodia were also sprayed to a lesser extent. Nearly 20,000 sorties were flown between 1961 and 1971. The military personnel who are most at risk are those who loaded airplanes and helicopters with Agent Orange, members of the US Navy River Units, and those who were assigned to the Army Chemical Corps, which stored and mixed herbicides and defoliated the perimeters of our military bases (“Chemical”). Since 1996, the Department of Veteran’s Affairs and the CDC have been receiving numerous claims about veterans getting sick and dying because of Agent Orange. The Centers for Disease Control assigned Michael Gough to be chairmen of the panel that is investigating the matter (“Chemical”). However, the panel was unable to find inclusive results about a difference in the health of Vietnam veterans who had been in contact with the chemical, even though Air Force investigations were able to find an increased mortality rate for those who were exposed to Agent Orange.  Being exposed to Agent Orange makes it harder for veterans to readjust back to civilian life after they return from the war.


            Substance abuse has affected veterans in many ways. Vietnam veterans frequently say their service experiences affected their use of drugs (“Supplemental”). For the most part the drugs of choice for Vietnam veterans are heroin and alcohol. The veterans use the drugs to suppress the very prominent fear and tensions of war and to break the chain of PTSD (“Supplemental”). Generally, Vietnam service members did not think their drug abuse problems were a bad thing and were doing more harm than good. Those who had developed a drug problem were put on a two year treatment period, with an extended follow up period of five years, to make sure they do not relapse. Substance abuse can make it very hard for veterans to readjust back into their civilian lives.


            One result of substance abuse is homelessness, which is very common among Vietnam veterans. Currently there are 9000 veterans living on the street, 7000 of those are women (“Homeless”). Homelessness or unemployment in veterans is far more common than we think. At least 200,000 veterans spend at least part of their lives on the street, and 20% of all veterans are unemployed (“Homeless”). Our veterans are becoming homeless because they are returning home with substance abuse problems, and spending all of what they are earning to feed their desire for that substance. Also, the PTSD is preventing them from working by driving them into a deep, depressive state (“Homeless”). The veterans are also affected by redeployment anxiety, and are constantly nervous, and unable to get close to anything or anyone, which is all multiplied by their substance abuse problem. Oftentimes veterans who have returned home from the battleground struggle to readjust back into civilian life and end up becoming homeless or unemployed.


            After many years of research doctors and psychologist have found various ways that are useful in helping Vietnam GIs adjust back to their civilian lives. One of the first things our service members need to do to get themselves on the path towards recovery from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is they must work with a physiologist or by themselves to get rid of all of their unresolved and unprocessed survivor’s guilt, which will make their recovery from PTSD and depression nearly impossible if they are unable to get rid of it (Montgomery III 121). It is critical the service member gets some sort of therapeutic assistance because all of the guilt they are experiencing can really upset their lives. When they are getting therapy, one of the most important things they need to get from therapy is that their lives are not insignificant, and there are many people that are very happy they made it through the war alive (Montgomery III 121). They should also be told that because they made it out of the war alive they need to make the best of their lives and turn them into a tribute to their survival and to those who were not so lucky and did not make it out of Vietnam alive (Montgomery III 121).


Another method being used to heal veterans who have been diagnosed with PTSD is the Psychiatric Service Dog Program, led by Dr. Joan Esnayra. It uses dogs specially trained to work with mental health patients. The program allows veterans to take care of one of these dogs, and the interaction with the dogs helps the veterans overcome social isolation which is a huge problem with veterans today (Montgomery III 136). It also helps them take their minds off of all of the negative thoughts they might have had before. Today researchers are working very hard to develop ways to cure PTSD and depression in our veterans, which would help eliminate many of the difficult challenges our veterans face when they are trying to readjust back into civilian life when they return from the war. There are many ways our nation can help these veterans.


            One of the best qualities of our nation is our ability to band together and help other people. A good example of us helping a veteran happened in Duluth, Minnesota. A Vietnam veteran named Scott St. John had become too weak to take care of himself due to exposure to Agent Orange, and surgery on his feet left him unable to walk or stand. His community banded together and made all of the necessary repairs to his trailer and paid his rent because he was about to be evicted. He was unable to pay his rent because of so many medical bills. Hundreds of people showed up to help him or donated money.


“Among the volunteers was an Iraq War veteran who said the day he worked was his best since returning home in 2006. A local news reporter was so impressed with the story that she returned the next day to paint with the veterans. ‘Other veterans joined as members of the Disabled American Veterans Organization after seeing what the organization does,’ said Keeney. ‘It was cold work. We had to fight the cold and sleet to get the work done, but we did it.’ Volunteers added a new door, windows, siding, insulation, landscaped a front garden and erected a flagpole. The contractor built a ramp to make the trailer more accessible, and the DAV obtained a donated scooter so that St. John could easily move in and out of the trailer with no assistance. Work was started on Thursday and was finished on Sunday. An estimated $10,000 in building supplies was donated by Home Depot.” (Wilborn)

 

However the sad truth of reality is many of our veterans are unable to get the help and support they need. The government has helped our veterans when they returned through the GI bill which was passed during World War II and was active through the Korean War and then revised after 9/11 to provide benefits to our veterans like making it easier to be compensated for Agent Orange exposure claims. The GI bill provided benefits that included low-cost mortgages, loans to start a business or farm, cash payments to be used for tuition and living expenses associated with attending college, one year of unemployment, and free healthcare (“Making”). These benefits are available to all veterans not dishonorably discharged, they did not have to see any combat (“Making”). We need to reward our veterans for their sacrifices.


             What could be done for those who have risked their lives and limbs for our country’s freedom and to prevent the spread of communism? I propose seven ingeniously easy solutions that could greatly benefit our veterans and help them become full and productive citizens of the United States. After all of the life-changing events they have experienced, and all they have done for us, this is what they deserve and earned. The first of these solutions should be a federal law passed requiring companies to hold the current job of a veteran who has been deployed, and to make that job available to them when they return. This would eliminate the stress of finding a new job in this tough economy when they return from the war. The second solution is for veterans who did not have a job before deployment to be moved to the front of the line for all open federal jobs which they are qualified for. Some examples are: mailmen, postal service, national park system, border patrol, bounty hunting, federal highway projects, and police and other law enforcement. Another solution for the problem of finding a job would be the government giving companies who hire veteran’s tax breaks, the more veterans they hire the larger their tax break will be. Fourth, if a veteran is unable to find a job or get his old one back within one month they should be given free post-war job counseling to place those veterans in a job, and this counseling will not terminate until they are successfully placed in a job. The veterans may use this service for the rest of their lives if they ever have a hard time finding a job. The fifth solution to making the lives of veterans easier when they come home from the war is that they will receive free college tuition from the government, so they can receive a college degree. If they need job training, the government will give them the money to pay for that training. To make it easier for veterans and their immediate families to find housing when the service member returned from the war, the government should build housing communities and apartments in every state where groups of veterans and their families can live together. Tax breaks would be given to contractors and construction workers who volunteer their services and sacrifice their time to build these structures. The rent or mortgage payments would be prorated based on individual family’s income. The sixth solution is American automotive companies should give veterans discounts on cars, and the banks should give them low interest loans. Solution number seven is to provide veterans with medical coverage. They should be able to walk into any hospital in the United States, not just VA hospitals, and receive quality, free medical treatment. However, this coverage would cease when an employer based medical insurance becomes available to the service member. They will also receive free substance abuse counseling. Veteran’s families should have free Skyping available to them at public libraries, and government offices, at least once a week so veterans can stay in touch with their families if the service member is still on active duty. The final solution to making the lives of veterans easier when they return from the war is a government made website that lists all the companies that offer benefits and discounts to veterans. This would allow the veterans and their families to have all this important information in one place. Americans will have to make sacrifices on their part to pay back these veterans for the sacrifices they made. This could include paying higher taxes, talking to legislatures to support these solutions and the sacrificing of their time to help implement these strategies.


            In conclusion, because of the sacrifices made by the Vietnam veterans during their service to our country we owe it to them to provide all the help and support they need in readjusting to civilian life. The Vietnam veterans need our help to make the best of their lives and turn them into a tribute for their survival and a memorial for their comrades who sacrificed their lives in Vietnam. It would be an honor and a privilege to help these noble Vietnam veterans. These veterans made sacrifices for our freedom. It is only right that we as Americans make sacrifices to help the Vietnam veterans’ lead productive lives in the United States.

 

 

 

 

 

Works Cited

Cavanaugh, Maureen, and Sharon Heilbrunn. "War Comes Home: Repeated Deployments." War Comes Home: Repeated Deployments. 2009 Web. 24 Mar. 2012.

"Chemical concerns: Agent Orange still vital issue to Vietnam veterans." The Officer Sept.-Oct. 2011: 15. Student Resources in Context. Web. 27 Feb. 2012.

Danzer, Gerald A. The Americans. Evanston, IL: McDougal Littell, 2007. Print.

Hall, Mitchell K. Vietnam War Era: People and Perspectives. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2009. Print.

"Homeless soldiers." America 15 Nov. 2010: 4. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 27 Feb. 2012.

Kaiser, David E. American Tragedy: Kennedy, Johnson, and the Origins of the Vietnam War. Cambridge, MA: Belknap of Harvard UP, 2000. Print.

"Making Sense of It All." New GI Bill Info. Web. 13 May 2012. 

Montgomery III, MAEd., CMAC, RAS, Victor. Healing Suicidal Veterans: Recognizing, Supporting and Answering Their Pleas for Help. Far Hills, New Jersey: New Horizon, 2009. Print.

"Post Traumatic Stress Disorder." International Wellness Directory. International Wellness Directory, Minnesota, 1995. Web. 04 Mar. 2012.

"Supplemental Content." National Center for Biotechnology Information. U.S. National Library of Medicine. Web. 28 Feb. 2012.

"Veterans for Common Sense | Veterans for Common Sense." Veterans for Common Sense. 2012 Web. 24 Mar. 2012.

Wilborn, Thom. "Disabled veteran's home: volunteers, community repair." DAV Magazine Jan.-Feb. 2012: 13+. Student Resources in Context. Web. 27 Feb. 2012.


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