Soldier Suicide as Political Statement Essay

Hundreds of thousands of United States veterans are not able to leave the horrors of war on the battlefield (“Forever at War: Veterans Everyday Battles with PTSD” 1). Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is the reason why these courageous military service members cannot live a normal life when they are discharged. One out of every five military service members on combat tours—about 300,000 so far—return home with symptoms of PTSD or major depression. According to the Rand Study, almost half of these cases go untreated because of the disgrace that the military and civil society attach to mental disorders (McGirk 1). The general population of the world has to admit that they have had a nightmare before. Imagine not being able to sleep one

This cultivated several protests throughout the United States at the time, which called for the end of the Vietnam War for a variety of reasons. The main reason being that there was no direct threat to the United States for them to send troops, and invest money in this war. The second reason came after the United States engaged in war, and the public was beginning to see images from Vietnam, followed by reports of the civilian death tolls caused by the U.S. military. There were several accusations of war crimes within the Vietnam War, and the U.S. military was being painted as the perpetrator. In the document titled “The Ethics of the Vietnam War” it was stated that, “the US Government directly violated multiple principles of Just War theory during the Vietnam War “(Ewing, 3). It turned into a domino effect where soldiers were returning home and in turn suffering, many with traumatic experiences disturbing their peace alongside other mental illnesses. This leads to the second question of ethics, the help and treatment provided to soldiers upon returning home, or better yet the lack of help. The psychological trauma endured by soldiers was at one point disregarded, and they were punished for it. Due to the nature of the Vietnam War a lot of soldiers were developing PTSD, yet nothing was necessarily being done about it. In “Fields of Combat” by Erin P. Finley, spoke about the negligence on behalf of the military, government, and the American society as a whole by stating that, “failure to make place for PTSD would be equivalent to blaming the victim for his misfortunes..."(Finley, 69). The above-mentioned situations could be seen as having violated a code of ethics or two. As history tends to repeat itself, its very important that as a society, the

Firstly there was a massive group of people that protested in New York City during April 15th 1967. There were approximately:”100,000-125,000 individuals who marched from Central Park to the United Nations Building to demand an end to American military operations in Vietnam”(Scott, 2004). The anti-war demonstrations offered the opportunity for twenty Vietnam veterans to escort their movement. In addition the veterans jubilantly agreed to lead the assembly of anti-war protestors which conspicuously portrayed a sign that mentioned “Vietnam Veterans against the War” (Scott, 2004). Henceforth there were six of the Vietnam veterans who had led the anti-war movement who decided to create group which was vehemently opposed to involvement

Stressed by war and long overseas tours, U.S. soldiers killed themselves last year at the highest rate on record, the toll rising for a fourth straight year and even surpassing the suicide rate among comparable civilians. Army leaders said they were doing everything they could think of to curb the deaths and appealed for more mental health professionals to join and help out. Clearly, the military is going above and beyond to try and prevent further lives from being taken.

From one perspective war has always been the same, technology may improve or philosophies may change, but wars are started by those in power and fought by the poor. The results now may be somewhat different from 1775, post-Revolutionary war time with rebellions like Shay’s Rebellion, but the various reasons for the poor to join the military have stayed relatively the same.

The Vietnam War made impacts on the movement back home. As in 1967 Martin Luther King Jr. even went against his own beliefs of not speaking out about the war he began preaching that it is truly sad to see African American people and the poor who can not make a living, being drafted (Doc C). Not only were they being drafted they were also dying at a much higher rate then just about every other group in society (Doc C). MLK also stated that these individuals were fighting to establish peace and rights over in Vietnam, while they did not even have these for themselves (Doc C). During the Vietnam years there still was some of the American population who supported the war, but would not speak out publicly about supporting the actions. This group was given the name the silent majority. Richard Nixon while in office spoke out about the group saying that the silent majority needs to speak out publicly as all the messages going around about the war are negative (Doc G). He also said in his speech that even though some people may not like the war everyone should help in the mind of creating peace in South Vietnam and that without everyone coming together in the nation that the US military could be defeated in the war (Doc

Martin Luther King was firmly against the war in Vietnam. He successfully and eloquently pointed out many of the injustices and hypocrisies of the war. First the war disproportionately affects the poor by drawing away government resources that would otherwise benefit the poor. Second, the draft pulled mainly from poor communities as those more affluent could avoid the draft through college deferments or other means. As a result, poor communities suffer more as young men die. “We were taking the black young men who had been crippled by our society and sending them eight thousand miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which they had not found in southwest Georgia and East Harlem”. (MLK- A Time to Break Silence Par 5) Third, that the American use of violence to solve its problems was both immoral and also destined to fail and incompatible with American values of self determination. Fourth, by supporting anti-communist despots we undermine our message of peace and prosperity. “...as we increased our troop commitments in support of governments which were singularly corrupt, inept, and without popular support. All the while the people read our leaflets and received the regular promises of peace and democracy and land reform. Now they languish under our bombs and

A general unpopular opinion swept through America and intensified through the twenty years of the Vietnam War. In past wars, a soldier’s friends and family looked forwards to seeing their loved one return home. Up until the Vietnam War, veterans were treated with an immense amount of respect for the sacrifices they made for their country. However, the Vietnam veterans were received with resentment, and were often left to readjust to society alone. The veterans were isolated from the rest of society, leaving them without a community to provide support economically and emotionally as they transitioned back to civilian life

“Working-Class War: American Combat Soldiers and Vietnam” is a book written by Christian G. Appy. The book examines the class difference between the soldiers who were dragged into or participated in the Vietnam War. Author attempts to prove that working-class youth has bore more burdens in the war than those from higher socioeconomic background. In order to prove his point, Appy includes various statistics in his book. Moreover, the book contains real experiences of the Vietnam Veterans from diverse backgrounds.

The impact of the Vietnam War upon the soldiers who fought there was huge. The experience forever changed how they would think and act for the rest of their lives. One of the main reasons for this was there was little to no understanding by the soldiers as to why they were fighting this war. They felt they were killing innocent people, farmers, poor hard working people, women, and children were among their victims. Many of the returning soldiers could not fall back in to their old life styles. First they felt guilt for surviving many of their brothers in arms. Second they were haunted by the atrocities of war. Some soldiers could not go back to the mental state of peacetime. Then there were soldiers Tim O’Brien meant while in

Many veterans are unable to leave behind the trauma of Vietnam and psychologically return home. They struggle with a variety of extremely severe problems that neither they nor their families, friends, or communities knew how to understand

The Vietnam War started in 1945, resulting in almost 60,000 American deaths and nearly two million Vietnamese deaths, according to Mintze. Years after combat countless Vietnam veterans suffer from posttraumatic stress disorder in every aspect of their lives (Price). Posttraumatic stress disorder is an illness that can happen to anyone who has gone through a horrifying experience. It has been documented in all forms of literature and films the brutality of the war and the side effects it came with. The history of Vietnam is quite long and winding and leaves one to question its purpose (Mintze).

In 1967, 64 percent of all eligible African-Americans were drafted versus only 31 percent of eligible whites (Black 2009). This fact testifies to only a small portion of why nearly all African-Americans found themselves protesting against the Vietnam War. The lack of civil rights in the U.S deterred many blacks from supporting Vietnam, a conflict aimed at liberating the rights of another people. African Americans were frustrated with a country who fought for other citizens and saw no purpose in fighting for a peoples’ freedom but their own. Although African-Americans were specifically discriminated against both in Vietnam and America, they were not alone in their anti-war position. The majority of the American public opposed the Vietnam War. As the war dragged on, people found no reason to fight in Vietnam and believed that the United States should prioritize their own citizens first. Many public figures, such as Martin Luther King, Jr., and Muhammad Ali, held similar claims. Their opinions aligned with the public’s concern and suggested that the U.S withdraw troops and focus resources on the civil rights issues at home. These public figures fought for a specific minority, but, in light of the entire American population, the majority of people opposed the war.

They are literally everywhere we turn to look our soldiers are committing suicide and all

In the war-zone, soldiers are taxed physically and emotionally in ways that are unprecedented for them. War-zone experiences create demands and tax soldiers and unit morale in shocking ways (The Returning Veteran of the Iraq War). Soldiers go through intense training before they are deployed that prepares them for the casualties of war in a way that numbs them emotionally and morally. Stephen Crane introduces this to us in “War Is Kind”, saying “These men were born to drill and die.” By saying this, he is showing us the reality of the war, saying that these men are drilled so hard that by the time their training is done, the only thing they know how to do is kill and then get killed. This training and practice of getting rid of emotions contributes to the stress and separation issues soldiers face after returning home from war. Veterans are at risk for depression, substance abuse, aggressive behavior problems, and the spectrum of severe mental illnesses precipitated by the stress of war (The Returning Veteran…). America prefers to shove these problems to the side instead of facing them directly, even though they are so clearly represented in the veterans, and even young soldiers coming back from