The war was waged against the entire Vietnamese population, designed to terrorize them into submission - Gabriel Kolko
Missing in Action The issue of missing soldiers was apparent in the jungles of Vietnam. This letter is from USAF Colonel Kimball M. Gaines at the Special Office for Prisoners of War and Missing in Action regarding unidentified skeletons of possible US soldiers found nearly 11 years after the official withdrawal of troops. This highlights the brutality of Vietnam combat. The U.S. listed about 2,500 Americans as prisoners of war or missing in action but only 1,200 Americans were reported killed in action and body not recovered. Many of these were Airmen who were shot down over North Vietnam or Laos. The fate of those missing in action has always been one of the most troubling and unsettling consequences of any war. In this case, the issue has been a highly emotional one to those involved, and is often considered the most depressing aftereffect of the Vietnam War for the United States. |
Effects of the War on American Soldiers
PTSD was officially recognized as a mental health condition in 1980, only five years after the end of the war. Instead of returning home as heroes as soldiers in the past had, Vietnam War veterans returned to find the United States torn apart by debate over the Vietnam War. There were no victory parades or welcome-home rallies. Instead, most Vietnam veterans returned to a society that did not seem to care about them, or that seemed to view them with distrust and anger.
Protests against U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War reached their climax in the 1970’s. The pressure they brought on the U.S. government was instrumental to the American military withdrawal from Vietnam in April, 1975.
"The decade of the 1970’s opened rather quietly. President Richard M. Nixon’s election in 1968 had quieted the antiwar movement, mostly because of his promise to end the war. Major demonstrations occurred in October and November of 1969, but Nixon claimed to ignore them. The quiet was disrupted in a loud and often violent way in the spring of 1970, when Nixon announced that U.S. troops were invading Cambodia. This announcement created one of the nation’s biggest crises since the urban unrest of the 1960’s. College campuses, high schools, and towns across the nation became the scenes of protests and rallies, many of them violent.
"The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage
The US POW/MIA or National League of Families of American Prisoners existed for the families of the missing servicemen in Vietnam. The wife of a missing serviceman, Mary Helen Hoff recognized the need for a symbol commemorating the soldiers and families that sacrificed during war. It was a necessary step to bring awareness to the problem of war in the US.
1. United States Marine Corps film MH-10278-F. Accessed January 9, 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oGvNYJTtqI
2. Antiwar and Radical History. Retrieved January 8, 2018 from http://depts.washington.edu/antiwar/photo_lonidier.php
3. post-1975 Vietnam: Air Force MIA from Vietnam War Identified. 2006. Manuscript/Mixed Material. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <https://www.loc.gov/item/powmia/pw106319/>.
4. Begg, Dan. “PTSD in Vietnam.” History of PTSD Through Warfare, historyofptsd.umwblogs.org/vietnam/.
5.Jacobs, Ron. "Anti-Vietnam War Demonstrations." Salem Press Encyclopedia, January. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ers&AN=89110766&site=eds-live.