     America’s involvement in the Vietnam War is a controversial topic; however, because of American involvement, scientists are able to better understand the human brain. In 1980, psychiatrists were able to officially acknowledge Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result of external trauma and stress, and refute the previous belief that it was a result of mental weakness (Friedman, “History”). The Vietnam War has a direct correlation to the acknowledgement of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder because the war was very unique, which brought many different post-war effects, such as new traumatic stressors, that allowed this mental disorder to be researched more. Traumatic stressors are the essential building blocks of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder because they are the traumatic events that are powerful enough to cause recurring flashbacks, anxiety, and nightmares of the traumatic event (Friedman, “History”). Tim O’Brien’s account of the Vietnam War, “The Things They Carried,” shows differences between the Vietnam War and other wars by the effects it had on the characters’ subconscious. The development of guerrilla warfare and the DEROS system in the Vietnam War brought increased amounts of traumatic stressors to these soldiers, which turned some of them to drug use as a coping mechanism.  The array of traumatic stressors given to soldiers of the Vietnam War facilitated research, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder was officially acknowledged in 1980 as a direct result of the Vietnam War. 

     Post Traumatic Stress Disorder was a diagnosis that took one hundred years to officiate because the disorder was so vast, that it was hard to pinpoint one name for it. The official acknowledgment of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after the Vietnam War was a groundbreaking psychiatric discovery because scientists failed to encapsulate all the symptoms under one name.  Formal research of this disorder first began because a positive correlation was observed between American Civil War veterans and their increase in psychological symptoms after the war’s conclusion (Friedman, “PTSD”). In 1952, the American Psychiatric Association published the first attempt of diagnosing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder by stating that it was a reaction to “gross stress” (Friedman, “History”). Research showed the American Psychiatric Association that this disorder was linked to large amounts of stress; however, that is all they were able to discover at the time because there was a lack of researchable people exposed to significant amounts of traumatic stressors in 1952. In 1980, the official acknowledgement of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder was released by the American Psychiatry Association as a direct result of research conducted on Vietnam War veterans and victims of sexual trauma (Friedman, “History”). The acknowledgment of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder was iconic in psychiatric medicine because for the first time, patients experiencing symptoms of vivid flashbacks and heightened anxiety, hostility, and depression could no longer classify themselves as “weak,” but as a victim of extreme trauma and stress (Friedman, “History”). Because there was proved linkage between Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and extreme traumatic conditions, veterans, as well as other patients with this disorder, were no longer afraid to seek treatment for this condition. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder was no longer a threat to a veteran’s masculinity, like it was before the acknowledgement in 1980. 

     The bloodbath of traumatic stressors that guerrilla warfare gave to soldiers contributed to the acknowledgement of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder because researchers had never observed traumatic stressors to this degree before. The introduction American soldiers had to guerrilla warfare in the Vietnam War was unsolicited and unlike anything they expected to experience in the war; there was nothing that could prepare an individual for the horrors of guerrilla warfare. Guerrilla warfare was new development to American warfare strategies because America’s previous warfare techniques proved to be ineffective in the dense jungles of Vietnam with an unforeseen enemy. O’Brien’s experience of guerrilla warfare follows the description, “by daylight they took sniper fire, at night they were mortared…it was just the endless march” (7). Guerrilla warfare consisted of long periods of monotonous and careful lurking through the thick jungle, while trying not to detonate any hidden booby traps; they gory aspect of guerrilla warfare occurred at any possible moment when the silence was interrupted by the most intense combat from an enemy that was concealed by the jungle (Poliquin).  Guerrilla warfare was a huge precursor in laying the foundation of traumatic stressors for soldiers because of the unwarranted violence. Troops had to be prepared for ruthless combat at the first sound of a cocked gun; so American soldiers were constantly on edge for the duration of their twelve-month deportation. Because the soldiers could be attacked at any moment of their twelve-month stay, instinctual self-defense, from even the slightest of noise, quickly became a primitive and necessary tool for survival. The need of instinctual self defense for survival had a large psychological toll on soldiers and made adjustment back into civilian life after the war exponentially harder (Kilcullen). This war-developed instinct was researched after the war and contributed to the acknowledgement of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Guerrilla warfare gave soldiers significant amounts of traumatic stressors because of the daily bloodbath that desensitized soldiers. Guerrilla warfare gave soldiers a high amount of traumatic stressors that contributed to the acknowledgement of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder because it provided researchers with a very psychologically effected people to learn from. 

     Psychologists developed the Date of Expected Return from Overseas system specifically for the Vietnam War, which contributed to the acknowledgement of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder because the effects of solidarity amidst trauma. America’s involvement in the Vietnam War began in 1965: a significant thirteen years after the American Psychiatry Association released their first theory about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result of “gross stress” (Friedman, “History”). Because of this limited, yet useful, knowledge about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder at the start of American involvement in Vietnam, psychologists developed the “Date of Expected Return from Overseas” system, referred to as DEROS, with the soldiers’ mental health in mind. The development of DEROS was a preventative measure to limit the amount of gross stress and traumatic stressors on an individual soldier by establishing twelve-month long tours of time in the war (Moskos). By confining a soldier’s time in Vietnam to a twelve month long period, the soldiers knew exactly when they were going to return back to civilian life in America, which produced unexpected results. The DEROS system individualized the war by giving each soldier a different expected date of return from overseas. As the war continued, the population of Americans being affected by traumatic stressors in Vietnam was in a continuous cycle- exchanging the psychologically effected for the sane citizens. This cycle had significant impacts on unit cohesion because men were constantly entering and leaving the unit, because of the different dates of arrival and exit, and the overall morale of units were reduced because of the individuality (Moskos). Units did not rely on teamwork to get through the war because their time together was limited as a result of DEROS. Unlike previous wars, the soldiers did not train together, fight together, and then ultimately return home together because the whole system was individualized and isolative- meaning that soldiers who arrived in Vietnam and trained together were scattered among the different units, and each had different flights home (Poliquin). Units in previous wars had very intimate relationships with each other because they had been through the entirety of the war-from departure from America to re-emersion back into American society- together as one unit. The DEROS system prevented Vietnam soldiers from forming these relationships with each other, which produced psychological effects that were researched after the war. When the soldiers saw how ferocious the war truly was, they avoided trying to form these intimate relationships as a preventative measure to protect their emotional well-being. The soldiers quickly learned to not form intimate friendships because it protected them from feelings of remorse and grief by the ever-apparent death. In doing so, the isolation initiated by the DEROS system and prolonged by the soldiers gave Vietnam soldiers additional traumatic stressors. The solitude prevented soldiers and veterans from being able to talk about their experiences, both in Vietnam and after the war in America, which hindered psychological healing. Tim O’Brien’s account of the Vietnam War recognizes the effects of the DEROS system’s isolation by Lieutenant Jimmy Cross revealing emotions of feeling, “not lonely- just alone” (6). Because of the Vietnam War, O’Brien knows that loneliness and being alone are not synonymous. The character feels alone because he does not have any intimate friendships in Vietnam, but he is not lonely because there are strangers all around him. The solidarity produced by the “Date of Expected Return from Overseas” system had psychological effects on the psyche of Vietnam soldiers and veterans because they felt alone and had nobody to talk to and empathize about the war with. Today, the most recommended treatment for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is simply going to a therapist to talk about the traumatic stressor that is invading the patient’s mind (“Treatment”). Veterans who returned back into civilian life without having anyone to talk to proved to be a huge detriment to their mental health and suffered from more severe cases of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (“Treatment”).  As a result of the Date of Expected Return from Overseas system, researchers were able to observe the effects of solidarity amidst trauma, which facilitated the acknowledgement of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after the war. 

     The impact that guerrilla warfare and DEROS had on individuals in the Vietnam War turned soldiers to find coping mechanisms to numb the physical and emotional pains of war- common coping mechanisms for soldiers included the use and temporary escape of drugs. Guerrilla warfare’s high stress, suspenseful, and violent environment coupled with solitude from DEROS produced significant amounts of traumatic stressors on a large number of individuals. During the Vietnam War, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder had not been acknowledged yet, so there was no official or long-term treatment for the soldiers with symptoms of the disorder; however, that did not stop some soldiers from using self-medication as a means for a temporary escape. Some soldiers with symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder found alcohol, marijuana, heroin, and tranquilizers to be the substances most effective in easing the unpleasant pain brought by the disorder (Poliquin). In “The Things They Carried,” Ted Lavender’s mode of coping with the war was through the use of marijuana and tranquilizers (O’Brien 3). Ted Lavender’s use of tranquilizers and marijuana are effective in easing symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder because they both are depressants that decrease panic attacks and have very calming effects on the user (Poliquin). “The Things They Carried” does not explicitly mention ‘Post Traumatic Stress Disorder’ because the official title and list of symptoms of the disorder had not been published yet, but Ted Lavender’s use of marijuana and tranquilizers prove that he is a victim of the prevalent traumatic stressors in Vietnam, and one can only infer that it was Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Drug use was very common among soldiers in Vietnam because it helped the soldiers temporarily forget horrors of the war, and in Vietnam, these drugs were also very cheap, easily accessible, and legal (Hochgesang). Being able to escape a constantly chaotic and stressful environment to unwind, even by the use of drugs, is very helpful for individuals’ well-being and is a form of therapy and healing for people with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. People who experienced Post Traumatic Stress Disorder while in the war had to find something to dull the pain, of both the war and of the disorder. The combination of all the traumatic stressors proved to be too much on an individual, which led soldiers to turn to substances to calm down their subconscious. The research of causes and effects of drug use in a war zone were helpful in the acknowledgement of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

     The Vietnam War’s conclusion in 1975 facilitated the acknowledgement of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in 1980 because the war gave researchers a much larger number of psychologically effected people to study. The acknowledgement of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder fell specifically in the wake of the Vietnam War because only the Vietnam War used DEROS, which projected the traumatic stressors onto a much larger population of soldiers, compared to all other wars without DEROS (Kudler). Because of this, Dr. Kudler and his team were given a lot of cases to study as they started researching Vietnam veterans’ effects from the war in the mid-1970’s, discovering that Vietnam Veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder were much more symptomatic than veterans from World War II (Kudler).  As a result of this discovery, many other teams of psychologists focused their attention on the growing pool of Vietnam veterans as DEROS provided a steady stream of psychologically effected veterans fresh from the horrors of guerrilla warfare. Another psychiatric team observed a direct correlation in Vietnam veterans between drug usage and having Post Traumatic Stress Disorder symptoms, finding that the veterans who used the most drugs suffered from the most symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (Xue). The Vietnam War ultimately showed that there was so much unknown about the psychological tolls of war in the 1970’s, especially because roughly half of Vietnam veterans needed psychological help in emersion back into civilization, pushing psychologists to join together and find a diagnosis and treatment for the Vietnam Veterans (Andreasen). The effects of guerrilla warfare, DEROS, and drug use were thoroughly researched and contributed the official naming of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in 1980.

     In summary, the Vietnam War provided the perfect environment for the facilitation of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder’s research because of the high amount of traumatic stressors on a large number of people. If it were not for the Vietnam War, the naming of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder may not have come until several years after 1980. This is possible because the Vietnam War provided a unique combination of numerous traumatic stressors, which were later researched and helped psychologists understand the human brain better. This unique combination of stressors includes the traumatic effects of guerrilla warfare that was spread upon such a large body of people because of DEROS. No other war in American history had guerrilla warfare or DEROS, and the effects of it are why the Vietnam War had a direct correlation to the official acknowledgement of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in 1980. 
