A new study finds that almost 19 percent of the more than three million U.S. troops who served in Vietnam returned with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It's a condition that left them with invasive memories, nightmares, loss of concentration, feelings of guilt, irritability and, in some cases, major depression. More than ten years after the war, 10 percent of them still could not leave the war behind.

Wars throughout the ages often triggered what some people used to call "shell shock," in which returning soldiers were unable to adapt to life after war. Although each successive war brings about renewed attention on this syndrome, it wasn't until the Vietnam War that PTSD was first identified and given this name. 

Vietnam Veterans also struggle with a number of psychological disorders other than PTSD. The most commonly reported disorders vary slightly between male and female Veterans. However, depression, anxiety, and alcohol problems are typically the most prevalent across groups

For starters, both the author and the narrator were in Quang Ngai Province in Vietnam at the same time (1969-1970); both were drafted after graduating summa cum laude from college, where they had protested against the war; both considered fleeing to Canada to avoid the draft; and each proclaimed that the reason he went to Vietnam was that he was a coward.

“Later, I remember, Kiowa tried to tell me that the man would’ve died anyway. He told me that it was a good kill, that I was a soldier and this was a war, that I should shape up and stop staring and ask myself what the dead man would’ve done if things were reversed.” (127)

"Did you want to kill him, Buck?"

"Well, I bet I did."

"What did he do to you?"

"Him?  He never done nothing to me."

"Well, then, what did you want to kill him for?"

"Why, nothing—only it's on account of the feud."

"What's a feud?"

"Why, where was you raised?  Don't you know what a feud is?"

‘ “Now, the way I look at it, a hickry-bark ladder don't cost nothing, and don't waste nothing,

and is just as good to load up a pie with, and hide in a straw tick, as any rag ladder you can

start; and as for Jim, he ain't had no experience, and so he don't care what kind of a—"

"Oh, shucks, Huck Finn, if I was as ignorant as you I'd keep still—that's what I'd do.  Who ever

heard of a state prisoner escaping by a hickry-bark ladder?  Why, it's perfectly ridiculous." ‘

how O’Brien bent his own life story to create a fictional world that feels more true than what really ever happened, such as the creation of his make-believe daughter to replace his real world girlfriend who was present in his confessional article  “The Vietnam in Me”.  

“In our way station of shadows

rock apes tried to blow our cover,

throwing stones at the sunset. Chameleons

crawled our spines, changing from day

to night: green to gold,

gold to black. But we waited

till the moon touched metal,

Komunyakaa notes the many days of silence, lying in wait for a chance to strike in the L ambush formation.

   War has always pushed the progression of culture, most notably in the form of literature and medical science. War itself is a strange paradoxical part of culture in the aspect of that is an integral and permanent part but is often put into the category of a self destructive and mindless act. This large force pulls the combatants into a highly pressurized environment, which forces each and every soldier to take a stand on multiple problems.

Modell and Haggerty note that the stories of a soldier coming back from war with wounds not just of body but also of the mind and spirit in current times are essentially the same as the epic of old such as the Odyssey

rampant insubordination in the use of dugs and lethargy on account of the wars rapidly declining popularity that occurred throughout the entire 12-year campaign.