Walking Wounded: Men's Lives During and Since the Vietnam War (Frontiers in Psychotherapy) [Hardcover]

Steve Trimm (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1993 | ISBN-10: 0893918067 | ISBN-13: 978-0893918064

This book examines the Vietnam Survivor: a broad category of persons, military and civilian, negatively affected by the Vietnam experience- and sometimes in unexpected ways, positively affected. The book examines the lives of four men: one a combat Marine in Vietnam, another serving in the Army, a Conscientious Objector, and a War Resistor. Although on opposite ends of the political spectrum, each of the four were traumatized by the war experience. These men are candid about rage, emotional numbing, substance abuse, psychosexual confusion, and depression. Although the specifics of the men's traumas are different, how they responded to trauma, and how American society responded to them, were often remarkably similar.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 226 pages
• Publisher: Ablex Publishing (January 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0893918067
• ISBN-13: 978-0893918064
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,263,704 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A 23 Year Follow Up of 4 Vietnam Era Survivors!, September 6, 2008

By 

Bernie Weisz "a historian specializing in the... (Pembroke Pines,Florida U.S.A.) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Walking Wounded: Men's Lives During and Since the Vietnam War (Frontiers in Psychotherapy) (Hardcover)

Why is this book so expensive? Because it's so good? Or because it has a limited printing? Or both? Or is it because it is "intentionally suppressed" governmentally because it's too politically explosive in the wake of the increased unpopularity of the war with Iraq? I went to great lengths to obtain this, e.g. a 6 month waiting list on "interlibrary loan" and finally I obtained a copy in Pembroke Pines, Florida on loan from the Albany Public Library, Albany, N.Y. (ironically, exactly where I did my undergraduate studies, i.e. S.U.N.Y Albany). IT WAS WELL WORTH my endeavors! The author, Steve Trimm, sets out to prove a point that even now is a misconception:that it was commonly believed during the Vietnam War that Vietnam Veterans and Peace activists hated one another, that they were natural antagonists. Trimm points out the differences. Most draftees were made up of working class and poor people age 18-22. Most people opposing the war was of the middle and upper class. The initial supposition of antagonism between the two groups made sense, as because since different social classes in the U.S. never thought well of one another, it's only logical to assume that mutual hostility would, especially with the stress of war thrown into the mix, make it more apparent.

Trimm's premise, and the whole following story, shows that anything but the following is the truth. Trimm argues that both war resisters and combatants were one and the same. To prove this, Trimm shows that both groups were not anonymous to the other, they were both ordinary teenagers, they often went to the same high schools, lived in the same neighborhoods, and that most Vietnam Veterans didn't believe in the war! In the Service of Their Country: War Resisters in Prison It is common knowledge of this group identification even after the Tet Offensive of 1968 whereupon every single U.S. base, Vietnamese Province and City came under attack by both the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army-despite the false belief that the U.S. was winning the war! Most G.I's unconsciously thought that while executing endless search and destroy missions against an elusive enemy, they didn't want to be the last G.I. to die in a war that the U.S.was looking to get out of! In the backdrop of Trimm's book, there is another book by James S. Olsen and Randy Roberts called "Where the Domino Fell" where these two authors really give a sense as to what the newly drafted 18 year old faced when he got off the airplane in Vietnam for the first time. It states:"The military faced epidemics of "fragging" and drug abuse. "Fragging" was a term used to describe the assassination of overzealous officers and noncommissioned officers by their own troops.

Fragging first appeared in the Mekong Delta (the southernmost part of South Vietnam) in 1967 when several American platoons were known for pooling their money to pay an individual for killing a hated officer or NCO, usually by throwing a fragmentation grenade into a tent, destroying the victim along with the weapon and leaving no evidence. To warn an officer who was too "gung ho", troops might leave an grenade pin on his pillow or throw a smoke grenade into his tent. If he persisted, one of his men would "frag" him. During the Vietnam War, the Army claimed that 1,011 officers and NCO's were killed or wounded at the hands of their own men. There were 96 documented cases in 1969, 209 in 1970, and 333 confirmed and another 158 suspected incidents in 1971. Fragging: Why U.S. Soldiers Assaulted Their Officers in Vietnam (Modern Southeast Asia) In 1970 and 1971 American combat deaths in South Vietnam totaled 5,602 people, and the number of confirmed fraggings was 542. After the battle of "Hamburger Hill" in 1969, one underground G.I. newspaper carried an ad offering a $10,000 reward for fragging the officers who ordered the men up the hill. But fragging was not the only sign of an army in crisis.

Drug abuse reached epidemic proportions. From the "Golden Triangle" of Laos, Burma and Thailand, a river of heroin, marijuana, and opium flowed into South Vietnam. A steady supply of amphetamines came from the U.S. and from makeshift labs in Saigon. Drugs were everywhere, like candy and ice cream on the street. Inefficient and ineffective in war, South Vietnamese government officials proved to be efficient and effective drug suppliers. A heroin addiction requiring $150 a day on the South Side of Chicago could be maintained in Saigon for $2 a day. The Pentagon estimated at the end of 1969 that nearly 2 of every 3 American soldiers in S. Vietnam were using marijuana and an astonishing one out of every 3 had tried heroin. Tens of thousands of G.I.'s returned home with the "monkey on their backs"-a full blown heroin addiction. The Myth of the Addicted Army: Vietnam and the Modern War on Drugs (Culture, Politics, and the Cold War) Late in 1970 CBS News brought the story home to the American people by broadcasting a "smoke-in" at a First Cavalry fire base, in which G.I's smoked marijuana through the barrel of a combat rifle. Fragging and drug abuse were so severe that Pentagon officials began to worry about the possibility of a military rebellion or collapse.

Reports of field units bordering on mutiny in their refusal to carry out combat operations became increasingly frequent. The malaise completely infected the military, transforming it from the proud, confident institution of 1965 into the skeptical, alienated army of 1970. The killing machine was turning on itself. General Creighton Abrams (in charge of all armed forces in Vietnam, successor to Gen. William Westmoreland) could not believe what was happening:What the hell is going on (here in Vietnam)? I've got white shirts all over the place-psychologists, drug counselors, detox specialists, rehab people, social workers, and psychiatrists. Is this a goddamned army or a mental hospital? Officers are afraid to lead their men in battle, and the men won't follow. Jesus Christ! What happened?" This is the backdrop that Trimm's 2 friends found themselves Platoon Leaders in Vietnam when they arrived in 1970. Trimm stresses that many of the peace activists hated the Vietnam War, not the warriors (our troops). Therefore, the main premise, through the lives and a 23 year follow up (1966-1989) of 4 young men (2, as mentioned were combat marines in Vietnam, one, the author, was a Conscientious Objector, and the other was a Quaker, then later a war resister and a champion of Gay Rights (all initially friends in high school) attempts to prove the following:"This book proves testimony that, despite propaganda urging them to despise one another-Veterans and Peace Activists respected one another. They respected one another before, during, and after the war.

The second contention Trimm makes is that psychologically and emotionally, both Vets and Peace Activists shared so much in common that they made up one group which he called "Vietnam Survivors" or as the title suggests, and as you will cull from each one of their stories over a 23 year period, that they were the "Walking Wounded". Trimm points out many truths. Vietnam Vets suffered badly while in Vietnam with "Rules of Engagement", which were frustrating limits of where and where not U.S. forces could pursue the enemy, the futility of militarily taking hills victoriously in battles and then giving them back to the enemy-thus disrespecting those American G.I's that lost their lives in the process, racial tensions, as already mentioned drug abuse and finally incompetent leadership-both American (Gen. William Westmoreland & Creighton Abrams) and with never ending unstable South Vietnamese leaders (Ngo Dinh Diem, Nguyen Van Thieu). How We Lost the Vietnam WarA good reference of instability, corruption, constant coups and turmoil amongst South Vietnamese leadership can be read in Nguyen Cao Ky's book.

What happened to Vietnam Vets when they returned from the war? They were equally treated badly, with taunts of "baby-killer" (fall-out from the "My Lai Massacre" where on March 16, 1968, a battle-scarred American fighting unit entered the Vietnamese hamlet of My Lai and massacred in cold blood 400 unarmed women, children and old men, and "loser" (people forgot that we also "lost" the war in Korea 1950-1953). Four Hours in My Lai In fact, most returning Vets quickly shed their uniforms upon arriving stateside to avoid these taunts. Conversely, those that opposed the war suffered badly as well, from being imprisoned as a consequence of avoiding the draft to fleeing this country to Sweden or Canada. Clearly, Trimm proves that many of those who fought in Vietnam, and many of those who refused to fight were equally victimized. "Walking Wounded" means both groups were hurt by the Vietnam debacle and are, even today, in need of healing. Mr. Trimm truly provokes one's conscience by showing that society sends out confusing, mixed messages. On one hand, society says "To serve your country in the military is honorable and good". Yet, with the stigma of a lost war and the commission of genocide, not to mention far reaching consequences from the tragedy of the poisonous herbicide "Dioxin" (Agent Orange), most Veterans were "often condemned for having served in Vietnam, or were met by embarrassed silence when the subject of Vietnam was mentioned." Waiting for an Army to Die: The Tragedy of Agent Orange Equally true, society also says "To follow your conscience and do what you believe is right, honorable and good".

So what happened to those "Walking Wounded" American... Read more ›