ABSTRACT
War tears open and destroys ordinary categories of existence. It not only wounds the soul and its ties with the world but also breaks open the society, cracking our social containers so that the cultural shadow leaks out. War invites all that is primitive, suppressed, denied, or disguised in a particular culture. Examining war from an archetypal perspective, this essay demonstrates how the Vietnam War revealed all the violence and suffering that Americans resist recognizing and accepting. Lending an ear to the veterans from Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq, the essay reflects how their suffering—alienation, nightmares, flashbacks, violent behavior, drug and alcohol abuse, intimacy and employment problems—reflects the cloud of despair and moral stain that settled over America as a result of its violent actions across the globe. As one Vietnam veteran is quoted saying: “The main lesson I learned in Vietnam is that Denial is the name of the all-American disease.”
