ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the problem of readjustment to civilian life during the reentry period. It describes the psychological costs of the war experience. The chapter examines how war disrupts the social lives of veterans, in terms of deviant behavior and marital patterns. It focuses on how combat, witnessing abusive violence, and participation in abusive violence three factors contribute to postwar social and psychological adjustment. The Vietnam War's unpopularity resulted in a lack of public enthusiasm for its veterans. Media presentations by Vietnam veterans themselves emphasized the negative aspects of the war; and those Vietnam veterans who chose to write about the war stressed its destructive side. Many veterans have troubling thoughts about their war experiences and frightening dreams or nightmares. The descriptions of the recurrent psychological problems Vietnam veterans experience as a result of exposure to war stress can be more systematically measured through the use of the standard psychiatric epidemiological instruments.
