ABSTRACT
When people think about the mental health effects of having served in Vietnam, the central focus of concern is post-traumatic stress disorder. Certainly, mental health practitioners are concerned with the signs and symptoms of this disorder. Planning for mental health services for Vietnam veterans also tends to focus on the prevalence of the disorder. Nonetheless, there are other important issues about the legacy of having served in Vietnam that may not involve mental health at all. A major focus of the NVVRS, and a major question that Congress and the Veterans Administration wanted answered, was: What other problems of readjustment do Vietnam veterans have and how serious are they?
This chapter presents answers to the questions. The participants in the NVVRS responded to a series of questions regarding financial and vocational issues, educational goals, career paths, marital and family functioning, and overall feelings of life satisfaction or dissatisfaction. In sum, the NVVRS attempted to get a fix on the quality of life each study participant was enjoying.
Other specific adjustment problems that were studied—the results of which are presented in this chapter—are the more poignant, upsetting, and gnawing issues sometimes associated with very troubled Vietnam veterans: homelessness, isolation and loneliness, violence and belligerence, and involvement with the criminal justice system in terms of arrest, conviction, and incarceration.
Very important for understanding the results for Vietnam theater veterans are the comparable results for the two main study control groups—era veterans and civilian counterparts. Even though there 140may be serious readjustment problems within some subgroups of theater veterans, the overall comparison of theater veterans with era veterans and civilian counterparts is a better gauge of the impact of service in the Vietnam theater on readjustment to civilian life.
