The War Came Home

Viet Nam veterans are still fighting for help

The U.S. involvement in the Viet Nam War ended six years ago, but the fighting and suffering go on for many of its veterans. Since 1979 Congress has appropriated more than $20 million for Operation Outreach, a network of 91 storefront counseling centers for psychologically distressed Viet vets. The centers have helped 50,000 of the 2.8 million Viet Nam veterans readjust to American life. Despite their success and popularity, Ronald Reagan put them on his list of Government programs destined for budgetary oblivion.

The best argument for preserving the program emerged last week: the first comprehensive study on the toll of the Viet Nam War on the Americans who served, undertaken by the Center for Policy Research in New York City and published by the Veterans Administration. Researchers, who interviewed 1,380 Viet Nam vets, concluded that they have been paying a disproportionate social price for their experience. Fully 24% of veterans who saw heavy combat were later arrested for criminal offenses. Though 70% went back to school, few finished. The vets have difficulty getting and holding jobs and have higher than average rates of drug and alcohol abuse.

The study also found that stress reactions--occurring even ten years after combat--are particularly acute for those who served after the 1968 Tet offensive, when combat escalated. In addition, the study showed that six out of every ten men either opposed or did not understand the war in which they were fighting. Potential adjustment problems were exacerbated by the divisive mood of the country when the soldiers came home. That ambivalence persists: the return of the Iranian hostages and the attendant celebrations made many Viet Nam veterans agonize anew over their status as social outcasts. Says Lee Sloan, associate director of the study: "They got blamed for losing. They got blamed for going. They got blamed for the atrocities."

The Outreach counseling centers have been particularly helpful in giving guidance to veterans still overcome by combat memories and alienation. The center in Atlanta has counseled 1,500 veterans in 14 months. One veteran stopped by to talk on his way to commit an armed robbery. He was dissuaded. Another, Daniel Parker, 30, tries to exorcise his nightmares. Sometimes when he sees his three children sleeping, he flashes back to the day his patrol swept a village. Trained to shoot at anything that moved, he fired at a basket. When he turned it over, he found three dead babies. After being wounded and returning to the U.S. in 1969, Parker had difficulty keeping a job. In the past year, counselors have talked with him about his feelings of guilt and found him work as a security guard. Says Parker: "I'd be dead today without this vet center."

Viet Nam veterans feel betrayed by a Reagan Administration that would abolish the counseling centers. They are especially angered that David Stockman, head of the Office of Management and Budget, spent the Viet Nam War years in divinity school. Says Robert Muller, executive director of the Council of Viet Nam Veterans: "Stockman has treated us with arrogance and with contempt." As Muller sees it, the Government and the Veterans Administration have not lobbied hard on behalf of the Viet vets because they are more committed to those who served in World War II and Korea. Those veterans are more interested in pensions; the Viet Nam vets want counseling, job training and psychological care.

Democrat Gary Hart of Colorado has introduced an amendment to the budget proposal in the Senate Finance Committee to reduce VA cuts by $25 million --and save the centers. The veterans' affairs committees in both houses appear inclined to restore funds for them. Meanwhile, Muller is proposing a $250 million package for Congress to help Viet Nam veterans even more. His goals: hiring additional personnel for the counseling program; assisting the vets in finding jobs; requiring the VA to determine if the vets will get help for problems related to the herbicide Agent Orange; and extending the time that they can use the G.I. Bill, now limited to ten years from discharge. Sums up Lynda Van Devanter, 33, a surgical nurse who served in Viet Nam in 1972: "Viet Nam was hell, and anyone who has been through hell needs some help." qed

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