4 - The Black Vault

THE BDM CORPORATION
without leave, 60 percent having had Article Fifteens,
and 40 percent having been court martialed at least
once. 77/
Hopefully, as more of such information is gathered and analyzed, the fine
tuning of the various cause and effect relationships governing the incidents
of psychiatric casualties in combat will be better understood and
more easily controlled.
E. INSIGHTS
The following useful iinsights are derived from the foreg'oing dis-
0 A variety of factors affected the incidence of psychiatric
casualties among soldiers serving during the Vietnam War. Some of
the factors were not new to Vietnam--indeed some are very old.
The most important of these is exposure to combat. Others
include:
the workings and cohesiveness of the primary group, the
quality of leaders-:ip, the age and background of the combatants,
including their pre-existing psychological problems, the nature
of society, and the quality of training. Other factors affecting
mental health which were unique to or especially significant in
Vietnam include: the operation and effects of the one-year and
six-m,, th tours of duty and related policies, the nature of the
combat (the tactics, the confusion of enemy and allied personnel
and civilians, the rules of engagement, the nature of the support
system, and so on), the quality ov the medical and psychiatric
support systems, and the ready availability of drugs, to name
some of the more important. Contrary to the beliefs of many, the
Simprp t of the antiwar movement, while not negligible, seems to
have played only a ..Ainor stress-provoking role. See Chapter 4.
* A variety of coping mechanisms were observed in Vietnam as in
other wars.
These includod religicais faith, rituals, superstitions,
various forms of escapism, excessive sleep. spending
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