some kind of dark streak that just ran through our culture. And there it is: VIETNAM. Ho Chi Minh and those freedom fighters realized that they came from a heritage of oppression. They had been fighting France for 150 years or longer. At some point in their cultural development they understood death. They looked at death and saw that it was — perhaps, a part of the process in obtaining true liberation. They no longer mystified it. But we’re dealing with violence here. This is a very violent country. Violence is everywhere, and we don’t want to understand it. If you want the good things — change in America, you have to be willing to die for them. You have to believe that much. Our culture has given us so many distractions it has taken away our purpose. Our focus. The true inherent death wish of America manifested itself in Vietnam! The vets saw it. They tried to relay that message. But we don’t even want to look at it, man! That’s what scares me, Walt. Maybe we should sit back and reexamine our policy and where we’re going. But rather than that — we swept it under the rug! All you have to do is look at TV! Look at TV and see how Vietnam veterans are portrayed! You have any psychopath holding people hostage — that cat is connected with Vietnam somehow. I mean, the Hollywood syndrome, TV thing about Vietnam veterans is that we’re screwed up! That we’re psychologically damaged from that war — psychologically damaged to hurt people. That doesn’t help us at all, either. It just reinforces a negative image. Walt: Those are the exceptional cases. What you have is a lot of other people who are suffering quietly. Don’t you? Dennis: I’m working in a restaurant busing dishes, busing tables. And the dishwasher is a Vietnam vet with a silver star! He has a wife and kids. He’s not a dumb guy. This is the best he can get. Stress Disorder Since we have ignored the veterans so much,” Dennis continues, “there isn’t any way for my friends to say they need help. People don’t have to say, ‘I need help.’ You can watch their behavior — and see it.” Dennis believes the Veterans’ Administration is not always receptive to VV’s. “A lot of times when I go to the VA — there’s no respect there. You’re just another number, another "I got bach from 'Nam and out of the army on the same day! Bop! One day you9re there 9 and the next day you9re home," pain in the ass they write paperwork on.” According to the experts, possibly as many as 40 to 50 percent of Vietnam combat veterans could be having problems adjusting to civilian life. Many need professional help to overcome severe depression and alcohol- related disorders. John P. Wilson, in his massive statistical study, Identity, Ideology and Crisis: The Vietnam Veteran in Transition, states: “Often [the VV] sees himself as an ‘outsider’ who has trouble finding a niche in society.... [He] is likely to be an unemployed, angry individual who drinks heavily and fights with those closest to him. In many respects he is confused about himself and his future goals and feels nothing really matters in life. Clearly, these men are the casualties of the war.” Dennis and I were batting around figures. Newsweek says there are 8,700,000 Vietnam-era veterans. Probably two to three million were in combat. So we arrive at the possibility that 750,000 to a million veterans need in-house or outpatient treatment for delayed stress. For some, it’s too late. (“Sylvester Stallone, famous for the Rocky movies, quotes the rather startling statistic that 265,000 VV’s have died violently after serving in the war!) Chaim Shatan, who is given credit for coining the term “Post-Vietnam Syndrome,” says PVSD consists of a constellation of symptoms: 1) guilt at surviving while friends did not and for killing without real justification; 2) feeling scapegoated or betrayed by society; 3) rage from combat brutalization; and 4) alienation and psychic numbing due to risking positive emotion toward others who might be killed. Although it’s an offshoot of the VA, the organization known as The Vet Center, Dennis said, is receptive to the problems of VV’s. However, he believes they are underfunded and too small. Vietnam veterans need a lot more help than they are getting. “Basically, they need someone who cares. Someone who will readily admit certain things, and not take the clinical attitude.” The Vet Center visited The Vet Center, located at 2450 S.E. Belmont. There, I spoke with Bari, a short blonde-haired counselor. She told me the center is funded by the Veterans’ Administration, into 1984. Its specific function is psychological counseling for delayed str ess. It’s not a drop-in center, but veterans and their loved ones are welcome to come by and ask questions. “If people can’t be helped here,” Bari said, “they can possibly be referred to the proper place.” Bari holds counseling sessions with wives, girlfriends, mothers, “the significant others” of Vietnam vets. “The women go through their own sort of delayed stress,” she said. “They share a lot of anger that the vets feel. Anger at the situation. Things are not working out the way the couples thought they would.” I asked her, How many vets come here? Is PVSD on the decrease? Bari said, “We’re busy. We have over 1,200 Vietnam veterans on file. Unofficially we see about 2,400.” In the Portland area, it is estimated there are more than 55,000 VV’s. Right now, The Vet Center holds 12 rap sessions a week. The rap sessions are of a special nature. They are nonbureaucratic and nonprofessional. (Dennis expresses it best: “The doctors and the psychiatrists never will admit that it was wrong to send guys to Vietnam. That they are as responsible for the war as the soldiers who had to fight it.”) The purpose of the peer group is to promote the retelling and the recalling of the horror of combat, with acceptance, when the veteran is ready. A Vet Center paper offers this advice: “You can use mementoes of the war and many other details to get out the unfinished grief and impacted rage. Every in-country vet carries a little cemetery inside himself. When he’s ready to visit the cemetery, the rap group can join him. Together, they can go through memories and feelings which became frozen in time — frozen because the particular situation didn’t make mourning possible when survival was at stake.” ■ SPIRITS LIFTED HERE! ; / / AW( A' 'zk u/ PSU FILM COMMITTEE Fall Filins BERGMAN, FELLINI, TANNER Friday and Saturday evenings 7:30 p.m. 75 Lincoln Hall $1.50 General admission P0RR£TTtfpiZZtt "C-v5© NOW YOU CAN TAKE IT OUT OR EAT IT HERE! WHOLE WHEAT OR WHITE CREST COMPLETE DELI IMPORTED & DOMESTIC BEER & WINE SUB SANDWICHES & SALADS CALL AHEAD YOUR ORDER WILL BE READY WHEN YOU ARRIVE HOURS TUES-WED-THURS-SUN 4 PM - 10 PM FRI & SAT TO GO 5 PM- 12 MIDNIGHT CLOSED MONDAY 232-2812 2239 SI HAWTHORNE BV. Call 229-4454 or 229-4452 for schedule Clinton St. Quarterly 37
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