Cultural Context Rationale
Going After Cacciato adds to our tentative understanding of human experience
during the Vietnam War era, specifically from an American soldier's perspective. There
are several themes in particular that circulate through the text that we chose to focus on:
soldier drug use in the theater of war and its potential adverse affects, the establishment
of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as a diagnosable mental state associated for the first
time with veterans of the Vietnam War, and the response and reactions of citizens in the
United States to the war itself as well as the soldiers who fought in it. The content of this
section was specially chosen to both provide support for the above mentioned themes
with examples from an array of medical journals, first-hand soldier accounts and
educational materials, as well as to expand the general understanding of the time period
with regards to the experiences of the general population with news articles, rhetorical
opposition pieces and literature.
It should be no surprise that drugs can blur the lines between reality and fantasy;
coupled with traumatic events, it is possible that drug use can lead to a mental break such
as the one experienced by Paul Berlin. These sources work together to illustrate the
effects not just of military drug use in general, but the additional risks that pertain to
Vietnam veterans in particular. Short term and long term, these brave men, and continue
to, use drugs as a coping mechanism as illustrated in various parts of Going After
Cacciato. Accordingly, tor the topic of drug use in the theater of war, we decided to
include an article by Peter Brush, a reference and history librarian and Vietnam veteran
himself, that appeared in Vietnam which includes hard numbers and the views
commanders had of soldier's drug use. Additionally, we found and included an article
from Psychiatric News that discusses a study from The American Journal of Public
Health in July 2001 which examines how young soldiers in Vietnam are still affected
with drug problems now that they are middle aged, especially in comparison with
similarly aged men who did not go to war. We decided to include a review of several
studies from Insight in the News, a conservative print and online news magazine, that
illuminates the correlation "between the development of psychological problems
following war, particularly PTSD and the subsequent development of alcoholism and
drug problems" (Keane, 1). We also found a supplemental article from the Journal of
Psychology of Addictive Behaviors that reviews the data of the Vietnam Experience
Study to document the "prevalence of personality disorders in male alcoholic subjects"
(Scheidt & Windle, 76).
As mentioned in the introduction, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder has been
experienced by soldiers throughout the ages, however it was finally titled for Vietnam
veterans. Paul Berlin’s experiences in Going After Cacciato mimic many of the causes,
symptoms and risk factors for PTSD. To provide background on the disorder and some
perspective for readers of Going After Cacciato, we included an article from the Harvard
University Gazette that reviews a study from the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention that discusses how soldiers who experienced more trauma due to combat
situations were more likely develop PTSD, and still experience the affects 15 years later
(Cromie). We also include a study from the Journal of Traumatic Stress that "examines
the consistency in combat exposure self-reports and the relation of PTSD symptoms in
Vietnam Veterans" based on mailed surveys from 1988 and a follow up in 1998 (Koenen
et al, 3). Additionally, a separate study from the Journal of Traumatic Stress is included
that examines the "risk factors for PTSD in Vietnam veterans" to compare the predictive
power of risk factors for the development versus maintenance of full or partial PTSD
(Schnurr et al, 85). The Mayo Clinic staff presents a definition of PTSD, as well as
symptoms, causes, risk factors, complications, tests and diagnosis, treatment and drugs,
coping and support, and prevention on their website. They have defined PTSD as “a type
of anxiety disorder that’s triggered by a traumatic event.” Some causes include a complex
mix of “life experiences such as the amount and severity of trauma exposed to since
childhood, temperament, and the way the brain regulates chemicals and hormones
released in response to stress.” Symptoms include “intrusive memories, avoidance and
numbing, and increased anxiety or emotional arousal.” Some risk factors for PTSD
include experiencing a severe or intense, long lasting traumatic event, having an existing
mental health condition, and lacking a good family and friend support system. In the
article we included, the author reviews an article by Mark Heberle where he discusses the
biographical and literary accounts of PTSD in O'Brien’s war novels on the Vietnam War.
American psyche in regards to war is especially important when it comes to the
support and the protest of war. There can always be two different view points on any war;
for this particular project we will look at the American psyche both from a first hand
accounts of Vietnam veterans as well as the American people as a whole and their split
views. At the time the American people were not in favor of the Vietnam War, protests
were common throughout the United States therefore resulting in minimal support for the
Commander and Chief, President Nixon. The low support for the President has been
shown countless times through editorials written in local newspapers. By using
newspaper editorials we can get a glimpse of what the American people felt about the
President and the war, “President Nixon is using the American prisoners of war in North
Vietnam as cat’s paws in his struggle to achieve a military victory that will facilitate his
re-election in 1972” (Prisoners, 610). However there is an indication that the Vietnam
protest was not the case at the beginning of the war. Generally there was the feeling that
“anybody who opposed the war got a distinct feeling of loneliness, and the general view
seemed to be that, regardless of whether the war was justified or not, we all had to fall in
behind the leadership of the President” (Changing, 90). America not only felt the effect of
war through personal beliefs but through the economy as well. Banks began stating that
how much the Vietnam War was wreaking havoc on inflation and other issues in the
economy (Economy). Lastly we will take a look at the first hand accounts of what the
veterans felt in this time of war. Many soldiers saw their comrades protesting in their own
way by not boarding a plane and other acts of objections (Zinn). We do have one account
from a soldier of his personal experience in protest of the war (Blalock).