![]() ![]() Disproportionate numbers of Vietnam veterans serve in Congress, for instance. In fact, Vietnam veterans are as successful or more successful than men their own age who did not go to war. A 1988 study by the Centers for Disease Control found Vietnam veterans had suicide rates well within the 1.7 percent norm of the general population. The same is true for the nonsense that Vietnam vets have high rates of suicide, often heard as the "fact" that more veterans had died by their own hand than in combat. A study by the Labor Department in 1994 showed an unemployment rate of 3 percent for Vietnam veterans - lower than that of Vietnam-era veterans who served outside the Vietnam theater (5 percent), and for all male veterans (4.9 percent). In every major study of Vietnam veterans where military records were verified, an insignificant number of prisoners were found to be actual Vietnam veterans.Ī corollary to the prison myth is the belief that substantial numbers of Vietnam veterans are unemployed. But most of these accounts were based on self-reporting by criminals. Only 24 deserters attributed their action to the desire to "avoid hazardous duty." Some 97 percent of Vietnam veterans received honorable discharges, exactly the same rate for the military in the 10 years prior to the war.Īfter the war ended, reports began to circulate of veterans so depraved from their war experiences that they turned to crime, with estimates of the number of incarcerated Vietnam veterans as high as one-quarter of the prison population. But of the 5,000 men who deserted for various causes during the Vietnam War period, only 5 percent did so while attached to units in Vietnam. The anti-war movement paraded Vietnam servicemen who had deserted their units as "proof" that it was an immoral war. Of those addicted, 88 percent kicked the habit within three years of returning. And marijuana - not heroin - was the drug used in 75 percent of the cases. A study after the war by the VA showed drug usage of veterans and non-veterans to be about the same. When drug rates started to rise in 19, almost 90 percent of the men who served in Vietnam had already come and gone. However, except for the last couple of years of the war, drug usage among GIs in Vietnam was lower than for U.S. About 5 percent of KIAs were Hispanic and 12.5 percent were black - making both minorities slightly under-represented in their proportion of draft-age males in the national population.Ī common negative image of the soldier in Vietnam is that he smoked pot and injected heroin to dull the horrors of combat. ![]() Though the notion persists that those who died in Vietnam were mostly members of a minority group, it's not true. An analysis of data from the Department of Defense shows the average age of men killed in Vietnam was 22.8 years, or almost 23 years old. In fact, more 52-year-olds (22) died in Vietnam than 17-year-olds (12). Proportionately, three times as many college graduates served in Vietnam than in WWII.Īnother common assumption: The war in Vietnam was fought by youngsters wet behind the ears, who died as teenagers barely old enough to shave. Throughout the Vietnam era, the median education level of the enlisted man was about 13 years. During the Vietnam War, almost 80 percent of those who enlisted had high school diplomas, and the percentage was higher for draftees - even though, at the time, only 65 percent of military-age males had a high school diploma. In WWII, only 45 percent of the troops had a high school diploma. It was the best-educated and most egalitarian military force in America's history - and with the advent of the all-volunteer military, is likely to remain so. But in reality, only one-third of Vietnam-era veterans entered the military through the draft, far lower than the 66 percent drafted in World War II. The image of those who fought in Vietnam is one of poorly educated, reluctant draftees - predominantly poor whites and minorities. ![]() Let's look at the facts, starting with who actually served in Vietnam. FACT VS FICTION.THE VIETNAM VETERAN FACT VS FICTION.THE ![]()
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