Thesis (M.S.) University of Missouri-Columbia, 2006. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file viewed on (May 20, 2007) Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

This essay examines why Vietnam veterans, who were draft motivated enlistees, enlisted when drafted or threatened with the draft. Data is taken from 63 oral history interviews conducted by The Vietnam Archive Oral History Project at Texas Tech University and is analyzed using the phenomenological research approach. The background of this paper briefly explains the Vietnam Draft and the draft avoidance options available to those men who were drafted. The results section utilizes quotes from the oral history interviews to show the main themes of why men chose to enlist when faced with the draft. The discussion section discusses these themes in a wider context and brings up areas for further research.

Introduction. The relationships among military service, combat intensity and long-term health effects were investigated in a cohort of 6,355 Vietnam-era American Legionnaires who were recruited in 1984 and followed through 1998. First, the effect of Vietnam service on coronary heart disease (CHD) risk was assessed among 3,781 veterans who responded to both questionnaires. Next, the effect of serving in Vietnam and combat exposure was investigated as risk factors for the mortality of the cohort. Finally, potential threats to the validity of this study were evaluated.Methods. Military service and lifestyle factors were assessed by questionnaires in 1984 and 1998. Vital status in 1998 was determined and causes of death were ascertained through the National Death Index. Cox proportional hazards modeling was used to calculate hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for CHD incidence and mortality in relation to service location and combat exposure, adjusting for age, smoking, alcohol consumption, body mass, and hypertension. Response bias and reliability of self-reported data were examined.Results. Serving in Vietnam was associated with an increased hazard of developing heart disease (HR=1.37, 95% CI: 1.09, 1.73), after controlling for independent risk factors. Vietnam veterans experienced a 50% higher mortality than non-Vietnam veterans during 14-year follow-up (HR=1.48, 95% CI= 1.13 - 1.93), which increased with combat intensity after adjustment for other risk factors, (low combat: HR 1.17, 95% CI 0.79 - 1.73; medium combat HR=1.51, 95% CI 1.05 - 2.17; high combat HR=1.82, 95% CI 1.20 - 2.76). A stronger relationship was observed by level of combat for CHD mortality (low combat: HR =1.48, 95% CI 0.75 - 2.95; medium combat HR= 2.01, 95% CI 1.06 - 3.79; high combat HR= 2.27, 95% CI 1.08 - 4.79). Results showed that non-respondents differed only slightly from respondents for important variables potentially related to exposures and chronic disease outcomes. Furthermore, veteran self-report was moderately to highly reliable when measured over a 14 year period.Conclusions. Vietnam veterans are still experiencing higher rates of adverse health effects, even more than thirty years after their military service. These data support a long term and independent adverse effect of military service in Vietnam on cardiovascular health.

No description available.

As men and women return from serving on the frontlines of Operations Enduring Freedom (OEF; Afghanistan) and Iraqi Freedom (OIF; Iraq), many struggle with emotional or behavioral difficulties stemming from the stresses of battle. However, research has shown that these service members may be unwilling or unable to recognize or report such difficulties due to such factors as amnesia, avoidance, or cognitive impairment. Hence, the burden to recognize distress and encourage treatment increasingly falls on peers, friends, and especially intimate partners. Given that this responsibility is often placed on significant others, it is imperative to determine which symptoms are amenable to detection by informants and which are not. The current study examined the ability of female spouses of Vietnam veterans to report on various indicators of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) using the Mississippi Scale for Combat-Related PTSD. Item response theory (IRT) analyses were conducted with a dataset composed of both self- and informant reports using the same items regarding the same individual in order to examine the item-level properties. Results from these analyses indicated that the ability of both spouses and veterans to detect PTSD symptoms varies across item content and that items themselves do not relate equally to, or become diagnostic at the same level of, PTSD. Overall, veterans showed greater sensitivity to their own symptoms and were able to provide more information than their spouses for nearly every item rated by independent experts to be overt or covert. However, some items provided greater information when endorsed by the spouse versus the veteran even though, consistent with the majority of other items, these items were endorsed by the spouse only once the PTSD symptoms had reached greater severity. Implications of these findings as well as future directions for research regarding observer reports of PTSD symptomatology were explored.

This thesis examines Jane Fonda’s antiwar activism during the Vietnam War, focusing on the period from late 1969 through 1973. Her early activism was characterized by frequent protests against the war, speeches at antiwar rallies and college campuses, and involvement with the organization Vietnam Veterans Against the War. In 1971 Fonda organized an antiwar troupe, FTA, which performed antiwar songs and sketches to active-duty servicemen in America and Southeast Asia. Fonda’s notorious trip to North Vietnam is examined in detail, as are her comments in 1973 regarding American POWs. Negative reaction to Fonda’s activism is examined, and the myth of “Hanoi Jane” is traced from its wartime origins through its postwar evolution. The John Kerry-Jane Fonda photograph incident of 2004 is reviewed, and treated as a symptom of decades-long anti-Hanoi Jane ideas, rather than an isolated incident. Fonda’s gender, the media’s treatment of her at various stages, and her own missteps all receive consideration in determining where Jane Fonda ends and the myth of Hanoi Jane begins.

This thesis examines Jane Fonda’s antiwar activism during the Vietnam War, focusing on the period from late 1969 through 1973. Her early activism was characterized by frequent protests against the war, speeches at antiwar rallies and college campuses, and involvement with the organization Vietnam Veterans Against the War. In 1971 Fonda organized an antiwar troupe, FTA, which performed antiwar songs and sketches to active-duty servicemen in America and Southeast Asia. Fonda’s notorious trip to North Vietnam is examined in detail, as are her comments in 1973 regarding American POWs. Negative reaction to Fonda’s activism is examined, and the myth of “Hanoi Jane” is traced from its wartime origins through its postwar evolution. The John Kerry-Jane Fonda photograph incident of 2004 is reviewed, and treated as a symptom of decades-long anti-Hanoi Jane ideas, rather than an isolated incident. Fonda’s gender, the media’s treatment of her at various stages, and her own missteps all receive consideration in determining where Jane Fonda ends and the myth of Hanoi Jane begins.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Georgia, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 217-223).

No description available.

The materials of war, defined as what soldiers carry into battle and off the battlefield, have much to offer as a means of identifying and analyzing the culture of those combatants. The Vietnam War is extremely rich in culture when considered against the changing political and social climate of the United States during the 1960s and 70s. Determining the meaning of the materials carried by Vietnam War soldiers can help identify why a soldier is fighting, what the soldier’s fears are, explain certain actions or inactions in a given situation, or describe the values and moral beliefs that governed that soldier’s conduct. “Carry,” as a word, often refers to something physical that can be seen, touched, smelled, or heard, but there is also the mental material, which does not exist in the physical space, that soldiers collect in their experiences prior to, during, and after battle. War changes the individual soldier, and by analyzing what he or she took (both physical and mental), attempts at self-preservation or defense mechanisms to harden the body and mind from the harsh realities of war are revealed. In the same respect, what the soldiers brought home is also a means of preservation; preserving those memories of their experiences adds validity and meaning to their experiences. An approach employing aspects of psychology, sociology, and cultural theory demonstrates that any cookie-cutter answer or characterization of Vietnam veterans is unstable at best, and that a much more complex picture develops from a multidisciplinary analysis of the soldiers who fought the war in Vietnam.