The Vietnam War in American Culture

Hagopian, Patrick (2022) The Vietnam War in American Culture. In: The Cambridge History of the Vietnam War : Volume 3: Endings and Legacies. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. (In Press)

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Abstract

Examining literary works by Vietnam veteran authors, war memorials, received knowledge about the war and the predicaments of veterans, and public discussions of the consequences of the Vietnam War in American life, this article looks at the way that knowledge and belief about the Vietnam War have coalesced into folklore and myth. The article looks in particular at the way that activist psychiatrists allied to antiwar veterans were responsible for the introduction of "post-traumatic stress" into psychiatric nomenclature, and the way that some members of the current generation of psychiatric practitioners transformed the political implications of this condition. Recent therapists who promulgate the concept of "moral injury" not only buy into but help to popularize myths about the Vietnam veteran experience, such as the contentious claim that protesters abused the veterans when they returned home from the war.