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Chapter 7: "No Shame or Stigma" The Vietnam Veterans Leadership Program
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7 “No Shame or Stigma” The Vietnam Veterans Leadership Program ✯ Ronald Reagan’s wish to neutralize the “problem” of the Vietnam veteran as outsider is evident in his speeches praising Vietnam veterans’ faithfulness, applauding other Americans for welcoming them home, and observing that America had consequently transcended “the tragedies of the past” and come together “in unity and with resolve.” The Reagan administration’s wish to do away with negative stereotypes of Vietnam veterans is also evident in the activities of a little-remarked federal organization, the Vietnam Veterans Leadership Program (VVLP).1 In this chapter, we see how the Reagan administration would have liked ideally to construct the image of the Vietnam veteran. Downplaying (if not entirely ignoring) the growing literature about post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the VVLP asserted that Vietnam veterans were proud of their service in Vietnam and felt no residual guilt or shame about their participation in the war. If this assertion about Vietnam veterans’ pride persuaded the public, it would do away at a stroke with all the moral soul-searching about what Americans had done in Vietnam and would nullify the negative stereotype of Vietnam veterans as traumatized victims. This was a huge undertaking, but in Thomas Weir Pauken, the former aide in the Nixon White House who founded the VVLP, the Reagan administration had found someone with ideological motivation, energy, and force of will that might be equal to the task. Defined as a social problem by the federal vet center program and by media reports of PTSD, Vietnam veterans reminded other Americans of all that had gone wrong in the Vietnam War. A congressionally mandated large-scale study of Vietnam veterans found that, while a minority suffered from PTSD, “many more, about half of all Vietnam veterans, were still suffering from less acute forms of distress—almost two million men struggling to avoid unsettling emotions, blaming their pain on others, or diminishing themselves through self-punishment and self-pity.”2 Their psychological distress set off a chain of associations that led back to criticisms of U.S. government policies during and after the war. Veterans’ “unsettling emotions” 202 “No Shame or Stigma” 203 suggested that they might have seen or done disturbing, perhaps shameful, things in Vietnam; their alienation might easily be linked with their poor treatment by the government and the poor welcome they had received from their fellow Americans; reports (accurate or not) of their violent anger reminded the nation of the deep political divisions that still beset American society. All the linked problems from which veterans were said to suffer—unemployment, marital difficulties, high rates of incarceration , and homelessness—could be taken as evidence of the terrible psychological wound that the war had inflicted on the veterans, and they reinforced Americans’ aversion to the trauma of “another Vietnam War.” The VVLP attacked this train of interconnected ideas at its source: by disseminating positive stories about proud and happy Vietnam veterans. The VVLP countered the stereotype of the traumatized Vietnam veteran with positive role models and statistics showing that Vietnam veterans were, on the whole, well educated, employed, and emotionally healthy. Its employment program assisted a very small number of veterans, but even a single job placement could generate a positive media story that contributed to the optimistic PR campaign. Staffed by Republican Party stalwarts, the VVLP challenged films and television documentaries that portrayed Vietnam veterans in a negative light or that questioned the rightness of America’s cause in Vietnam. In these ways, the VVLP advanced the Reagan administration’s attempts to rehabilitate the reputation both of Vietnam veterans and of the Vietnam War. The VVLP’s founder, Pauken, had definite views about the war and its veterans that aligned him with the critics of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund. His ideological combativeness ran counter to the memorial fund’s promotion of reconciliation between Vietnam War–era antagonists.3 His views lined up with those of Tom Carhart, who questioned the memorial fund’s orthodox language of “healing” and “reconciliation.” As Carhart said to the 60 Minutes reporter Morley Safer, “The license of Congress is not to heal the wounds of Vietnam. The license of Congress is to honor and recognize those who served in Vietnam, not those who went to Canada, not Jane Fonda and her friends.”4 Pauken concurred, approvingly quoting another veteran’s observation that the memorial’s inscription honored Vietnam veterans but said “not a word about ‘healing.’” He visited Frederick Hart’s studio...