Going Back (23 page)

Not all veterans who return to Viet Nam find it a positive experience. Those who visit hoping to see familiar sights and well-known ground in order to confirm their memories are often bitterly disappointed. Few signs of the Australian presence remain. The Task Force base at Nui Dat was stripped of all remaining materials by locals shortly after the Australians withdrew. The remaining concrete strip of the former Luscombe Field is now a street surrounded by local dwellings. At the site of the former logistics base at Vung Tau there are few signs of the Badcoe Recreation club, where Australian soldiers spent their time recovering from injury and illness. Much of the countryside they spent so much time patrolling has also changed—now developed in a variety of ways.

For those seeking to make sense of the chaos of their memories, not being able to see the ground as it was then only adds to their sense of confusion. Not being able to find visual signs of their presence can also make some veterans feel as if their efforts were in vain. For others, though, the lack of war remnants is a positive sign. They see that the country has moved on and are happy that the country and its people, in the south at least, appear to be thriving. Relatives of veterans also have varying reactions to their visits. Those who travelled in the 1980s and early 90s often found travel in Viet Nam difficult and uncomfortable, and Viet Nam was not a place to which they would readily return. Most have been happy, though, to be able to provide emotional support when it was needed, and have found the trip worthwhile.

On 21 May 1970, a young Australian soldier, Assault Pioneer Graham Edwards, stepped on a mine in South Viet Nam. Many of the so-called ‘Jumping Jack' M-16 mines deployed by the Viet Cong against South Vietnamese and Allied soldiers had been lifted from the Australians' own barrier minefield, and were causing widespread death and injury. Pioneer Edwards survived the blast, but with both legs amputated he now relies on a wheelchair for mobility. In May 1990, twenty years after that blast, Graham Edwards, who was by then a Western Australian Member of the Legislative Assembly, went back to Viet Nam. His aim in returning was, in his words, ‘to sort out the ghosts'. With the aid of a former Viet Cong platoon commander, Edwards was able to locate the site of the explosion which changed his life. Having confronted his ghosts he returned to Australia, determined to help the disabled and other Viet Nam veterans. As a federal Member of Parliament Graham Edwards has been able to fulfil his goals.

There are many stories like that of Graham Edwards. Paul Murphy was another veteran who went back to Viet Nam in 1990; he was so shocked by the poverty he found there that he vowed to return and help in some way. Four years later he went back to Viet Nam, signed a memorandum of understanding with the local government, and formed the Australian Veterans Vietnam Reconstruction Group (AVVRG). The group has since undertaken numerous projects to help the people of the former Phuoc Tuy Province, raising well over a million dollars in aid in the last ten years. As well, the AVVRG has been responsible for the recent refurbishment of the Long Tan Memorial Cross site.
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In 1996, veterans' pilgrimages to Viet Nam entered the public sphere. In August that year a group of veterans and widows, accompanied by the Deputy Prime Minister, Tim Fischer, and the Minister for Veterans Affairs, Bruce Scott, participated in an official pilgrimage to Viet Nam to mark the thirtieth anniversary of the battle of Long Tan. I was the official historian on that trip, standing in for the then seriously ill historian, the late Ian McNeill. Although time was given for personal remembrance and commemoration, especially at Terandak Military Cemetery in Malaysia, formal ceremonies at various locations set the tone for the tour.

The visit was seen as highly significant for the development of the relationship between Australia and Viet Nam and was promoted as a sign that both sides had moved on from the past. While recognising this, during a speech at Nui Dat Tim Fischer conceded: ‘We must acknowledge that Vietnam is still recent history. And if past enmities have died, for many on both sides the scars understandably remain.'
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Long Tan survivor Jim Richmond faced his own ghosts during the tour when he presented a commemorative plaque to another Long Tan survivor, from the other side. He saw the pilgrimage as a chance for reconciliation. ‘It doesn't really matter now,' he said beforehand. ‘What happened, happened. If there was a bloke from Long Tan [there] I'd have a beer with him, ex-soldier to ex-soldier.'
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Such sentiments are common among pilgrims, and are a sign that they are coming to terms with their Viet Nam experience.

Historian Libby Stewart tackled the issue of the future of pilgrimages to Viet Nam. She said in an address to the University of Newcastle:

It is possible that they will start to wane as veterans become too old to travel. The lack of war graves means that the children of veterans won't have a particular point of reference for their travels, and the changed landscape means that their father's descriptions will mean little to them. Despite these things, I don't believe that Viet Nam will cease to be a place of remembrance for Australians. As we achieve a greater understanding of that war and what it meant for its veterans, the impulses that have sent Australians all over the world to pay tribute to Australian war dead will continue to extend to Viet Nam.
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Garry Adams agrees, noting that there is a growing interest among young Australians about our involvement in the war. Each year he sees more of them making the effort to participate in important events held on Anzac Day and Viet Nam Veterans Day at the Long Tan Memorial Cross.

Perhaps their initial rejection by society has created a greater need among Viet Nam veterans to return to their battlefields and ensure that the dead are remembered. Their children will no doubt continue this legacy.

APPENDIX: POST TRAUMATIC
STRESS DISORDER

Reproduced with permission from the
Diagnostic and Statistical
Manual of Mental Disorders
, 4th edition, published by the American Psychiatric Association, Washington, DC, 2000, pp. 463–6. This text is used as the basis for Australian psychiatry in the examination, diagnosis and treatment of PTSD.

Diagnostic features

There are several reasons why people become affected with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). These causes are clinically referred to as diagnostic features. The essential feature of PTSD is the development of characteristic symptoms following exposure to an extreme traumatic stressor involving direct personal experience of an event that involves actual or threatened death or serious injury, or other threat to one's physical integrity; or witnessing an event that involves death, injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of another person.

The person's response to the event must involve intense fear, helplessness, or horror. The characteristic symptoms resulting from the exposure to the extreme trauma include persistent re-experiencing of the traumatic event, persistent avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma and numbing of general responsiveness and persistent symptoms of increased arousal. The full symptom picture must be present for more than 1 month and the disturbance must cause clinically significant distress or impairments in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.

It is accepted that soldiers in combat will be exposed at some time to stressors that can lead to PTSD. It is not an automatic given that every soldier will be impaired with PTSD. It is not only those in the front line—the ‘bayonets' of a military unit—that will be affected in war. What are referred to as ‘witnessed events' can include, but are not limited to, observing the serious injury or unnatural death of another person owing to violent assault, accident, war, or disaster or unexpectedly witnessing a dead body or body parts. The disorder may be especially severe or long lasting when the stressor is of human design (e.g. torture, rape). The likelihood of developing this disorder may increase as the intensity of and physical proximity to the stressor increase.

Recurring dreams and flashbacks

The traumatic event can be re-experienced in various ways. Commonly the person has recurrent and intrusive recollections of the event or recurrent or distressing dreams during which the event can be replayed or otherwise represented. In rare instances, the person experiences dissociative states that last from a few seconds to several hours, or even days, during which components of the event are relived and the person behaves as though experiencing the event at that moment. These episodes, often referred to as ‘flashbacks', are typically brief but can be associated with prolonged distress and heightened arousal.

Distress

Intense psychological distress or physiological reactivity [crying, over-reaction and non-reaction to events around them] often occurs when the person is exposed to triggering events that resemble or symbolise an aspect of the traumatic event [e.g. anniversaries of the traumatic event; hot, humid weather for combat veterans from Viet Nam; movies depicting events similar to those witnessed].

Avoidance of stimuli

Sufferers of PTSD will go to extremes to avoid the stimuli that has brought about their disorder and make efforts to persistently avoid thoughts, feelings, or conversations about the traumatic event and to avoid activities, situations, or people who arouse recollections of it. This avoidance of reminders may include amnesia for an important aspect of the traumatic event. This is often referred to as ‘psychic numbing' or ‘emotional anaesthesia' and usually begins soon after the traumatic event. Veterans may complain of having markedly diminished interest or participation in previously enjoyed activities, of feeling detached or estranged from other people, or of having markedly reduced ability to feel emotions (especially those associated with intimacy, tenderness and sexuality). The individual may have a sense of a foreshortened future (e.g. not expecting to have a career, marriage, children, or a normal life span).

Symptoms

Those with PTSD have persistent symptoms of anxiety or increased arousal that were not present before the trauma. The symptoms may include difficulty falling or staying asleep that may be owing to recurrent nightmares during which the traumatic event is relived, hypervigilance (e.g. locking all the doors and windows in the house before retiring), and exaggerated startle response. Some individuals report irritability or outbursts of anger (e.g. road rage, overreacting to minor annoyances), or difficulty concentrating or completing tasks.

Specifiers or levels of PTSD

It is recognised that there are three levels or specifiers used to specify the onset and duration of the symptoms of PTSD:

1
Acute.
This specifier should be used when the duration of the symptom is less than 3 months.

2
Chronic.
This specifier should be used when the symptoms last 3 months or longer.

3
With Delayed Onset.
This specifier indicates that at least 6 months have passed between the traumatic event and the onset of the symptoms.

Associated descriptive features and
mental disorders

Individuals with PTSD may describe painful guilt feelings about surviving when others did not survive or about the things they had to do to survive. Avoidance patterns may interfere with interpersonal relationships and lead to marital conflict, divorce or loss of job. Apart from self-destructive and anti-social or impulsive behaviour, some individuals feel shame, despair, or hopelessness, hostility and a change of previous personality characteristics. PTSD is associated with increased rates of Major Depressive Disorder, Substance-Related Disorders, Panic Disorder, Agoraphobia, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Generalised Anxiety Disorder, Social Phobia, Specific Phobia and Bipolar Disorder. These disorders can either precede, follow, or emerge concurrently with the onset of PTSD.

Prevalence in combat veterans

Community-based studies in the United States of America reveal a lifetime prevalence for PTSD of approximately 8 per cent of the adult population. Studies of at-risk individuals (i.e. groups exposed to specific trauma incidents) yield variable findings, with highest rates (ranging between one-third and more than half of those exposed) found among groups such as combat veterans and those subjected to politically motivated internment and genocide.

When does it strike?

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is not related to the age of the individual. Symptoms usually begin within the first 3 months after the trauma, although there may be a delay of months, or even years, before symptoms appear. Frequently, a person's reaction to a trauma initially meets criteria for Acute Stress Disorder in the immediate aftermath of the trauma. Duration of the symptoms varies, with complete recovery occurring within 3 months in approximately half of the cases, with many others having persisting symptoms for longer than 12 months after the trauma. Symptom reactivation may occur in response to reminders of the original trauma, life stressors, or new traumatic events.

GLOSSARY