The availability of illicit drugs both during and later would be my conclusion. WWII vets generally had to self-medicate with alcohol. Vietnam folks had more options, some of which caused long term damage. I would like to see the percentage of folks getting PTSD benefits who haven't used illegal drugs.
I’m sorry but that is crap.
Due to the lack of other support groups, in 1981, I sat with Viet Vets in PTSD groups and it’s not “drugs” that did it to them.
It’s impossible to state a simple ‘cause’ but the main issue was the chasm between the reality they knew as normal, and the surrealistic insanity they saw in VN.
No clear cut ‘enemy’, ‘friendlies’ who turned around and fragged you, no clear cut ‘battle fields’ or orderly battles, just impenetrable, wretched hellish jungles where every step could be your last.
They faced a sadistic enemy skilled in the most gruesome tortures, with no respect for “Geneva Convention” type stuff.
Little kids and women running out to blow them to hell.
It was all relentless stress and uncertainty, 24/7 with not a second of rest from the possibility that at, at any moment, you could be seeing your friends gruesomely torn apart in front of you...or that you yourself would be reduced to a heap of bleeding, screaming meat, praying that a chopper *might* come and get you out before you were taken prisoner by demons who would make you wish you had died.
Then, the utter lack of ‘patriotic support’ like the WW1 and WW2 vets got, no hero parades when they come...people spitting on them and calling them baby killers.
You got no cheers or medals...you only got a stigma...those “crazy, dangerous Viet Nam Vets”.
You really should apologize for that inane, self-inflicted/dope hypothesis.
I love these guys and *still* hook up with VN vets for support.
The troops today face the same madness against the Musim psychos who seem determined to surpass the VC in sadism, barbarism and cruelty.