Effects of Service in Vietnam on Canadian Forces Military Personnel
Abstract
As a member of the International Commission for Supervision and Control (ICSC) from 1954 to 1973 and the International Commission for Control and Supervision (ICCS) beginning in 1973, Canada has helped supervise cease-fire agreements between the French and Vietnamese nationalists and again later between the United States and North Vietnam. While the readjustment of combat veterans of the Vietnam war has been studied extensively since the end of the war, no studies have focused on the potential readjustment problems of noncombatants serving in a peacekeeping capacity. Results are presented here from a study of the psychosocial adjustment of 252 current and former Canadian Forces military personnel who served in Vietnam during the period of U.S. involvement in the war. Subjects completed a modified version of the Vietnam-Era Veterans Adjustment Survey (VEVAS), a research instrument with established validity and reliability in studies involving over 2,700 Vietnam and Vietnam-era veterans. These results indicate that the overwhelming majority of these Canadian Forces personnel have not suffered any significant long-term adverse effects resulting from their service in Vietnam. For a minority of subjects (6%) , however, service in Vietnam proved to be very stressful and resulted in symptoms of a stress reaction called Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The importance of both war zone and post-war experiences (e.g. social support) in the development and continuation of PTSD are discussed. Policy implications for effective performance in future Canadian Forces peacekeeping efforts are presented.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 01, 1989
- Accession Number
- ADA208302
Entities
People
- Robert H. Stretch
Organizations
- United States Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine