Healing Journeys
Veterans, Trauma, and the Return to Vietnam
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3142967 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Mia Martin Hobbs (0000-0002-2330-1733, School of Humanities and Social Science at Deakin University Research fellow at the, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 110 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 82-107 |
| Publication date | 2023-06-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of American History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0021-8723 • E-ISSN: 1945-2314 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/jahist/jaad094 |
| OpenAlex | W4382646033 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
The Vietnam War haunted me every day and every night in America," said former U.S. Marine David E., "and today, when I'm in Vietnam, the American War was over forty years ago.So I just feel very peaceful."David E. is one of thousands of United States veterans who returned to Vietnam after the war.His return story describes a journey of healing that echoes many other veterans' stories about returning to Vietnam.Based on original interviews and media coverage of veterans' returns from the early 1980s to the mid-2010s, this article shows how and why a narrative of healing in Vietnam emerged and was repeated throughout U.S. veterans' stories of return.The first veterans' returns coincided with Vietnam War memorialization projects and the diagnostic recognition of post-traumatic stress disorder (ptsd) in the United States, and from the beginning, healing journeys were influenced by U.S. debates about trauma and the war.Different understandings of the cause of and cure for trauma informed veterans' approaches to healing in Vietnam.Early returnees, initially making these trips as acts of antiwar atonement, found healing through restitution for U.S. harms to Vietnam during and after the war.Many were struck by the friendliness of their Vietnamese hosts, finding relief through reconciliation and forgiveness.Influenced by a growing therapy culture, veterans began to frame the return journey specifically as a therapeutic program.The media latched onto the concept of healing, circulating a sentimental, depoliticized narrative arc of healing in Vietnam.The healing rhetoric also manifested in U.S.-Vietnam relations, with the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (srv) incorporating returning veterans into their efforts toward diplomatic normalization.As U.S.-Vietnam relations normalized, the purpose of healing journeys turned inward, privileging veteran trauma over accountability for the war and restitution for the Vietnamese.Growing numbers of veterans returned to Vietnam with no intention of addressing moral culpability and, in so doing, revealed the
Archaeology · Business · Criminology · Economics · Operations management · Sociology · Vietnam War · Demography · Education and Military Integration · History · Psychology
| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2024 - 2025 (2) |
| Highly cited | No |