What conditions, hardships, experiences were faced by soldiers during the Vietnam War?

They fought in the jungle. An unseen enemy who could be anywhere in any village.

They had to deal with chemicals used to defoliate the landscape.

It was a terrible experience.

So many came back with PTSD. And I agree w/marinelife; enemies could be anywhere.
My husband was a supply officer. His roomie somewhere said that the soldiers would go into a village and the children were taught to run up to them squealing, “Daddy! Daddy!” while concealing a knife, a handmade one from a “reed” or something that they would put some sort of poison on the end then stab the soldiers when a hug was initiated. Not all children, no.
So the soldiers were told , “when they run up to you, fire into the ground as a warning that if they come closer they will be shot.” I can think of few circumstances more horrific.

I personally know of 2 Vets who have prostate cancer as a result of contact with Agent Orange during the war.
I wonder how many cases there are in Viet Nam.

And on their return, @marinelife, they also had to deal with ungrateful, unwelcoming Americans.

All wars have had there unique circumstance and all wars from the dawn of time have left a wake of traumatized soldiers and civilians.

Vietnam was no different except in external circumstance than any other wartime trauma ever suffered.

Death, dismemberment, psychological injury, all part of the ugly fallout.

Whether it is a Vietnam vet suffering from the fallout of chemical exposure or the Opium addicted Cival War veteran the outcome of all war remains the same and short of being a certified sociopath it is something that no human being should ever have to experience, but, sadly, the war machine shows no sign of breakdown.

@rentluva5256 I’ll invite Captain Harley and he will give you first hand information, if he wants too. Some vets do not like to talk about it.

The real problem with Vietnam wasn’t the war itself, but the indifference and outright hostility the veterans faced when they got home. I was spit on at LA Intl. Airport, and called “baby-killer” by a few people. I had no idea how to react.

A lack of appropriate support from the American public.

Sherman was right when he said “War is Hell.” But some wars can apparently be worse than others, or at least seem that way to the participants and nearby spectators.

In Vietnam most soldiers were drafted and didn’t want to be there, and they were often led by officers who signed up specifically for that duty, and did want it. That disparity alone made for a kind of schizoid military mentality, when officers attempting to “lead” men into battle were shot in the back by their own troops. That happened often enough to give the term a name (not that the practice had only been invented in Vietnam, but it became notoriously widespread there).

There were no clear objectives to “take territory” or “defeat North Vietnam” in the war. It was primarily always only a holding action, a defense to “preserve South Vietnam”. The government of South Vietnam was mostly corrupt, and at least once a leader not favored by Washington was assassinated. The defensive supply lines for the US were on the opposite side of the globe, and the enemy (who could be anyone at all, even someone who was nominally ‘friendly’ during the day) could be the enemy at night. The enemy was motivated to overcome the corrupt South Vietnamese government, and who—other than some American generals who had their own axes to grind and political infighting to win—was motivated to stop them?

Defensive wars are among the worst to fight, because a heavily garrisoned force is bogged down at fixed installations and ripe for guerrilla attacks and hit-and-run tactics.

This nation’s civilian leadership—and populace—distanced itself from the returning veterans, who felt even worse about the way they were received at home than they had when they were away from home. Exactly what @CaptainHarley said. I heard that from several returning veterans.

@CaptainHarley disgusting. hopefully there now exists a more mature approach to veterans, ironically i am now in a house full of Vietnamese, they are good people. They are forgiving people….

My dad is a vietnam vet, and we see the scars everyday on him! It’s so sad to see even when he couldn’t remember who the president was after a mild heart attack, he woke up saying stuff like he was back there! It never goes away even when they come home!!

While they were there, they were very poorly equipped for jungle, guerrilla warfare. They had been trained with a totally different kind of approach. My informant says many had their feet go bad (words minced here) because of the wrong kind of shoes and socks.

It was sometimes called, “Johnson’s war.”

@CyanoticWasp has a pretty good grip on the entire war and how different groups of people approached it. One of the reasons I volunteered for the 173rd Airborne Brigade ( an airborne all-volunteer unit ) was to stay away from draftees. Most of them did a very good job and were highly motivated, but there were enough who just wanted to hide for their year in ‘Nam to make it hazardous for an officer to actually try and lead.