ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

DRUGS AND GIS DURING THE VIETNAM WAR

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25 September 2017

REFERENCES

Primary Sources

Sanders, C. (2013). Doper's wonderland: Functional drug use by military personnel in Vietnam. Journal of Drug Issues , 65-78.

This article by Sanders tries to reach into the roots of drug abuse in the military. According to him, this drug use is not because the soldiers are immoral or that they have hedonistic desires. He argues that drug use is the military and specifically for soldiers of the war in Vietnam was for functional reasons. This means that the drugs were consumed to help the soldiers cope with the adversities in the field. This journal article will be used in the research to explain various reasons why drug abuse is on the rise among soldiers. Additionally this article will be useful in pointing out various ways in which GI’s access illicit drugs while on mission and the price they pay for some of these drugs. The level of addiction is so bad that some soldiers have been rendered ineffective without these drugs. Additionally this article will be used to explain some mental illnesses that could push a GI into drugs for functional use.

Solheim, B. (2016). The Vietnam War era: A personal journey. Westport, Con: Praeger.

Bruce narrates his personal experience during the war and after the way. The narration highlights some of the challenges faced in war and one of them is drug abuse. He explains how he had to help his fellow soldiers who were on drugs and how their families suffered as a result of this. This personal journey is critical in the book as it helps us look at the soldier’s world from a militant perspective. The hard times and struggles will help to highlight some of the reasons that compel soldiers to engage in drug abuse as well as the leisure part of drug abuse.

Szasz, T. (2016). Comment: Scapegoating “Military addicts”: The helping hand strikes again. Society , 4-6.

Thomas aims to explain the security threat possed by the so called “military addicts”. Through out the article he remarks that it is unfortunate that drugs and alchohol have become part of the culture of soldiers while on mission. He explains that while there could be justified reasons for such abuse, it is a potential security threat. For example when soldiers are dispatched to Vietnam for way they must be aware that the enemy could strike at anytime and thus the need to always stay focused. However drugs have the impact of hallucinations and deprivation of sobriety. This article will therefore be used to point out some of the security threats posed by drug abuse in the military as well as some examples from the vietnamese war.

Secondary Sources

Alexander, S. (2013). An American Soldier in Vietnam. Orangevale, California: Page Publishing Inc.

Alexander highlights the plight of soldiers in Vietnam. He narrates how they leave their families behind and embark on an uncertain journey. This journey is uncertain and everything about the way is uncertain. On top of these uncertainities, the soldiers face harsh conditions of living as well as massive opposition from the locals. This and many other challenges finally cause the soldiers to break and take up drug abuse for solace and in order to get through it. This book is very important to the research. It helps by highlighting exactly how hard things are for the veterans. The PTSD , neglect and loneliness that cannot be cured by ordinary psychiatric drugs but rather call for something more and hard.

Creek, J. (2017). Occupational therapy and mental health. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone Elsevier.

This book by Jennifer is not particularly on war or the life of a soldier. However it is very important to this discussion. The book expounds on mental health, the importance of mental health and the threats to mental health. She tries to point out there are indeed some professions that affect the mental state of a person and call for constant therapy or therapeutic practices in the line of duty. Here she uses the soldiers as an example and she explains how war can have adverse effects on the mental state of a soldier. This book not only supports the argument that drug abuse by the soldiers is for functional use but also calls for something more than criticism to the soldiers. The solutions proposed will guide the recommendations of the paper.

Huebner, A. (2013). Warrior Image: Soldiers in American Culture from the Second World War to the Vietnam Era. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.

Huebner points out the obvious drug abuse in the military but discusses it from the perspective of the image the world tries to create. He highlights that several interviews resulted to the conclusion that Heroin was predominant in the bases as well as Psychedelic drugs that were quite common in South Asia. For him what was alarming is that the media still went ahead and interviewed soldiers who were high on live camera in order to portray them as irresponsible and corrupted individual. This book is particularly important in the research because it helps in establishing whether the military has a way of corrupting straight law abiding citizens into drug users and traffickers.

Kuzmarov, J. (2015). The myth of the addicted army: Vietnam and the modern war on drugs. Amherst [Mass]: University of Massachusetts Press.

Jeremy aims to explain how the myth of a “junkie” soldier has been propelled and fueled to portray the soldier in bad light and deny them any help. He tries to dig into the history of this myth back to a time when all drug uses in the Vietnam war were threatened to be deported back home and to face criminal charges. The media also played a key role in furthering the myth of the “addicted soldier”. Eventually Jeremy feels that there is a need to address this and to make sure the myth is looked at from a different point of view. This book will be useful in understanding the history of drug abuse by the soldiers, the efforts made to curb this, the role of media in the crisis.

Westheider, J. (2017). The Vietnam War. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press.

This book is a compilation and analysis of the Vietnam War. It is interesting in that it explains the journey to Vietnam, the highs and lows of the war as well as drug abuse. Westheider points out that alcohol is very popular in the camps. However how quickly emphasizes that the main problem is not with the alcohol but with the other drugs that are taken with the alcohol. This book sheds more light as to how American soldiers laid their hands on these drugs. Additionally the book will be useful in discussing is the commanders and camp officers are as vigilant as they should be. This is because according to the book, drugs are all over the camp in bags and papers and they are not hidden at all. This means mechanism to stop drug abuse is still not complete and effective so to say. This book will help in understanding the solutions that can be instituted to curb the problem.