Cognitive Dissonance of Vietnam Veterans

    The thought of coming home for a soldier should be an almost euphoric experience; no more pain, suffering, misery, or fear. However, when the Vietnam soldiers came home, they realized that being home didn’t bring them solace. The terrors that those men were exposed to followed them home, and left them unable to reintegrate back into society effectively. ‘Home’ was just an extension of the war they thought they had left behind.

This section of the exhibit contains images, recalls, and artwork by Vietnam Veterans that show their first hand experiences with both the war itself, and the struggles that plagued soldiers after coming home. After facing brutal hostility after finally coming back from the war, the soldiers were ostracized in their communities, which led to heightened effects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The various items produced show evidence of how and why soldiers had to turn to their own vices with the specific help of poetry, in a time when PTSD was a stigmatized ailment.