6 Crying silently
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Carol Acton
Abstract
The Vietnam nursing experience has received more attention than that of doctors and other men serving in a medical capacity. To redress this imbalance, this chapter considers a range of accounts by doctors and medics to explore the diverse range of their experiences during the Vietnam War. Some doctors worked under enormous mental and physical pressure in field hospitals that took in mass casualties; others worked in the Vietnamese community, part of the American ‘hearts and minds’ campaign. While on the surface it might appear that mass casualty surgery was the most psychologically difficult work, doctors accounts of treating Vietnamese civilians record how they bore an equal psychological burden of working in very poorly supplied facilities, treating a huge range of diseases, many of which were incurable or where treatment resulted in death from post- neglect. They also had to confront the consequences of their own military’s actions on civilians. For both doctors and medics, these accounts show that they had difficulty finding resilience in a sense of achievement as their counterparts had done in the two world wars, since, on a personal level, they were unable to screen out the sense of the futility of their work.
Abstract
The Vietnam nursing experience has received more attention than that of doctors and other men serving in a medical capacity. To redress this imbalance, this chapter considers a range of accounts by doctors and medics to explore the diverse range of their experiences during the Vietnam War. Some doctors worked under enormous mental and physical pressure in field hospitals that took in mass casualties; others worked in the Vietnamese community, part of the American ‘hearts and minds’ campaign. While on the surface it might appear that mass casualty surgery was the most psychologically difficult work, doctors accounts of treating Vietnamese civilians record how they bore an equal psychological burden of working in very poorly supplied facilities, treating a huge range of diseases, many of which were incurable or where treatment resulted in death from post- neglect. They also had to confront the consequences of their own military’s actions on civilians. For both doctors and medics, these accounts show that they had difficulty finding resilience in a sense of achievement as their counterparts had done in the two world wars, since, on a personal level, they were unable to screen out the sense of the futility of their work.
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- List of figures vi
- Acknowledgements vii
- List of abbreviations ix
- Introduction 1
- 1 ‘These frightful sights would work havoc with one’s brain’ 31
- 2 ‘Over there’ 55
- 3 ‘You damn well just got on with your job’ 79
- 4 ‘It was a tough life and I did all I could to lighten the men’s burden’ 116
- 5 Claiming trauma 147
- 6 Crying silently 178
- 7 Fatal injury 210
- Conclusion 241
- Bibliography 250
- Index 262
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- List of figures vi
- Acknowledgements vii
- List of abbreviations ix
- Introduction 1
- 1 ‘These frightful sights would work havoc with one’s brain’ 31
- 2 ‘Over there’ 55
- 3 ‘You damn well just got on with your job’ 79
- 4 ‘It was a tough life and I did all I could to lighten the men’s burden’ 116
- 5 Claiming trauma 147
- 6 Crying silently 178
- 7 Fatal injury 210
- Conclusion 241
- Bibliography 250
- Index 262
