years to come.Many veterans served in Vietnam between 1969 and 1973. Between these years, three main chemicals were used as defoliants while the war was taking place. Being exposed to these chemicals provides a higher rate for any Vietnam veteran to commit suicide. The “...mortality rate in Vietnam Veterans was 17% higher than for Vietnam-era veterans during the first five years following discharge” (Kelley, 1997). Michael Dean served in Vietnam for only two years and, nearly never seen combat. In 1986, he killed his wife, 3 children, and himself in an apparent murder-suicide. In a suicide note found, he wrote “we the veterans, widows, and children of veterans are a forgotten group” (More Victims of Vietnam, 33). More support continues to pour in from the government and presidents, yet no one takes the blame. Fifty-eight thousand died in the Vietnam War and over one hundred and fifty thousand have committed suicide soon thereafter. The more wars the United States has, the more deaths are accounted for. Suicide should be the last thought on any veterans’ mind coming home from any war-related battle.America has not won the Vietnam War. Veterans that have returned only to think about thoughts of death isn’t anything to cheer about. Post-Traumatic stress disorder is more likely to happen to veterans who were exposed to combat. The rate of suicide for a person with depressive disorders are eighty times higher than that of a normal male. Even those amputated in the war were thirty-seven percent more likely to commit suicide than the rest of the population. So many different situations add to the thoughts of suicide for many Vietnam veterans, yet all factors are due to war. Those wounded more than two times are 95% more likely to commit suicide than if only wounded once. According to all these statistics, it seems as though there is no possible way for one to live after the war. There seems...
