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I think tw is right on in his accessment of troop morale as the Vietnam War progressed. My Dad did his first tour over there right after Kennedy was assasinated when Lyndon Johnson was at the helm. He came back from the experience with as reasonable an outlook as can be expected from any man who has just returned from a war. He did his second tour in the Nixon era around the time of Kent State. I could see a marked difference in him upon his return home. He showed all the signs of someone with PTSD and had vivid nightmares where he would wake my Mother and I up with his screams. This was a man who had seen combat in Burma and Europe, Korea, and Vietnam once before. For him to show such a profound stress reaction after his second tour, tells me that things had deteriorated sharply from the beginning of that war.
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