With much of the conflict drawing to a close around August 1945, millions of veterans began the arduous task of coming home and returning to civilian life. Unfortunately, many veterans not only returned with physical scars, but emotional and mental scars as well. At the time, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) was not a diagnosed psychiatric disorder. Instead, many WWII veterans were diagnosed with traumatic war neurosis, combat exhaustion, or operational fatigue.
Many soldiers suffered from shell shock – psychological disturbance caused by prolonged exposure to active warfare.
From 1942-1945 alone, there were at least 457,000 discharges for neurotic disorders [1]. However, the United States military attempted to rehabilitate most veterans in order to maintain the appearance of a uniform, brave, and healthy warrior. With the emergence of the Col War, the United States could not afford to have its military’s image tarnished by veterans with PTSD symptoms. Perhaps worst of all, the veterans who were not able to be successfully rehabilitated or re-integrated into society were regarded as social outcasts.
However, the United States was not the only country having issues re-integrating soldiers into civilian life. In the Soviet Union, soldiers returned to a country touting propaganda about the heroic Soviet soldiers. In their attempts to help soldiers ease into civilian life, the Soviets lead soldiers to believe that they deserved entitlements that the government was not capable of handing out [2]. When the Soviet system proved to be alienating and discriminatory, many veterans had difficulty re-integrating successfully into civilian society.
Due to many national governments inability to understand the continued psychological impact that war can have on veterans, many of these soldiers were not afforded the same benefits and programs that soldiers with physical wounds may have had. The belief that it was “not masculine” to be emotional lead to a stigma against many of these veterans.
Sources:
[1] “If He Comes Home Nervous”: U.S. World War II Neuropsychiatric Casualties and Postwar Masculinities by Christina Jarvis
[2] Total War and Entitlement: Towards a Global History of Veteran Privilege by Martin Crotty and Mark Edele
PTSD and Combat-related Psychiatric Symptoms in Older Veterans
