A Vietnam Trilogy: Veterans and Post Traumatic Stress($29.95Value)

Description

This groundbreaking memoir and clinical study follows Vietnam veterans’ journeys of healing across three decades, from 1968 through 2000. Drawing on his experiences as an Army psychiatric social worker in Vietnam and 25 years of VA clinical work, Raymond M. Scurfield provides an intimate, honest account of war’s lasting psychological impact and innovative therapeutic approaches that actually work. The book opens with essential context: Scurfield challenges the false choice between two extreme narratives about Vietnam veterans. While most have adjusted successfully to civilian life, a significant minority—roughly one in four—continue to struggle with war-related trauma. Through detailed case studies and personal journal entries, he demonstrates how both realities coexist and deserve serious attention. Readers gain insider knowledge of military psychiatry principles developed in Vietnam, including proximity, immediacy, and expectancy—concepts that remain relevant for today’s military conflicts. Scurfield describes eleven survival strategies soldiers unconsciously develop in combat zones, from detachment and numbing to risk addiction and dehumanization. Understanding these mechanisms proves crucial for recognizing why veterans often feel alienated in peacetime and struggle with civilian relationships. A centerpiece of the book is Scurfield’s detailed documentation of a controversial 1989 therapeutic return trip to Vietnam with eight veterans. His day-by-day journal entries capture the emotional intensity of veterans confronting their trauma sites in a peaceful Vietnam. Readers witness powerful moments: a former medic seeking to exorcise haunting memories, a nurse returning to her hospital hoping to heal from recurring nightmares, and former enemies meeting as humans rather than combatants. The trip reveals how direct exposure to changed environments can trigger healing that office-based therapy alone cannot achieve. The book also addresses PTSD symptoms missing from official diagnostic manuals—pre-occupation with loss of control, alienation from society, existential crisis, and what Scurfield calls “the Combat Cocktail,” the inseparable intermingling of trauma’s bitter pain with war’s intoxicating highs. This concept explains why many veterans remain conflicted about their service and struggle to fully move forward. Beyond clinical analysis, this is a human story. Scurfield shares his own moral struggles, including a powerful exploration of responsibility and guilt in war zones. He discusses practical challenges: how military chaplains rationalized killing, how “Dear John” letters devastated soldiers far from home, and how the VA bureaucracy sometimes hindered rather than helped veterans seeking care. Written for veterans, their families, mental health professionals, and policymakers, this book offers hard-won wisdom about recovery from trauma. It documents what works therapeutically and challenges society to better honor those who’ve sacrificed in service. This is essential reading for understanding the true cost of war and pathways toward healing. Book Review: A Vietnam Trilogy, by Military Writers Society of America Dr. Raymond Monsour Scurfield is a professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Southern Mississippi Gulf Coast. He is a Vietnam veteran and worked for the Department of Veterans Affairs for 25 years and has directed PTSD mental health programs in a number of locations. He is recognized nationally and internationally for his expertise in PTSD in both combat veterans and disaster survivors. This expertise comes from his many years of experience in working with others in the mental health profession and his own personal experience of being a veteran who experienced war as a psychiatric social work officer. By reading the synopsis of each book, one can discover how Dr. Raymond Monsour Scurfield takes readers on a journey from his first days in Vietnam until the very present, going back with him on several trips with other veterans, and then the questions need to be addressed in how the past has affected the way the veterans of today's wars are being treated. Dr. Scurfield shares his personal journey as well as sharing quotes and experiences from many other veterans. His personal sharing allows us to see deeply into his thoughts and how his strategies and innovative therapies for treating combat veterans can be used in the field of mental health. These books can open doors for active duty military members and veterans, as well as offer guidance to their families and other community members. Personally, I wondered what impact this series of books would have on me. I am not a veteran, I have a son who served eight years in the Marines, but is a non-combat veteran. So... should others like me take the time to read these books? They are not what I would call an "easy read" whatsoever, but I would call them an "essential read," for all of us have been impacted by war and know p