Hearts and minds: suicide among United States combat troops in Vietnam, 1957-1973

David P. Adams, Cole Barton, G. Lynn Mitchell, Alan L. Moore and Victor Einagel

Social Science & Medicine, 1998, vol. 47, issue 11, 1687-1694

Abstract: The literature on suicides among military personnel in a combat zone remains anecdotal. Although one finds literary and journalistic accounts of the problem, it has not been systematically analyzed. This paper will examine suicides among American combat troops during their tour of duty in Vietnam. Utilizing statistical data from the Southeast Asia Combat Area Casualties Database (SACACD), the authors will survey its epidemiology among U.S. ground troops in Vietnam from 1957 to 1973. The results suggest that certain types of combat troops were significantly more likely than others to commit suicide. These findings not only provide important predictors for military health professionals in the assessment of suicide risk, they also raise disturbing questions about the nature of organized armed conflict.

Keywords: suicide; Vietnam; conflict; military; medicine; psychiatry; history (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1998
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(98)00253-6
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:socmed:v:47:y:1998:i:11:p:1687-1694

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/supportfaq.cws_home/regional
http://www.elsevier. ... _01_ooc_1&version=01

Access Statistics for this article

Social Science & Medicine is currently edited by Ichiro (I.) Kawachi and S.V. (S.V.) Subramanian

More articles in Social Science & Medicine from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().