Female Vietnam Veterans Healing from the Oppressions of War - Essay Example

 Being the longest war that the United States has experienced, the Vietnam War has tremendously impaired the psyche of the Americans. The atrocities of the Vietnam War were enormous especially for American female military personnel engaged in this war. Aside from the shocks and trauma from war encounters, some of them were also victims of sexual discrimination and sexual abuse.

According to Hilder (2004), nearly 30% of women US veterans from the Vietnam War experienced sexual encounters “accompanied by force or by the threat of force.” These made the Vietnam War a repugnant event that made those who committed these vicious crimes unforgivable to them. The atrocities that they experienced in the war were in themselves, traumatic. However, being discriminated against and abused by their fellow military personnel intensify these emotional scars to a point that these have been transformed into hatred.

Time can allay and completely heal the fear that one has, the traumas was brought up by the cruelty of their enemies; yet deep-seated animosity and hatred due to these sexually related misdeeds that they received from some men cannot be healed without forgiveness. Forgiving others eases up pent-up anger and hatred. It is actually a "response to an injustice or a moral wrong (What is Forgiveness)." In war, injuries come from a wide array of causes that eventually result in a diversity of effects.

It can lead to serious damage such as grave and even lasting psychological, emotional, and spiritual defects. But what is even more shocking and unbearable is the betrayal of your trust in your comrades especially so when females have been sexually harassed by their peers. The research of Fontana and Rosenheck (1998) on female Vietnam War veterans, who had experienced sexual stress, concluded that sexual discriminations and abuses are toxic for the development of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Here is where the healing power of forgiveness should take place. Unlike the psychological and emotional harm inflicted on them during the war which they voluntarily submit themselves to; what exacerbates the malady of the female Vietnam War veterans is the fact that they suffered a harsher and more contemptible experience from their male comrades who discriminated against them. Psychological, emotional, and spiritual injuries that they received from the Viet Cong can be healed by psychotherapeutic means.

But without forgiving the sexual misdemeanors of their male company, the toxic effects of hatred will continue to retard their healing process. Forgiveness, especially when done methodically and scientifically will unclog the animosity inside her and free her from the harsh effects of hatred. Drs. Robert Enright and Gayle Reed conceived the Process Model of Forgiving. This healing method aims to use the power of forgiveness in psychotherapy. It has four phases: Uncovering, Decision, Work, and Outcome/Deepening Phase.

Uncovering Phase - In this first phase, a person, in the case of Vietnam War veterans, the female military personnel, has become acquainted with the emotional pain that she receives from the immoral and unjust injury. Her resentment towards the abusers is to be felt to the fullest. Decision Phase - This honest recollection and uncovering of her emotional pain can already heal some of the symptoms of her psychological and emotional distress. But she should make a decision on whether she should take steps on what to do about her hatred to the ones offended 

her. This could be the most difficult step that one has to take since it requires emotional and spiritual strength. It needs her power to take responsibility for how she feel and perform appropriate actions. Only after she accepts that it is only by forgiving her oppressors to them that she can move on to be healed from the psychological and emotional pains that she had experienced.