War And It — страница 3

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Sassoon was a patient in the hospital, Rivers treated him using psychotherapy. Every day Sassoon would have a session with the doctor during which they would discuss his war experiences. Many doctors refused to use this form of therapy on Shellshock victims as it sometimes took patients years to recover and very few returned to the war. In the years following the First World War, many war memoirs or novels were written. However, very few were by men. The male veterans were struggling to repress their war memories, to banish the most painful of them from their minds. For some the memories would never go away. As Dr. Jay Winter as pointed out; “Those who couldn’t turn off their feelings, internalise them, brought them home with them, dreamt about them and went mad because of

them”. While the men fighting in the war endured awesome psychological traumas, the women and children back home were now left on their own. During both World Wars the women were the ones that manned the factories, and kept the country running. Enormous sacrifices were made, all in the name of the war effort. Numerous metal drives were held, where everything from tin cans to children s toys were collected and sent off to become new guns and bullets. When the men came back from the war, all the women lost their jobs to the men who held them previously. Before the Vietnam War society had a positive outlook on war. Sure, husbands and brothers were dying, but it was all in the name of the great U.S of A. With the Vietnam war came the distrust of authority, the very same people that

were sending kids away to die. The media portrayed the Vietnam War protesters negatively and Hollywood glorifies war. The media is addicted to violence and the public enjoys exciting scenes. Movies about war up until the late Vietnam movies tend to glorify war by showing America as strong and as superior, they focus on us being the good guys and don’t show how much of an impact it has on one’s mental attitude. People were beginning to understand that newspapers and television were somewhat controlled by the government and they show you what they want you to see and believe. Movies made before Vietnam and even some of the early Vietnam movies constantly reinforce the idea that our enemy is bad and that America is strong and indestructible. The Vietnam era was a very critical

and crucial part of our history and understanding it is very important. Watching the news, you have to ask yourself if the broadcasters are always telling the truth. Awareness for Vietnam is necessary and history repeats itself. If we don’t know what went on, who was involved, and what was the cause and outcome, we will make that mistake again. Knowing about it, we can try to understand what the veterans went through and what they are still experiencing. Vets have psychological and physical hardships they have to deal with. Showing respect and sympathy is something they deserve and they will greatly appreciate that. In 1967, 47 million people watched the nightly news. This shows us what huge impact television newscasts of war have on society. Since networks are federally

licensed and newspapers are not, the government has more of an impact on what it says on the war to news executives and they don’t have much control on newspapers. Society believes what it hears, we think that the government wouldn’t lie to us and we just form our opinions, we don’t research for ourselves and get information, we just watch the news. Mass demonstrations, rallies, and marches are ways of showing a political movement in a democratic society. They are necessary to society and are important because it’s supposed to be a non-violent method of showing disagreement with the government. Demonstrations shown on television look exciting and make things bigger than they really are. In reality, demonstrations last many hours and most of the time nothing happens. The

media is most interested in demonstrations that produced violence. Television made demonstrators look like all they did was cause trouble and result in violence, but the police had a hand in it also. Television caused a great effect on society and their opinions about war. The importance of war and the impact it has on society as well as the individual. Awareness of our history and veterans is important and learning about our past will help us understand what is going on in the world today. We need to show compassion and acknowledge the experience that veterans go through. Media and movies influence people’s opinions about certain events. Movies about war don’t show the post-traumatic stress it has on one. War is very powerful and many are influenced by it and it should not