Lukasz Kamienski, The Atlantic: The Drugs That Built a Super Soldier
During the Vietnam War, the U.S. military plied its servicemen with speed, steroids, and painkillers to help them handle extended combat.
Some historians call Vietnam the “last modern war,” others the “first postmodern war.” Either way, it was irregular: Vietnam was not a conventional war with the frontlines, rears, enemy mobilizing its forces for an attack, or a territory to be conquered and occupied. Instead, it was a formless conflict in which former strategic and tactical principles did not apply. The Vietcong were fighting in an unexpected, surprising, and deceptive way to negate Americans’ strengths and exploit their weaknesses, making the Vietnam War perhaps the best example of asymmetrical warfare of the 20th century.
The conflict was distinct in another way, too—over time, it came to be known as the first “pharmacological war,” so called because the level of consumption of psychoactive substances by military personnel was unprecedented in American history. The British philosopher Nick Land aptly described the Vietnam War as “a decisive point of intersection between pharmacology and the technology of violence.”
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WNU Editor: There is still little if any research on the long term impacts from such drug use .... and my gut is telling me that this a ticking bomb scenario for some former soldiers.
3 comments:
This article was written by, for , and about REMFs.
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I remember reading that the Wehrmacht gave its tank crews speed amphetamines prior to the invasion of France to make sure they could keep going during the critical time for Case Yellow. I assume it was used elsewhere as well. At the time, I don't think anyone understood the dangers of addiction for it.
Chris
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