Our previous research with U.S. Vietnam veterans focused on war-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). We used data from a clinically diagnosed subsample of 254 men from the 1986–1988 National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study (NVVRS). We found that one of the most important factors associated with war-related PTSD was veterans’ participation in harm to civilians and/or prisoners (13% of the veterans). In the present research, we used the larger sample (1,183) of NVVRS male veterans to investigate the relative importance of veterans’ predispositions to antisocial behavior by contrast with their combat situations in their involvement in harm. We found that severity of combat situation is much more important. However, veterans who harmed both civilians and prisoners have elevated scores on prewar antisocial behavior and the most elevated Vietnam-related guilt feelings. In addition, harmers as a whole are more likely than nonharmers to have died by the time of a 2012–2013 follow-up of the NVVRS study.

我们先前与美国越战老兵的研究集中在与战争有关的创伤后应激障碍（PTSD）。我们使用了1986-1988年越南国家退伍军人重新调整研究（NVVRS）的254名经临床诊断的子样本的数据。我们发现，与战争有关的创伤后应激障碍相关的最重要因素之一是退伍军人参与了对平民和/或囚犯的伤害（占退伍军人的13％）。在本研究中，我们使用较大的NVVRS男性退伍军人样本（1,183），通过比较退伍军人易感性与参与伤害的战斗情况相比，调查了退伍军人的性格对反社会行为的相对重要性。我们发现战斗情况的严重性更为重要。然而，伤害平民和囚犯的退伍军人在战前的反社会行为和与越南有关的内gui感方面得分最高。此外，在2012年至2013年NVVRS研究的后续行动中，整体而言，伤害者比非伤害者更容易死亡。