The Vietnam War (1965 -1973) is sometimes referred to as the first ‘pharmacological war’, because the consumption of intoxicants by servicemen assumed alarming proportions. The article looks at the use of psychoactive substances both ‘prescribed’ by the armed forces and ‘self -prescribed’ by soldiers. GIs were speed -popped on a massive scale through the administration of dextroamphetamine, and in order to reduce the impact of war on soldiers’ psyches, the Department of Defense employed sedatives and neuroleptics. For servicemen recreational intoxication was crucial for staying sane. To cope with the problem of addicted veterans returning home, the Pentagon introduced compulsory drug screening urinalysis (‘Operation Golden Flow’). Paradoxically, however, while 43% of soldiers in Vietnam consumed narcotics, only 10% of veterans continued taking them (the rate which mirrored the pre -war level of drug consumption).