The cohort of all Australian former army conscripts of the Vietnam con
flict ea was followed from 1965 to 1982 to determine mortality rates a
nd causes of death following completion of their National Service. Sui
ciders were compared with a random sample of survivors using informati
on contained in their military documents in a nested case-control stud
y. Their military document information was recorded before men were se
lected for Vietnam service and is uncontaminated by ''recall bias.'' S
uicide victims had lower mean scores on the army general intelligence
and mechanical comprehension tests, were less likely to have continued
education beyond high school, were less likely to be employed in whit
e-collar or skilled blue-collar jobs between leaving school and being
drafted, and more likely to have volunteered for the draft. They were
more Likely to have committed a civilian offense before joining the ar
my, more likely to have gone absent without leave (AWOL), and more lik
ely to have committed other offenses during military service. Suicider
s were more likely to have a history of diagnosis and treatment for ps
ychological disorder during service and to be judged to be less than e
motionally stable at discharge. Service in Vietnam was not associated
with suicide. A log-linear regression model was used to analyze death
rates associated with five types of variables: cognitive abilities, ed
ucation, preservice employment, conduct while in service, and physical
and mental health. This analysis produced a model containing only fou
r variables: intelligence test score, postschool education, AWOL charg
e during service, and history of diagnosis and treatment of psychologi
cal problems. The difference in death rates between high scorers on th
ese items and low scorers was 46-fold, from 5.2 to 240.9 per 10,000 pe
rson-years.