Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US, orig. milit.) often constr. with the, Vietnam.

1968		Army Times ‘Army Talk in Vietnam’ 10 Apr. n.p.: the ’Nam: Vietnam.
1978		A. Maupin Tales of the City (1984) 195: She ran off with a ceramic-tile salesman from Daly City. When I was in Nam.
1987		‘Joe Bob Briggs’ Joe Bob Goes to the Drive-In 61: Brian De Palma’s anti-establishment picture, dealing with draft evasion, computer dating, porn movies, the Kennedy assassination, random violence, and, of course, Nam.
1991		W.T. Vollmann Whores for Gloria 35: Code Six had been a straight sucker until he got to Nam.
2006		C. Carr Our Town 279: But no, he said, ‘I am not blaming Nam’.
2010		L. Redhead Thrill City [ebook] Hitch up the tuk-tuk, baby, we’re going to ’Nam.
2012		E. Kurtz ‘In the Neighborhood’ in ThugLit Dec. [ebook] Both of them had been in the Nam.

2. attrib. use of sense 1.

2000		M.E. Dassad ‘Chickenhawk’ at www.cultdeadcow.com 🌐 It took some cryptic haggling, but we finally agreed on $400 for him and his two ’Nam buddies, for four hours or as long as they lasted whichever came first.
2009		J. Stahl Pain Killers 93: Same with those old ’nam dogs, sleepin’ under bridges.
2014		Pando Qly Spring 50/2: Some bad Hollywood movie about expat Nam vets going to the dogs.
2015		P. Doyle (con. 1969-1973) Big Whatever 15: Negative conditioning [...] plus a Nam skag habit.