After finishing “The Things They Carried” and watching the video in class, I noticed how often these soldiers did not really know what they were fighting for. Even in day to day activities they only thing they would know for sure that they were going to do that day is walk. I think that is why many Vietnam veterans did not like to talk about the war after they came home, because they were confused on why they were there. The chapter “Notes”, talks about Norman Bowker and how he is never the same after war. Norman after the war became depressed and never let anyone know how he felt except for Tim O’Brien through a letter. This bottled up depression led to his death in 1978. I think that writing about the war is a way to help let veterans release their emotions and help deal with their thoughts. That is why I think there was a major outpour of Vietnam literature during the early 1980’s.

This graph shows the percentage of people who said no when asked if they thought sending troops to Vietnam was a mistake.
DATE
PERCENT WHO SAID NO
August 1965
61
March 1966
59
May 1966
49
September 1966
48
November 1966
51
February 1967
52
May 1967
50
July 1967
48
October 1967
44
December 1967
46
February 1968
42
March 1968
41
April 1968
40
August 1968
35
October 1968
37
February 1969
39
October 1969
32
January 1970
33
April 1970
34
May 1970
36
January 1971
31
May 1971
28