I feel that one really important theme that has appeared again and again in the novels and stories we’ve read is the anger soldiers felt about the way the war was started and handled. O’Brien notes that he felt “certain blood was being shed for uncertain reasons” and that war shouldn’t be waged “without knowing why” (O’Brien 40). Even before the war he felt it was a mistake and after serving he affirms this. Similarly, Pete in In Country criticizes the war effort saying that “they’d send us in to do a job, and then they’d take us out, and then we’d have to do it over again, or maybe we’d just let it go” (Mason 134).
It is evident from all of the works we’ve read that many of the soldiers who fought in the war did so without any real purpose or reason. Some people felt compelled to fight for their country, like their dad’s did in World War II, while others were drafted and forced to serve. However, no matter how they arrived in Vietnam, there was a universal loss of innocence and feelings of confusion and sadness.
Time magazine has a really helpful site that looks back on their coverage of the war. It’s especially interesting to read the quotes from the magazines that give a good idea of how the war was started, how it was waged, and how it was ended. In these words we can truly understand what it was like to read about presidential lies and failed strategies on a daily basis.
4 comments:
There are numerous accounts in "In Country" that point out the veterans growing distaste for their treatment after the war and during the war. One such instance is after Emmett goes to see the doctor. Emmett said the doctor told him that vets "wanted to blame everything from a sore toe to a fever blister on Agent Orange" (75).
This statement allows the reader to understand just how ignorant these doctors and the government was at admitting that they did something wrong
It seems as if all the people who participated in the war either sincerely did not want to be there, or by the time they got there only became obsessed with killing poeple. Not only killing Vietnamese but just random people who they might encounter. From almost every text that i have read during this Vietnam study mentions that most all the soldiers and even the US citizens thought that this was "a pointless war".
This might kind of be a broad question, but I was wondering. What effect do you think the Vietnam War had on the generation as a whole and how has that now affected us? Each generation has a certain quality or trait that they try to instill in their offspring. And how do you think it affected the country? If the war ends and the men come back, bitter and cynical, how does that affect the United States as a whole and how does that affect the next generation? (This is quite an in depth question, I realize, but you're a History major so I know you can handle it!)
It seems as if these Vietnam soldiers were just put in a plane and dropped off in a foreign country and told to fight. These soldiers really did not have a understanding on why they were there and why they were killing these people. This confusion I think is a main reason why so many soldiers were having trouble coping with coming back home.
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