The Battle Of Khe Sanh Analysis

The Vietnam War that commenced on November 1, 1955, and ended on April 30, 1975, took the soldiers through a devastating experience. Many lost their lives while others maimed as the war unfolded into its full magnitude. The book Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam by Bernard Edelman presents a series of letters written by the soldiers to their loved ones and families narrating the ordeals and experiences in the Warfield. In the book, Edelman presents the narrations of over 200 letters reflecting the soldiers’ experiences on the battlefield. While the letters were written many decades ago, they hold great significance as they can mirror the periods and the contexts within which they were sent. This paper takes into account five letters from different timelines and analyzes them against the events that occurred in those periods vis a vis their significance. The conclusion will also have a personal opinion and observation regarding the book and its impacts.

On March 16, 1968, over 300 unarmed civilians were killed in South Vietnam during an indiscriminate, mass murder event known as the My Lai Massacre. Conducted by a unit of the United States Army, the My Lai Massacre ranked one of most appalling atrocities carried out by US forces in an already savage and violent war. All victims involved were unarmed civilians, many of which were women, children, and the elderly. Victims were raped, tortured and beaten, even mutilated before being killed. The massacre was forever seared into the hearts and minds of the American people as the day “the American spirit died.”

I have learned a lot about what life was like at the time of the Vietnam War by interviewing my grandfather. My grandfather, Franklin Torr, was living in Dover, NH at the time, in his late thirties, married, and had three young children. The Vietnam War impacted my grandfather’s life in a unique way. One aspect of his life that changed at the start of the war was that a lot of his tenants, in the mobile home he owned, were in the New Hampshire National Guard and were stationed in Vietnam, flying missions, and some were advisors. He said the following about them; “Of the tenants that fought in the war, they thought they were doing the right thing at the time” When asked if he could provide a story of one of his Vietnam War veterans, he said that not a lot of them liked to talk about their war experiences in depth, two of his tenants that served in Vietnam died in Vietnam. One of his former classmates was a Marine Colonel, one thing he remembers this man mentioning was; “the troops did a great job while they were there”. The most shocking thing that he remembers from this

During the Vietnam War, these soldiers has shed their blood and sacrificed their future for their homeland, but their government, their society and their families alienates and forsakes them. Unlike any other wars happened throughout the history of America, the reason for United States to get involve in the Vietnam War is to stop the spread of communism, a very simple but also very unreasonable. Instead of volunteer, the majority of the soldiers in Vietnam War were drafted without any prior notice. Hence, before going to war, the soldiers find themselves having a difficult time of trying to seek for a reasonable purpose of going to war. Some people try to escape from the drafting process and stay home or continue their education. Other people, who actually go to war say “’I just want

Wars are a difficult place to be. “THE VIETNAM WAR transformed a generation” (Roberts 1). With all that happened during the war such as exposure to

The Vietnam war was an absolutely brutal time in American history. The war lasted for the majority of the 1960s and left many young men dead. The short story “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien and the film Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam give us just a glance into the war by giving using the three themes of fear, pressures, and blame/guilt to embody the concept of war and how it absolutely changes a person. War not only destroys countries, but it destroys people.

The Vietnam War, as many know it as the secret war, because the United States consider it an “Extended Military Engagement”. It is the thread that stitch me to Tim O’Brien’s, “The Things They Carried”. The alliance of the Hmong’s to the American troops brought about the deaths of many, including my grandfather. My grandfather help guide the American troops through the jungle and as word got to the Viet Cong’s, they came for the whole village. They came in the still of night and raid the huts. The Viet Cong were after my grandfather and our family to punish them for being traitors. My father, the oldest and at 16 years old was now in charge. My father took my mother, my older sister, his mom, seven siblings and ran. My grandfather stayed

Because the first date drawn was September 14, all men born on this day between the ages of eighteen and twenty-six would be the first conscripted (“The Vietnam Lotteries” 1). Almost instantly, riots erupted all over the nation as people protested the draft, but their reasons for objection varied wildly from one person to the next. For some, it amounted to a matter of life and death; they apprehended combat due to very high risk that they would perish (Davidson 2). However, most people objected to the entire war itself on moral grounds and responded with rage at the mere thought of being forced to serve. Some cited the appalling war crimes and plain brutality committed by the Americans as justification for their opposition while others argued that the United States had no right to interfere with the private affairs of other countries (Maxwell 439). Whatever the reason, defiance to the draft developed in more methods than just riots and protests. Many men issued draft notices began to actively evade their call to action or circumvented it

Relating to Appy’s claim, as escalation grew after the Tonkin Gulf, America began to wage an unmoral war that was not supported by the Americans and Vietnamese or understood by American soldiers. Agreeing with Appy’s claim, the prime issue of an immoral and unjust war is one that America must realize and understand the full consequences that this has had on the nation if it is to learn any lessons from Vietnam. Originally told that the war was fought to contain communism, bombing campaigns as Operation Rolling Thunder annihilated many villages and the countryside where it was believed that the Viet Cong were stationed. Proven more often than not to be unsuccessful, only to produce the numbers of unidentified Vietnamese bodies and remains that

On January 21, 1968 the Battle of Khe Sanh had begun. The Battle of Khe Sanh was conducted in Khe Sanh of the northwestern Quảng Trị Province. This is the Republic of Vietnam. This battle was one of the most important battles during the Vietnam War. This battle is important because of how many people were killed or injured, how it began, and the effect or news reports about the battle of Khe Sanh.

Hundreds of bodies littered the ground. Sounds of explosions and endless gunfire filled the air. Soldiers, with their uniforms splashed in crimson, fought viciously and ruthlessly. Their main objective, which was to win the battle, took a backseat to their newfound desperation to stay alive. After all, war is not a game, especially one such as the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, and left its survivors haunted by a multitude of atrocious events. Terry Erickson’s father and George Robinson, who were two fictional characters from the short stories “Stop the Sun” and “Dear America”, respectively, were veterans of the Vietnam War. The differences and similarities between Terry’s father and George Robinson are striking, and they merit rigorous scrutiny.

Tim O’Brien’s individual response to war and the optics around it have raised a serious controversial debate on the whole issue. Tim O’Brien is particularly concerned with the frenzy and excitement about war and how patriotism and courage are deliberately misconceived in an irrational bid to reinforce this notion of spilling blood. O’Brien has articulated his regrets and despise to the Vietnam War which he strongly believes it was pointless if not an act of cowardice. Having reluctantly joined the war after being drafted by the US government, O’Brien expresses his shame and treats his involvement as a betrayal rather than heroic, as most would have perceived at the time. O’Brien makes a valid argument and therefore, his claims regarding the

The United States’ involvement in the war required at least one person in the family to enlist to fight in the war. As the result, my father enlisted in the US air force. Fortunately, the war ended before he had the chance to be out in the battlefield. My mother’s father, Joseph Nguyen, migrated to the South. He became a technician working in the embassy. Those working in the higher rankings of the South knew ahead of time that the United States would withdraw from the South and let the North take over. This allowed Joseph to successfully flee with his family, including my mother, ahead of time. On the other hand, my father and his older sister, Phuong, were

Khe Sanh, a plateau in the northwest corner of South Vietnam, was a U.S. Marine Corps base and airstrip. Located where North Vietnam, South Vietnam, and Laos came together, the Khe Sanh base was important for American forces, as it enabled troops to gather information about the traffic on the Ho Chi Minh Trail. However, the Communists also admired the region around Khe Sanh, since it could act as an avenue into Southern Vietnam. General Westmoreland, who would come to play a major role in the future battles, immediately felt this “crucial importance” (Brush) of Khe Sanh when he first arrived there.

What should have been swift revenge turned into an all out war. The City of God was divided. You couldn't go from one section the other, not even to visit a relative. The cops considered anyone living in the slum a hoodlum. People got used to living in Vietnam, and more and more volunteers signed up to die.”