The Civil War : The Kyle Longley 's ' The Morenci Marines, Nine Young Morenci Boys '

America is well known and hated across the globe for its involvement in foreign conflicts and affairs. The self proclaimed police of the world, America often goes too far when it comes to its involvement overseas. Many times the outcomes of these conflicts is overlooked and the effect it will have on america and other countries. Often times the American news media and politicians will claim that America 's goal is to bring freedom and liberty to other countries. However, this is a ploy to get the public on board and in reality war is used to make politicians and corporations richer. Tim O’Brien experienced this firsthand when he was shipped off to Vietnam in 1969. When he came back he finished his education at Harvard and was inspired to write a memoir about his experiences. “If I Die in a Combat Zone Box Me Up and Ship Me Home” tells his story as a foot soldier and the effects it had on himself and other soldiers physically, emotionally, and mentally. The books starts with O’Brien as a child playing war games and then moves to when he was drafted. In the bootcamp O’Brien had contemplated deserting but ultimately decided not to so that his family would not be disgraced. He was then sent off to Vietnam where he was placed in the Alpha company. O’Brien talks about things like his involvement in ambushes to his interactions with locals. With this piece O’Brien was trying to show the horrors of war and and how it affected the soldiers sent to fight in

60 veterans were interviewed threw out this story , so the author gets all of the experiences in their own words. we learn about their reasons for enlisting; their arrival at Montford Point and the training they received there; their lives in a segregated military. A very great bio of one of the characters was the one of Herman Darden Jr. He begins to talk about the reputation of the marines at the time which was marines were rough and ready to go. He then talks about his reason for joining which was "because marines are supposed to be the first to battle and the first ones home, so I don't want to stay out that long". Even though the racial barrier between the blacks and whites was big alot of these black men still found it in them to join the marines and fight with honor.

Hundreds of battered and bruised bodies littered the floor. Sounds of fiery explosions and endless gunfire filled the air. Soldiers, whose uniforms were splashed with crimson, fought viciously and ruthlessly. Their aggressiveness stemmed from a newfound desperation to stay alive, which in turn, was caused by the war: The Vietnam War. The Vietnam War had claimed over thousands of lives and left survivors haunted by its atrocious events. The Vietnam War had an especially huge impact on Terry Erickson’s father and George Robinson, two fictitious characters from the short stories “Stop the Sun” and “Dear America.” The differences and similarities between the two men are striking, and they merit rigorous scrutiny.

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 in the late 1960’s was described as a tragedy, a victory, a win, and a loss, but for whom? The millions of people who loss their lives or the millions of people who fought to save others or is it for the millions of people who had to make that decision every time that they were in battle, but as for Richard Perry, a seventeen-year-old, African American just out of a Harlem High School, had to ask that question solely to himself. Perry, a talented and bright young man put away his dreams of college and becoming a writer because of the unfortunate circumstance he is in. He lives in poverty in the slums of Harlem. His single mother is abandoned by her husband and this leaves Perry and his younger brother Kenny without a father

In Tim O’Brien’s fictional narrative “On the Rainy River,” the narrator faces the dilemma of avoiding the draft or submitting and going to Vietnam, a common predicament that many men faced after receiving draft cards for the Vietnam War. O’Brien displays the thought process of the narrator as he makes a decision, and near the beginning, the narrator describes certain qualities that he believes make him “too good for [that] war”(2). He lists off achievements like “president of the student body” and “full-ride scholarship,” arguing for the idea that he is “above” going to war(O’Brien 2). Through explaining what the narrator believes to be superior traits, the reader might begin to ask, “What types of people actually went to the war?” If the narrator feels that he was above going to Vietnam, there must be some preconceived notion of who was expected to serve. After seeing how the narrator reacted to his call to battle, a question is left of whether the draft was fair in relation to social classes.

In the third and forth section, the author tries to prove how the basic training is harsher on the men from the middle class background. Most of the veterans retell Appy that their sergeant asserts absolute control of their lives (Appy 87). For many marines and soldiers the boot camps are physical demanding and psychologically manipulating. Most men enjoy the second part of the basic training, but before they know they were filled with aggression and violence ready to kill. Due to the lack of education working-class youth in the military were placed in combat positions. In contrast, soldiers from better socioeconomic backgrounds were assigned in non-combat positions. Most of the soldiers were blinded from the conflict behind the war. Most don’t understand what they were about to face in the war or background information about Vietnam.

The Vietnam War was a controversial conflict that plagued the United States for many years. The loss of life caused by the war was devastating. For those who came back alive, their lives were profoundly changed. The impact the war had on servicemen would affect them for the rest of their lives; each soldier may have only played one small part in the war, but the war played a huge part in their lives. They went in feeling one way, and came home feeling completely different. In the book Vietnam Perkasie, W.D. Ehrhart describes his change from a proud young American Marine to a man filled with immense confusion, anger, and guilt over the atrocities he witnessed and participated in during the war.

In his book The Boys of ’67: Charlie Company’s War in Vietnam, Andrew Wiest tells the story of a combat company through the collected interviews of the veterans and their family members. Charlie Company, 4th Battalion of the 47th Infantry of the 9th Division in Vietnam began as a diverse group of young men. From lower class to middle class, consisting of whites, blacks, Hispanics, and a Native American. These men were trained and sent to a war in their formative years, many had wives with children or children on the way. Charlie Company’s stint in the Vietnam War would transform these impressionable young men and challenge their hearts and souls. From Andrew Wiest’s book The Boys of ’67: Charlie Company’s War in Vietnam, we can glimpse into what it was like to be a citizen turned soldier in Vietnam.

Instead, most Vietnam veterans returned to a society that did not seem to care about them, or that seemed to view them with distrust and anger. ”(Coming Home: Vietnam Veterans In American Society). Even when they just fought a brutal war, the lives of the Veterans were just

Edited by Bernard Edelman, “Dear America” is a collection of letters written by soldiers during the Vietnam War. Their letters are written to love ones back home such as parents, siblings, and spouses but they are a great depiction of the Vietnam War. The soldiers would write these letters to help keep hope alive and to keep sane. Throughout the book the letters are categorize into those who are barely arriving into the war to those who have been there a long time. The stress and anxiety grows more and more as the letters continue and the soldiers begin to contemplate their situation. I’ve learned a lot of factual things about the Vietnam War throughout my life such as how it began and what the outcome was but reading this book was the

The Things they Carried by Tim O'brien is a collection of war stories about the Vietnam war. These stories cover the struggles of being a soldier and highlight the morale of the army during the war. However, one of the stories sticks out by flashing back to a civilian right after he was drafted. This character was at “a moral split” (O'brien 42). He found himself conflicted between his principles and society's expectation that one should support their country- whether he should run away from the war or participate . This contradiction points towards an overarching idea that patriotism often places implausible expectations on civilians regarding their service and patriotism because residents want their country to be the best. This leads to

During the Vietnam War, many Americans decided to choose conscientious objector status and serve the war effort in non-combative ways; others moved to Canada, leaving their families, their communities, and their nation because of strong political convictions. While some said these people were cowards and a disgrace to their families and their nation, others argued that those had just as much courage as the men on the front lines. Although moving to Canada was far less difficult than being sent to Vietnam, these Draft Dodgers proved they had courage to stand up for what they believed in. On pages eight and twenty-two of Pat Barker's Regeneration, two very highly esteemed awards are introduced, the

Moreover, President Johnson has failed to mention how he will address the deep divisions the Vietnam War has left in American society. The inherently unfair nature of the draft has left America’s most vulnerable populations feeling disillusioned and betrayed by the government that once told them “all men are born free and equal.” The late Martin Luther King Jr once noted that “we are taking the young black men who have been crippled by society and sending them...away to guarantee liberties...which they have not found [at home].” Yet again, this statement exposes the great irony of the Vietnam War, President Johnson is content with manipulating vulnerable people into fighting for liberties they have not managed to secure for themselves. As long as these social injustices continue to exist in American society, President Johnson has no right claiming any moral high ground in his defence of the Vietnam War. Moreover, the continued manipulation of vulnerable people by the Johnson administration has led to the proliferation of violence in vulnerable communities across America. For instance, the Black Panthers have demanded an “immediate end to all wars of aggression,” and they have expressed their willingness to resort to violence if they are ignored. As a member of the National Mobilisation Committee, I want to see a united America, not an America marred by social divisions and violence. Yet President Johnson’s insistence on continuing the Vietnam War even in the face of failing public opinion will not produce a united America, it will only further divide us, and that is a vision of America I pray I will never live to see. Yet again, for the sake of the nation’s unity, we must leave Vietnam.

It can be hard to fully comprehend the effects the Vietnam War had on not just the veterans, but the nation as a whole. The violent battles and acts of war became all too common during the long years of the conflict. The war warped the soldiers and civilians characters and desensitized their mentalities to the cruelty seen on the battlefield. Bao Ninh and Tim O’Brien, both veterans of the war, narrate their experiences of the war and use the loss of love as a metaphor for the detrimental effects of the years of fighting.