Edward R. Murrow once said, “Anyone who isn 't confused really doesn 't understand the situation,” (Quotes About Vietnam War). The entire basis for the Vietnam War was to suppress communism. Citizens of the United States as a whole did not understand communism. Communism was a newer concept and had mainly been seen in reference to the Cold War with USSR. Often times with confusion comes anger. Many soldier were angry that they were sent to war, while others went out of curiosity. The story of Mary Anne Bell’s time in Vietnam is representative of the curious soldiers who volunteered for the Vietnam War.
When Mary Anne Bell arrives in Vietnam she is innocent and is, “just a kid,” (O’Brien 90). Rat also points out that Mary Anne is wearing a pink top and white culottes. (O’Brien 90). Pink is a combination of white and red. White symbolizes purity which depicts her innocence at the beginning of the story (The Meaning of Colors). The name Mary represents innocence (The Name of Mary). Mary is the name of the Virgin who gave birth to Jesus. Virginity represents purity. Red is both a symbol of strength, danger and passion (The Meaning of Colors). This depicts that Mary Anne had two separate paths to choose from. How to Read Literature Like a Professor states, “The real reason for a quest is always self-knowledge,” (Foster 3).
Mary Anne was able to explore both paths before choosing one path for her quest. At first Mary Anne is with Mark and her life is mostly quiet and innocent. She
Mary Anne adjusted to the life in Vietnam, as did the soldiers that were there, and as time progressed she began to enjoy or get a thrill out of being in Vietnam. "I mean when we first got here-all of us- we were real young and innocent, full of romantic bullshit, but we learned pretty damn quick. And so did Mary Anne,"(97). The learning curve in war is quickened by the fact that it is a matter of life or death when you are working in a war, and it did not matter who you were the you quickly learned how to operate in a battle field. Mary Anne did not fit in a first and did not know or understand her role in the war, and just like the fresh soldiers coming from America did know or understand their role in the war. As the soldiers, as well as Mary Anne, begin to realize the realities of the war they move their focus away from their homes in America and begin to focus on the work that needed to be accomplished in Vietnam. The physical changes that occur to Mary Anne as she begins to be assimilated into the Vietnam War are like night and day. She came as your typical American girl, but then becomes a fighting soldier looking and anticipating ugly war
Often times, the decisions of choosing the two opposing extremes are made by an individual subconsciously, and thus, it is a strong reflection of their personality and character. “ But remember she’s been here a long time, she was here before most of us were born.” (Page 6)This shows Mary is more interested with the house’s past rather than its aesthetic value. She acknowledge the originality and
Mary Anne’s character showed increasingly inhuman and savage tendencies. "She wore a bush hat and filthy green fatigues; she carried the standard M-16 automatic assault rifle. Her face was black with charcoal"(11). In this sentence, Tim O'Brien described the changes that Mary Anne overcame from this young pure girl to this indigenous person living in a harsh jungle by describing her attire, a bush hat, M-16, and "her face was black with charcoal.” Through this sentence, Mary Anne, the character and behavior of soldiers change throughout the war, because this pure girl does not turn into a indigenous human like this without any reason.
The Vietnam War in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia lasted from November 1st, 1955 to around April 30th, 1975. The war was split up between two sides, North Vietnam, who were allied with the Soviet Union, China, and most of the communist countries during this time period, and South Vietnam, who were allied with the United States and many countries that were against the belief of Communism. Although the United States did not necessarily have to get involved in the war, they believed that they had too so that South Vietnam would not join the Communist party. During this time period there was a belief that if a region began to fall underneath communist control then other countries around them would do the same, this was known as the domino theory. As a result, the United States were committed for the long run to try and contribute to South Vietnam, so that Communism would not spread across the world. While the United States government was simply trying to stop Communism, what they did not know was that this war would begin the movement of anti-war by the citizens of the United States. Peace movements began to appear all across the country in major cities such as New York, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, Chicago, and in smaller towns as well. Surprisingly, numerous veterans joined in on the movement too. This may have been due to the fact that many veterans have struggled from Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, but it also enlightened an abundant amount of citizens for if those who are
The Vietnam War, lasting almost twenty years and deploying 2.7 million troops to the front lines, was one of the largest wars in United States history. Beginning August 2nd, 1964, the war killed 58,000 American soldiers and disabled twice that number. The war brought humiliation to our great nation, and created very overwhelming tensions, in a quote by President Nixon, “Let us be united against defeat. Because let us understand: North Vietnam cannot defeat or humiliate the United States. Only Americans can do that” (Doc G). These tensions grew immensely over the course of the war. In terms of political tensions, the trust and credibility of the war and government began to seem very questionable. Socially, the public began to acknowledge
The Vietnam War, deploying 2.5 million troops and lasting 10 years made it one of the largest wars in United States history. Allegedly, the war started after two navy ships were fired at off of the banks of Vietnam. The questionable attack would foreshadow a very misunderstood and questioned war to come. The United State’s army would be tested in just how strong they were, some 58,000 men were killed and almost double that were severely disabled. This was humiliating to the United States, a great world power at the time, and tensions grew as the war went on. Robert F. Kennedy mentioned the severity of the war in one of his speeches, “For years we have been told that the measure of our success and progress in Vietnam was
The Vietnam War cost many Americans their lives in the 60s and 70s. Many were drafted into the war by choice and others selectively chosen to join to help America. The contributions made had a major impact on the American side of the Vietnam War. Though many contributions were made none stand out any more than others. It is sometimes said there is always a hero in the war who helped the victory. Wars, however, do not have war heroes because a hero is making an undeniable contribution to the war and affects the victory when in reality a war is based on outsmarting the opponent and seeing who has more heart. The war does not have a hero because drafted soldiers do not always want war to occur, disorders that get to soldiers affect them for
Vietnam, arguably the most controversial war America started, the war that generated some of the largest opposition movements in American history and the war ended with America losing. The Vietnam War has become the subject of ongoing discussion and debate because it had so many aspects about it that shocked and confused the world. Some areas of debate regarding the war include the assumptions that caused its escalation and the argument about whether the war could have ended on different terms. According to historians George Herring and Loren Baritz, Americas limited war theory and their arrogant beliefs about themselves were the main assumptions that guided the escalation of the Vietnam war and are also the reason why the historians did not believe the war would have a different outcome.
Between 1964 and 1975 the heightened tensions over the Vietnam war caused many americans to become divided on the actions taken by the government across seas. Americans questioned whether the government could be trusted. The feeling of betrayal and government secrecy created the “Credibility Gap,” in which many americans believed that the government no longer was for the people, but for anything else that would benefit the government. The Vietnam War exacerbated the gap between the pro-war traditionalists and anti-war liberals along with an increase in military action, causing controversy over government spending; as a whole these factors established a sense of distrust between the American government and its people.
America has won the War of Independence, the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War, the Indian Wars, the Civil War, and are back-to-back winners of the World Wars. With the amount of victories made, Americans might try to process the question of who won the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War never had a declared victor. America got involved in the Vietnam War during the year of 1965. The United States first became involved in the war by financially supporting France in the first Indochina War. After that, Vietnam was separated from France’s control. South Vietnam and France were America’s allies. President Kennedy sent roughly 2,000 military advisors to South Vietnam for support. Soon, it became a much more preponderant number. The “Tet
In the month of December of 1967, near Tam Quan in Vietnam, troops on a foot patrol from D-1-12 were on their way back to camp. While crossing a vulnerable spot in a rice paddy, the wood-line suddenly opened up with intense small arms fire in an all-out ambush on their position. Low on ammo, and with almost no cover, they radioed for assistance. The small infantry platoon hunkered as low to the ground as possible in what appeared to be the final moments of their lives, when suddenly the wood-line erupted into a cacophony of explosions, and out of nowhere a Chinook appeared. "At first, I thought it was our Admin/Log Bird who 'd tragically picked the wrong time to do re-supply, but that worry vanished when I realized it was coming to a
Later on, it turned out that she was with the Greenies in all of those nights, the Greenies is a group of formidable soldiers that focused on night ambush. At this points, everything begins to make more sense as well as creepier, first, Mary Anne changed her appearance so she can camouflage with the Greenies in the process of ambush. Then, according to Rat Kiley, her eyes turn into jungle greenish instead of the glowing blue after she returned from three weeks of her disappearance with the Greenies. The meaning of this is a clear mark that she had lost her pure innocence by experience the art of killing, she lost the joyful part of an American sweetheart and starting to accommodate with the very jungle that she been staring into, the very land of Vietnam. Lastly, Marry Anne and the Greenies developed Sadistic Personality Disorder according to “Psychology Today” as well as a animalistic
American soldiers arrived in My Lai on March 16, 1968. These soldiers were members of
The Vietnam War was one of the most deadly wars in history, taking over three million lives during the 20-year war. It began in the mid 50’s, between Northern and Southern Vietnam. The United States joined the Vietnam War in 1965, and by 1969 there were about 500,000 U.S. soldiers involved with the war. The war began to slow down in ‘73 when President Nixon pulled the American troops, and the long hard war ended in 1975 after the Communists seized control.
In chapter 2, Mary road on a train to go to Misselthwaite Manor, her uncle’s house. She met Mrs. Medlock at the train station so she will take her to the manor. Misseithwaite Manor is a giant house with several gardens. At the manor she saw the gardens all around. In chapter 3 at the manor, Mary heard some disturbing moaning in the moor. It felt mysterious to be hearing crying at night. She wanted to see what