Vietnam War Weakness

that things were breaking up and he also knew why. It was the fear. In

The Things They Carried is a collection of stories about the Vietnam War that the author, Tim O’Brien, uses to convey his experiences and feelings about the war. The book is filled with stories about the men of Alpha Company and their lives in Vietnam and afterwards back in the United States. O’Brien captures the reader with graphic descriptions of the war that make one feel as if they were in Vietnam. The characters are unique and the reader feels sadness and compassion for them by the end of the novel. To O’Brien the novel is not only a compilation of stories, but also a release of the fears, sadness, and anger that he has felt because of the Vietnam War.

The Vietnam War started on the 1st November 1955, however full U.S military involvement was not until over ten years later in 1965 following the Gulf of Tonkin incident in which a U.S Destroyer was reportedly fired upon by North Vietnamese forces. Once again, as with the Korean War five years previous, the North part of the country was the Communists and the South part was the Capitalists. The Vietnam War was a lot more forthcoming than the Korean War, given the ten year period in which military advisers resided in Vietnam before the outbreak. Despite this build up the interest in Vietnam by war correspondents was at a minimal level. It is reported that even in 1963, just two years prior to the full involvement of the U.S military, there were only enough full-time correspondents to fill a table at a restaurant . The lack of media personnel in the country until 1965 shows that despite the indications shown in Korea for the USA to protect their interests, there is not much pull unless there is a full military involvement. The number of correspondents around in Vietnam before 1965 was at a measly eight. However, signifying the size of the war, the peak number in March 1968 hit 645 correspondents in Vietnam . Amongst this number saw a large quantity of female correspondents make their way to Vietnam. In all 467 women were accredited to being correspondents during the war, the most ever in any war . This may have been as a result of the

The Vietnam War was a conflict, which the United States involved itself in unnecessarily and ultimately lost. The basis of the conflict was simple enough: Communism vs. Capitalism, yet the conduct of the Vietnam War was complex and strategic, and brought repercussions which had never been seen before. The struggle between North and South had an almost inevitable outcome, yet the Americans entered the War optimistic that they could aid the falling South and sustain democracy. The American intentions for entering the Vietnam conflict were good, yet when the conflict went horribly wrong, and the resilient North Vietnamese forces, or ‘Viet Cong' as they were known, refused to yield, the United States saw they were fighting a losing battle.

The Things They Carried, a fiction novel by Tim O’Brien, carries courage throughout the stories he tells by describing what it takes to be a soldier in Vietnam. Through burning the pictures and letters from a loved one, to seeing a friend’s remains in a tree, and carrying on despite witnessing a friend die, right before him, O’Brien allows the reader to witness the true courage needed to be a soldier. Being courageous is what holds these men together and makes every one of these stories string together and relate to one another. Much like soldiers, these stories build each other up and amplify their effects together. Tim O’Brien represents how people coming from different places experience the same need to be courageous during a time of war in the fiction novel The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien.

Before I read this book, I had a limited understanding – it’s still limited due to the fact that I’m not a soldier, nor have I fought in a war – of how those who fight these wars for us are truly affected by the actions required. When we think of a soldier returning from war, we think of them as a hero, which they are, but we fail to think of how they’re could be feeling about the things they had to do. We fail to understand that PTSD is real and common in many soldiers; we fail to understand that we shouldn’t treat them as a “ticking time bomb” , but rather a fellow citizen that needs our help and understanding. We fail to see them as anything more than a soldier; we fail to see their humanity. This book opens up this disconnect a little more. Though the characters are fictional, we are still able to see real feelings that soldier face during and after the war, thanks to O’Brien’s experience. Though there still isn’t a perfect understanding of these feelings that soldiers face after war, the book has helped me to understand just how big this disconnect is. Though these feelings very well could be felt after any war that the nation has fought in, I feel like disconnect between veterans and civilians was broadened after soldiers returned from Vietnam. Civilians had seen on the television, for the first time,

Author’s Background-Tim O’Brien was born on October 1, 1946, in Austin, Minnesota, but was raised in Worthington D.C. At the time his mother was a teacher at an Elementary school and his father an insurance salesman who later became a sailor in World War II. He thought of becoming a writer because of his father's accounts of World War II battles. Then soon after he received his draft and joined the military. He served in the military from 1969 to 1970 as a foot soldier after then leaving the army. After leaving the army he started writing and later published first writing about his personal war experiences like the ones that inspired him when he hear them from his father and called it “If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home”.

Friends are a blessing, especially when friends are found within the madness of war. In the novel, the narrator and author, Tim O’Brien, discusses fictionalized war stories from his experiences in Vietnam. All of the stories are very different. Some deal with death, some deal with love, and some don’t actually deal with the war at all, but they are all connected. They all exemplify, in one way or another, a “true” war story. In one of O’Brien’s stories, he discusses the bond between two men on their journey from enemies, to friends, to loss. The story is appropriately titled, “Friends”. The truth that O’Brien discusses in “Friends” deals with the randomness and chaos of war. War is unexpected, yet the unexpectation of war can lead to serenity

What did the United States lose in Vietnam? The United States lost many valuable resources in Vietnam , examples being people, their mental health, money. We lost respect, reputation, and pride from the war or “police action”. The United States did not leave the war without sacrifice, though we deserved most of what happened for our stupid decision in entering the war through police action. Losing people, money, respect among many other things is not anyone else's fault.

For many, the Vietnam War was unwinnable, I agree with this statement to a large extent. The Vietnam War began on the 1st of November 1955 to the 30th of April 1975. The war killed 521 men and wounded over 3,000 during the 10 long years. The harsh conditions, fighting on enemy soil and the media played a significant role in the failure of preventing the North Vietnamese and the Vietcong taking over Vietnam and turning it into a communist country with fear it could lead to a domino effect.

Statement of intent: The purpose of this piece of writing is to engage the audience through writing an essay about the novel The Things They Carried by author Tim O’Brien. I have chosen to talk about the importance of storytelling throughout his novel and how it is able to make the text more successful. In the captivating novel The Things They Carried written by Tim O’Brien, many complex situations are created through the use of storytelling such as decision making, the importance of fact and fiction and horrific experiences that soldiers went through at the Vietnam war. These situations make his novel successful as he is able to get the audience to relate to him and to see deeper meanings that are behind the stories that he tells throughout.

The United States entered into Vietnam in 1965 and fought there until 1975. The U.S. got involved because North Vietnam was trying to take over South Vietnam and make them part of the communist North Vietnam. Due to President Johnson and congress believing that if they didn’t engage in this war that the domino effect (which is where one country becomes communist and this causes other countries to fall victim to the same fate) that this would happen. For the first time in the history of any war, the American public was extremely disrespectful to the soldiers coming home from war. The war was extremely costly for the United States and the loss of life was too great. So many lives were lost over there in a conflict that was never to be won.

The novel The Things They Carried was written by Tim O’Brien. The novels genre is Fiction. The novel took place during the Vietnam War. In chapter “Speaking of Courage”

Cole Kelly US history research paper rough 11-1-14 Why were we not more successful in Vietnam? The Vietnam war was a controversial war that began November 1955 and lasted until April 1975. It was a war between communism and capital democracy, and a civil war in the eyes of the Vietnamese. The United States acted as a self proclaimed protector of democracy and did all in its power to prevent the communist unification of Vietnam.

The United States intervention in Vietnam is seen by the world as America’s greatest loss and longest war. Before the start of the war in Vietnam, the thought of the United States losing this war was unheard of because America was technologically superior, no country in south East Asia could contend with them. Lyndon B. Johnson announced that he would not be the president to allow South East Asia to go Communist . Why the United States lost the war has been a huge debate since the end of the war, because there were so many factors affecting why they lost; the war was a loss politically, after losing support from not only the American public but also the South Vietnamese and losing a political mandate for the war by 1973, when the last