We Were Soldiers Once…And Young: Ia Drang-The Battle That Changed The War In Vietnam, by Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore (Ret.) and Joseph Galloway, published 20 October 1992. This book is the account of the fighting in the Ia Drang Valley in November of 1965, focusing on the First and Second Battalions of the 7th Cavalry Regiment. This book is not only an account of war through the eyes of those in the field, but an account of then Lt. Col. Moore’s leadership leading up to and during combat. I chose this book because the story is not only a gripping recollection of American war history, but an account of the love for your comrade that inspires leadership at all levels. This book as I stated before is a wrenching view into the lives of the men involved and the battles they fought in Vietnam. The love Moore had for his men and the job they were tasked to do resounds through his actions leading up to and during combat. His main concept of leadership can be boiled down to the concept that a true leader must lead by example and not by commands, he must be with those he wishes to lead in the good times and the bad, and he must do everything in his power to ensure they are taken care of. With those ideals of leadership you can inspire greatness from your force regardless of the situation. I believe it is best summed up by the following excerpt from the …show more content…
There were sound reasons for this. If you are riding and your soldiers are marching, how can you judge how tired
We Were Soldiers Once and Young – Ia Drang- the Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam, was a result of several years of work that involved incredible research that involved first
Moss, G.D. (2010), Vietnam an American ordeal (6th ed.), Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall
BIBLIOGRAPHYConflict in Indochina Contested Spaces Thomas CantwellWar without End - James HarpurHTA Modern History Study GuideExcel HSC Modern History Study Guidehttp://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnamhttp://www.vietnam-war.info/quotes/quotes4.phphttp://hsc.csu.edu.au/modern_history/international_studies/indochina/
This chapter covers the transition of Mary Anne Bell, of how she changed from being a normal, sweet teenage girl to being one of the Green Berets, filled with enthusiasm for the war and intrigued with the culture of Vietnam. This message is about how the innocence of women is consumed by the war and how once they begin to learn more about it, they are hopelessly entranced by it, far from returning to their usual selves. Rat talks about how, “Anne made you think about those girls back home, how they'll never understand any of this, not in a billion years. Try and tell them about it, they’ll just stare at you with those big round candy eyes. They won't understand zip.”(O’Brien 108), and this shows that women won’t understand what Vietnam really is like, they have to experience it themselves. Women also won’t understand the grueling mental pain that soldiers experience in the war.
To this day the Vietnam War is still considered to be one of the most devastating wars in history and has been a topic of resentment to the American culture thirty-three years after its end. For the American public it’s marked as being the point in history where distrust in our government was at an all-time high, mainly because most of the war’s carnage was witnessed on television for the first time. For all the bloodshed American and Vietnamese soldiers suffered through, the war has left a perpetual mark not only on the United States but ultimately has left a permanent scar on the soldiers who fought and managed to survive the war. Renowned war poet, Bruce Weigl, like most young American men during the time was only nineteen when he
Taking place in the middle of the Cold War Era, the Vietnam War was a war not only over land but for many a battle to protect democracy and to fight communism. Much like any other account of a war, the details are gruesome and it is even more difficult to imagine. However, following the Vietnam War one author, who served in the war, decided to take up the task and make an historic account of one of them most grueling wars ever fought. Tim O’Brien is a Vietnam veteran who wrote the novel The Things They Carried. There is a fine line to be walked when writing the accounts of the war in a way that not only informs but also entertains; however, Tim O’Brien walks it successfully. In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried,
With the Vietnam War fresh in Le’s memory, recurring themes of the war are vivid throughout his work. As Le was growing up in California at a young age, he had little exposure to his Vietnamese culture which was eventually fed to him through American popular culture rather than his own experiences. This caused him to disassociate whether
His narrative begins well before American forces set foot in Vietnam, delving into French colonialism 's contribution to the 1945 Vietnamese revolution, and revealing how the Cold War concerns of the 1950s led the United States to back the French. The heart of the book covers the "American war," ranging from the overthrow of Ngo Dinh Diem and the impact of the Tet Offensive to Nixon 's expansion of the war into Cambodia and Laos, and the final peace agreement of 1973. Finally, Lawrence examines the aftermath of the war, from the momentous liberalization-"Doi Moi"-in Vietnam to the enduring legacy of this infamous war in American books, films, and political debate.
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 Vietnam War was like no war before. America got involved in Vietnam to preserve a non-communist South Vietnam, but in the end, the government and the country fell to communist North Vietnam. The US had never experienced such a military defeat in its history. The causes of this monumental defeat may not have been clear at first, but through memoirs such as Philip Caputo 's Rumor of War and other historical accounts of the war, we now have a better sense of what truly led to America 's loss. As a combat soldier in Vietnam, Caputo 's memoir helps us to better understand why America lost the war because it shows how the conditions of this war caused mayhem within the minds of these soldiers, undermining the American war effort.
Douglas MacArthur, military chief for World War II, once said,”Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.” For those who survive battle and return home safely, an entirely unique battle begins: learning how to move on. Vietnam War veterans specifically felt a lack of respect and acknowledgement from their fellow citizens because of the controversial causes of the war. In the chapter “Speaking of Courage” of The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien’s use of the symbolism of circles demonstrates the state of eternal meaninglessness and idleness that Vietnam-War-survivors like Norman Bowker experiences after returning home. In “Speaking of Courage,” O’Brien captures Norman Bowker’s failure to settle into his new life as a veteran
The Vietnam War is an important part that played a crucial role to make history in the United States of America. This event took the longest military conflict that started from 1959 to 1975. There were many soldiers that lost their lives, but there were other soldiers that survived to share what they experience and what they had faced. The novel “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’ Brien, the author himself is an American writer and a survived soldier from the Vietnam War. This novel portrayed the past and present events that were experienced in detail about the war, as well as the experienced that his fellow soldiers that had faced in the war.
If Philip Caputo’s memoir is meant to be the story of an American soldier, Trâm’s diary becomes the story of the Vietnamese people and their struggle. On May 7th 1970 Trâm recounts her feelings on the history of war in Vietnam, and how the people still remain undeterred. “Twenty-five years immersed in fire and bullets, we are still strong.” Not only after all this fighting and after all that Trâm herself has witnessed and endured she is still confident in her country. “We will persevere and be courageous and hold our heads high and take the offensive.” Trâm’s diary makes it clear that there was never any doubt in
We Were Soldiers Once and Young is a history book written by LT. GEN. Harold G. Moore (RET.) and Joseph L. Galloway. The history book is based on the Vietnam War, which took place in 1965. The Battle of Ia Drang was said that it was the battle that changed the war in Vietnam. The book is a tribute to all the soldiers in the war and for their great braveness, love, and care for one another. It was a bloody war, but very inspiring to read about the courageous soldiers who put their lives on the line for the United States of America.
LTC Moore was the commander of the First Battalion of the Seventh Cavalry, that was the first to engage the enemy in a major conflict. The book does an excellent job illustrating his steadfast courage under fire, and sound use of tactics. Which can be easily argued as one of the key reasons why this engagement is called a battle and not a massacre of U.S. soldiers. Moore constantly anticipated the enemy commander's moves. He concentrated his limited man power, artillery, and air support; exactly where the enemy would attack. As stated before, Joseph Galloway is the co-writer of this book and was the only reporter on the scene during the battle. He literally begged his way onto a helicopter that was doing a return trip to drop off ammunition and other supplies. While there, he not only took some amazing combat photographs, which are illustrated in the book, but also helped tend to the wounded and even picked up a rifle to help hold the line. Moore and Galloway collaborated to write a passionate novel in gripping detail as only people who have witnessed war and their friends dying in front of them could. They have even gone through the trouble of contacting the