Tormented. Beaten. Herded like cattle. Imprisoned within walls lined with barbed wire. Cowering with fear when in the shadow of a tall, strong soldier. All hope depicting escape has faded away and been replaced with dread. No one would dare attempt to abscond from the camp for it would result in immediate death. Blood spilled on the dirt floors, living in filth and scars.…
In the dense hot jungles of vietnam thousands of Americans took their last breath and disappeared into history. Most of them paid the full price of war but will forever be known as just a tally on a number of losses in a dark gruesome war. Brothers, fathers, uncles died everyday to protect the citizens of South Vietnam from the brutal North Vietnamese. Like all wars there's no easy way out; blood will always be shed and family chains will forever be broken. Vietnam was a terrible but necessary war. When the Vietnam soldiers returned, they were treated badly by their fellow citizens, by people who protested the war calling them child killers and monsters. It was not the soldier’s fault that their government drafted them into war. The real monsters…
The author, Tim O’Brien, is deployed into the Vietnam war when he is a young man. Throughout the novel, the effects of the war on him are shown and they are profound, he has seen death and suffering; he has he seen death but he has also been the cause of it. He describes everything in the war and the effect that it had on him personally and how it continues to affect him in the present. In the beginning of the novel, O’Brien describes everything the other soldiers carry with them. This is his way of showing that the war is personal to everyone. Based on what each of the soldiers carry with them, he is able to understand their fears and what is important to them. This concept is demonstrated when O’Brien says, “It was very sad, he thought. The things men carried inside. The things men did or felt they had to do.” This quote exemplifies the impacts of war on a person’s individualism by saying that during strife, people only did what they thought they had to in order to remain alive. Their own thoughts and ideas mattered less than surviving. Throughout the novel, especially when the author speaks of the present day, it is clear that he is still affected by what he experienced Vietnam War. He is continually influenced by the death and horror that he experienced. His own personal trauma, including when he was shot, impacts his present life as a veteran. The effects of the war on him…
Being a part of the American Dream, most people are disgusted by the use of hard drugs. But little do most Americans know that soldiers during the Vietnam War were corrupted by the conditions of the war and left with no choice but to use hard drugs such as heroin in order to cope with their pain. Looking through Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried the troops in his novel were guilty of using hard drugs in order to cope with the war. The Vietnam war was a highly disputed war in the United States many Americans were against the fact that we were participating in this war in the first place. It infuriated the American population because their men were going to be stripped from them in order to fight in a War, they had no business being in. At first it was thought that drug use in Vietnam derived from the inability to withstand the temptation of an easily accessible drug. But when analyzing the behaviors and actions…
I was asked to talk about the 50-year anniversary of the Vietnam war. And as most of you can probably tell, I wasn’t alive 50 years ago, so I went to my grandfather who fought in that war and I asked him to recount his experience. I asked him if he lost any friends during that time. He responded with “Hunny, all the guys you are with are your friends. And it hurts to lose any of them.” He recalled for me one individual. Greg. He said “losing that one was hard.” He told me he was a good man who found a Vietnamese child that he wanted to take back to the states with him. My grandfather said that man was later killed in action and the child, lost track of. Ladies and gentlemen. 58, 220 American soldiers died in that war. To some, these numbers aren’t more than graphs, statistics, or numbers on a chart. But to the brave soldiers who fought, each number is a face, a name, a story or a memory. Every number, every digit matters. Let us not forget the 2.5 million soldiers who fought for us. Who fought against communism, against an ideal they felt to be…
There are four major themes which emerge in early encounters with Vietnam veterans: control, integrity, ambiguity, and personal accountability. Theses themes indicate the presence of the disorder. Control is often the most significant issue in the initial session. “The depth of the therapy possible is largely determined by the extent to which the veteran believes he or she has self-control or the ability to predict emerging symptoms, outburst, or intrusive episodes.” (Dean 133) Integrity will always arise in the initial discussion with a veteran. It will usually arise in the form of blame or criticism of an institution or individual for a lack of integrity.…
Dwight D. Eisenhower once said, “I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity.” War creates many experiences that continues to play an evident role in many soldiers lives. One particular soldier, Mike Clark, globally shares his story of being a Vietnam veteran, and the difficult times that he underwent during the Vietnam War. Clark’s personal story is unique because of the difficult decisions he makes and the factors that cause him to make them. Clark explains the reality behind joining the military and witnessing the tragedies that are experienced during the war. While exploring Mike Clark’s Vietnam War story and remembering the war veterans, it is important to consider…
Casualties, drugs, terror, violence, volatility, and mental instability are all well too common for any war. For the Vietnam War, it exceeded all of these. In The Things They Carried, all of the soldiers were faced with these burdening issues on a day-to-day basis, fearing for their lives, their perceived loved ones, and their own emotional sanity. Because this war put on a great deal of stress on the soldiers, there was an eagerness to escape the war and their life that they were fighting for. It got to the point where the war that they were fighting for turned into their mental wellbeing that they were fighting for. For the soldiers, there…
The period of the Cold war began in 1945 following World War II after the defeat of Hitler, Germany and Japan. The Cold War wasn’t a one time event, rather it was a long period of fighting between the leadership of the Western World and Eastern Europe. The two countries known as superpowers led the charge with the Western side led by the USA and Eastern Europe led by the Soviet Union. Although once allies during World War II, mistrust with the leadership of Joseph Stalin and his leadership caused the USA to take a stand against the communist country. Although a war was never formally declared, the two super powers fought indirectly through proxy wars, space race, and arms race.…
The Greeks and Romans had one thing in common and that was war. Wars through the centuries change events and the mindsets of people experiencing them. Many wars occurred through the centuries and have affected the United States in various ways. One particular war that changed the outlook of America would be the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War affected the culture in the United States during 1950 to 1960’s by citizens striving for love and compassion instead of hate and violence throughout every home, bringing millions together to form one massive group trying to cause the change everyone was hoping for.…
One of the most obvious consequences of the war was the 600,000 men who lost their lives in the fighting, or to disease. In total, upwards of a million men were killed or seriously injured throughout the course of the war. This brought a new problem upon the United States, a large part of the nations capable youth had given their lives in the war. This would have many consequences of it's own, including staggering the growth of the United States. Another result of the war was the massive cost that came with it. $15 billion dollars. That doesn't include some factors such as post was pensions, or interest on national debt. The war did have a few obvious positive effects, such as the emancipation of slaves, as well as the fact that the federal…
When I visited the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C., I was struck with an immense feeling of patriotism and gratitude for these soldiers that gave the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom. While I was walking through the dark-tiled pathway, the solemn environment gave me a chance to reflect on the lives and services of these great men and women. I imagined them fighting in an unknown land for the freedom of people they would never meet, the thousands of dead and wounded strewn across the battlefield, soldiers soaked with perspiration as they fought for the victory. I could hear in my mind the machine-gun’s rapid fire and the artillery shits ringing the air. These images created a very depressing picture in my mind, but these visions allowed…
War is always a controversial topic whenever it is discussed in a political setting, or even a private conversation between friends. No War has ever been a more controversial than the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War was the longest War the nation has ever engaged in. The United States entered the war in 1961 and pulled out in 1975. Although the death toll did not reach as high as the civil war, or either World War One, or World War two. The Nation still lost over fifty thousand soldiers in the deadly conflict.…
Déjà Vu is the first episode of the PBS documentary The Vietnam War. Directed by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, the documentary focuses on the historical developments that occurred prior to the Vietnam War; for example, there was discussion on French imperialism, the First Indochina War, and the power struggles between Vietnamese coalition leaders. However, the most intriguing aspect of this film was the story and rise of Ho Chi Minh.…
The Vietnam War is one of the most shocking eras in American history. Not only did the utmost world power in the world get bested by an almost third-world country, but we lost badly. This war could have been won, or even prohibited in the first place. The United States should have won this war, with a blend of better weapons usage, better maneuvers, and better support from their home country. Many people do not know the reason for the U.S involvement in getting into a war with Vietnam. Vietnam used to be controlled by the French and gained its independence after the battle of Dien Bien Phu. Communism at the time was a popular thing back then and was growing although the Asia region. The U.S opposed communism…