If I Die In A Combat Zone, Box Me Home, By Tim O Brien

In If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home, Tim O’Brien’s intent is to showcase that the war in Vietnam was wrong and unjust because of the horror stories of the soldier’s experience, the atrocities committed by the Americans troops, and finally how O’Brien’s view of the American military drastically changed from how he idolized the military after WWII and throughout the Korean war, to drastically disapproving with the war effort. The soldiers who fought in Vietnam experienced a multitude of awful things, and O’Brien uses these stories to to back up the fact that the Vietnam war was horribly wrong. One example is the violent and deadly battles the soldiers endured. There were many battles throughout the book, but one battle in

In this battle, it is clearly expressed that many people are dying for uncertain reasons. Another example of the soldiers horrific experience is represented in how desensitized the soldiers become to violence and danger. Such as in chapter seven, when LZ gator was put under mortar fire and O’Brien was the first one to the barracks because most of the other soldiers were drunk and weren’t alarmed at all (88-89). These soldiers has been through so much fear and danger that they turn to drowning their pain in alcohol to forget. This level of mental trauma and desensitization to immediate danger proves that O’Brien is arguing that the Vietnam war was a horrific occurrence. Another example of the kinds of awful things the soldiers had to endure were landmines and other deadly booby traps that were planted by the Vietcong that were a constant

In chapter 15, Alpha Company was resting in a village when one of the soldiers finds an AK-47 in a bush and all the other soldiers are orders to search the rest of the village. The men tore apart the entire village, destroying innocent people’s homes and even pouring sand into their well. When they found nothing they took three prisoners, tied them to trees, and beat them for answers (143-144). The sheer brutality of this event perfectly showcases how the Vietnam war was wrong and unnecessary, and it backs up the fact that O’Brien was very against the war. Another atrocity committed by the American troops was the massacre at My Lai where there were several women and children killed by american troops (210). Major Callicles basically uses the philosophy of “shoot first, ask questions later” to argue that he was not in the wrong (211). The fact that a high ranking military official, such as a major, did not hold himself to a higher standard of morals and integrity is exactly why the Vietnam war was a terrible, bloody, and violent disaster. This is why O’Brien expands so much on the man’s defence for the massacre instead of the actual massacre itself. He wants to show that some of the soldiers were throwing away their morals in order to fight an unwinnable war. The American troops crossed the line many more times throughout the book. This includes the napalm