ipl-logo

My Lai Massacre In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

831 Words4 Pages

There is never a true winner in war. When hundreds of innocent civilians are killed it draws attention from all over the world. Actions such as the My Lai Massacre will lead to detrimental effects, and leave a mark on a country forever. Events like the My Lai Massacre portrayed our country in a negative way and furthermore coincide with the barbaric actions behind the entire Vietnam War. On March 16, 1968, American soldiers invaded Vietnam resulting in roughly 350 unarmed Vietnamese deaths (Yanak, Ted, and Pam Cornelison). They demolished the village of My Lai killing and destroying anything in sight. At first, this horrific event was kept a secret, but when information was leaked, America’s character was at risk. This horrific procedure …show more content…

Ever since Tim O’Brien received his letter to fight in the Vietnam War he was against it. If he had read the 1970 military hearing about the My Lai Massacre, it would have furthered supported his arguments. In a conversation between Captain Medina (a military leader) and Mr. Stratton (a congressmen), flares emerge about how the My Lai Massacre was handled. Captain Medina exclaims, “Mr. Congressmen, I told them to destroy the village of My Lai 4 by burning it, destroying the crops, destroying the livestock and closing the wells” (Medina 81). Mr. Stratton was very upset with how the process of the mission was carried out. There was no clear plan as it was inconsiderate and irresponsible. This reflects on how unnecessary, and how blinded everyone was by the …show more content…

Tim O’Brien was very skeptical about the war when he was drafted. He didn’t want to fight a war that served no purpose. O’Brien supports this as he states, “Certain blood was being shed for uncertain reasons”(40). O’Brien believes a war shouldn’t be started unless it's absolutely necessary. He believes there should be a reason for war and a country shouldn’t go into a war wondering who started it and why. Tim O’Brien can’t wrap his head around the idea that people are dying for no reason. A significant part of the atrocity in My Lai Massacre was the desperation and lack of leadership behind the mission. America was not professional in how they handled the situation and did not take it seriously. As a result, they have made improvements and adjustments to make sure another tragedy like this will never happen again. Another change since the Vietnam era is better training for soldiers and officers and higher admissions standards. "Both Calley and his boss, Ernest Medina, were fairly uneducated, and I don't think either would be an officer in today's environment," Wilberding said. "Because of the draft and the enormous need for soldiers, a lot of people became officers who never would be today." (“Impact from My Lai case still

Show More
Related
1365 Words | 6 Pages

In If I Die in a Combat Zone, author Tim O’Brien argues that the Vietnam War was unjust by expressing his disapproval of the war through his own moral beliefs, sharing the descriptions of deaths in Vietnam of the innocent citizens, and by describing how much the war impacted himself and others negatively. In the beginning of the book, O’Brien openly stated his beliefs on the war. He believed it was wrongly accepted and unjust, but he battled his own opinions with society’s views anyway (18). Constantly, O’Brien discussed within his own head about the true definition of bravery and courage (147).

Read More
1185 Words | 5 Pages

The responsibility was laid out to them clearly, but the decision to downplay this massacre would lead to events soldiers wished never happened. By omission and commission, they suppressed reports of the incident and submitted false or misleading accounts to higher headquarters. (My Lai Massacre) By suppressing the news of the massacre, Calley and his fellow officers just dug themselves a deep hole. Surely they should have expected the cause and effect from this small decision.

Read More
937 Words | 4 Pages

In A Viet Cong Memoir, we receive excellent first hands accounts of events that unfolded in Vietnam during the Vietnam War from the author of this autobiography: Truong Nhu Tang. Truong was Vietnamese at heart, growing up in Saigon, but he studied in Paris for a time where he met and learned from the future leader Ho Chi Minh. Truong was able to learn from Ho Chi Minh’s revolutionary ideas and gain a great political perspective of the conflicts arising in Vietnam during the war. His autobiography shows the readers the perspective of the average Vietnamese citizen (especially those involved with the NLF) and the attitudes towards war with the United States. In the book, Truong exclaims that although many people may say the Americans never lost on the battlefield in Vietnam — it is irrelevant.

Read More
693 Words | 3 Pages

For O’Brien, the Vietnam War was so poorly planned out that the government had failed to even educate its people on the goal. This did not stop once the men arrived in Vietnam, as the author states, “you can’t tell where you are, or why you’re there, and the only certainty is overwhelming ambiguity” (O’Brien 78). American soldiers were uninformed on such simple matters as the goals of their missions or their location, which resulted in the almost anarchic combat in Vietnam. Finally, this is further corroborated by “Dereliction of Duty or the Wrong War? Learning Lessons of Vietnam” by Thomas G. Bowie

Read More
917 Words | 4 Pages

The Vietnam War is known as the first war America “lost.” The loss of lives was a devastating number. The American government was very secretive as to their plans in Vietnam. Although President Johnson said that the US had no desire to get involved in the war, he and close government officials prepared in case they truly needed to go to war. The public was eased into a false sense of security.

Read More
983 Words | 4 Pages

Throughout If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home, Tim O’Brien talks of how atrocious and mistaken he feels his time being drafted and shipped to Vietnam was. His reasoning for writing the book is to assert his position that America’s interference in Vietnam was unjustified by showing the true story, with no shortcomings, of life in war, using philosophical teachings of Plato to exemplify unwise courage, and giving dialogue with superiors on the politics of the war. The brutality of war is described graphically as to create a true account of the war and provide basis for his beliefs. The author uses his grizzly account of the life as a troop in Vietnam as a sturdy base for his point.

Read More
618 Words | 3 Pages

Tim O’Brien was very clear with his stance on the war, he very much opposed it. He wasn’t able to find the meaning or purpose behind the war and most definitely didn’t want to participate in it. “I was drafted to fight a war I hated.” (O’Brien, 38). This quotation showcases Tim’s feelings about the war, and how he disliked it.

Read More
1774 Words | 8 Pages

As a young man, O’Brien was fully against the war. He says “Certain blood was being shed for uncertain reasons. I saw no unity of purpose, no consensus on matters of philosophy or history or law. The very facts were shrouded in uncertainty… The only certainty that summer was moral confusion”(38).

Read More
512 Words | 3 Pages

Some people thought that we shouldn 't be in the war because it wasn 't our war to fight, and others thought we should get involved to stop the spread of communism. In a Nation Divided, many men would avoid getting drafted by lying about their health condition, marrying, and moving to Canada. People often questioned whether we should have a draft or not because of the fact that not everyone had the desire to fight for our country. In the article What Happened in My Lai, the massacre changed the perspective the US citizens had on us being in Vietnam. Investigations concerning what happened in My Lai were misleading and superficial, and the info was suppressed.

Read More
402 Words | 2 Pages

The My Lai Massacre, a tragic event during the Vietnam War, which left many people dead. U.S. soldiers in Charlie Company brutally killed the majority of the population of the South Vietnamese village of My Lai in March 1968. Many innocent civilians were killed or violated by soldiers with no consideration whatsoever (Martin). The soldiers in Charlie Company did not report the details to their superiors and left the details up to their Lieutenant Calley. The Charlie Company released to the press that in the My Lai Massacre event only 128 Viet Cong lost their lives.

Read More
1179 Words | 5 Pages

This quote stated by O’Brien shares how himself and other soldiers felt about the war, and how they felt like their fight and war tactact was overall useless for the United States. O’Brien also mentions that he feels frustrated that the government would let thousands of Americans' lives to end just for a war that had no benefit or meaning for the country. O’Brien is a great representative for American soldiers who served in the Vietnam War because of the emotion and frustration he felt about the war and the war’s

Read More
755 Words | 4 Pages

A man by the name of Arnold Gingrich, publisher of Esquire magazine, responded to the public hostility by stating “readers should ask themselves ‘what would you have done, if you had been there, and in this man’s shoes?”’ (Jones 258). Arnold posed a vital question that many people did not think of while discussing the My Lai Massacre. Those who persecute Calley must also take into consideration the sheer amounts of exasperation and turmoil that the U.S. troops were experiencing in Vietnam. Just two days before they entered the My Lai village, Charlie Company lost a sergeant on the account of a booby trap.

Read More
1101 Words | 5 Pages

The Vietnam war took a major death toll in Vietnam, United States, South Korea, Thailand, New Zealand, and Australia. Just in the U.S., “more than 58,000 American soldiers were killed while more than 150,000 others wounded”. On both sides, there were almost 2 million civilians dead and 1.1 simply on the Vietnamese side. The My Lai Massacre, where soldiers brutally killed Vietnamese children and mothers, presents an example where the war mentally changed the soldiers in the war in a very horrendous way. On the other hand, the United States took brutal losses in the Tet Offensive, where the Vietcong slaughtered over 100 towns and twelve United States air bases.

Read More
688 Words | 3 Pages

“That’s what stories are for. Stories are for joining the past to the future ... Stories are for eternity, when memory is erased, when there is nothing to remember except the story” (36). The Things They Carried is a captivating novel that gives an inside look at the life of a soldier in the Vietnam War through the personal stories of the author, Tim O’Brien . Having been in the middle of war, O’Brien has personal experiences to back up his opinion about the war.

Read More
903 Words | 4 Pages

Thompson testified that his teammates were not to blame for what happened in My Lai. The only culprit was Thompson for not following the orders of his superiors. “Thompson, on the other hand, was shunned for years by fellow soldiers. He received death threats and was once told by a congressman that he was the only American who should be punished over My Lai.”

Read More

More about My Lai Massacre In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

Open Document