The Vietnam War: The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

Vietnam War The Vietnam War is considered one of the most controversial wars in our nation’s history for many reasons. It is also called the media war because it was the first war broadcasted and shown to the American people. This war was the longest War in the United States history and also one of the most controversial wars in history. For the brave people who served in this war, many of them did not get the respect they deserved from the nation and also many of them didn’t even want to fight in the war. So many books have been written some about an individual, a platoon, the home problem, or just the war itself. Regardless of what it was about the Vietnam War is still today a talked about and relevant topic that still has major debate.

The difference between Caputo and O’Brien is that the reader sees some good parts in the war it isn’t all gun fights and manhunts. This makes the book a lot easier to show younger people the taste of the Vietnam War without making them sick. O’Brien talks about the friendships in the platoon, the heartbreak of love at home left because of war, and they also talk about the war itself. O’Brien makes it essential to the reader to understand that each thing a person carried was significant to each individual and how that was one of the only thing that makes a soldier and individual instead of number in a body bag. Page two of his book The Things They Carried “The things they carried were largely determined by necessity.” O’Brien spends a good portion of the beginning of the book just describing things that his platoon he is in and what they have on them. As stated previously the United states were not out Armed because everyone knew that the United States could beat the Viet Cong in a straight gun fight, however they Viet Cong held their own because of guerrilla warfare and the shockingly amazing use of tunnels. O’Brien is able to talk and tell a story about