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

Disorganized. Lacking planning. Ineffective. Uninformed. These adjectives and those like it are often used to describe the strategy, or the lack thereof, present in the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War, which lasted from 1955 to 1975, consisted of unplanned, impulsive guerilla warfare with North Vietnamese and Viet Cong soldiers in an attempt to stop the spread of communism in the region. This type of warfare, specifically the disorganization and lack of strategy present, is accurately represented in the book The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien.

The chaotic nature of warfare is a major theme throughout the novel and heavily influences the plot. Within the first chapter, O’Brien introduces the poor planning present in the Vietnam War through

This excerpt, taken from a passage regarding what soldiers carried during a march, clearly demonstrates the lack of direction given to American troops during Vietnam. He goes on to explain how the war was not a battle but simply an endless march from village to village, done without thought or purpose, carried out simply for the sake of the march. Together, these ideas work to show that military efforts were not the strategic, thought out attacks seen in the past but a haphazard game of cat and mouse between the Viet Cong and US soldiers. Moreover, this point is further supported by the article “The Problem of Metrics: Assessing Progress and Effectiveness in the Vietnam War” by Gregory A. Daddis, Academy Professor of History at United State Military Academy, West Point. According to the article, “the US Army in Vietnam

When a fictitious Tim O’Brien is drafted, the author discusses his emotions in great detail. In addition to the standard feelings of anger and denial, he is confused. The author states that “the facts were shrouded in uncertainty: was it a civil war? A war of national liberation or simple aggression?” (O’Brien 38). 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, Jr. In the article he states that “the Joint Chiefs of Staff were unable to articulate effectively either their objections or alternatives” (Bowie 233). This proves that communication with soldiers in Vietnam was grossly inadequate. Those fighting the war could not state their objective because their government could not. Poor delivery of information and intentions caused the subpar formation of military tactics and strategy for the war that