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Vietnam War Pros And Cons

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V. Conclusion O 'Brien brings up many instances that show how things went wrong in the Vietnam War, not only because important problems were overlooked at the time but also because the American public sought at first to erase the war from their collective memories. Many Vietnam Veterans felt isolated from the American mainstream after they returned from service. After the period of erasure ended, the public commemoration, through movies and stories, sought to supplant the reality of Vietnam with a more endearing story that could be cherished as much as the myths that surround World War II, “O 'Brien points out that the evils of the Vietnam War are not merely forgotten, but all but deleted from American mythology and memory” (Ooms 26). As Julie Ooms points out in her article "Battles Are Always Fought Among Human Beings, Not Purposes," O 'Brien was not merely responding to a need to set the record straight. He was also responding to the American public’s inability to exalt in any veteran who could not be viewed as a “White Knight” or the “The Lone Ranger” (Ooms 42). “This quasi-religious faith in Nation, O 'Brien 's books make clear, does …show more content…

O’Brien is trying to present young warriors in war as fragile living creatures who are blood and bone, not fantasy fighters who bring glory to the cause, “This idea of the deified nation, a replacement god of abstract principle that can be honored and worshipped through war, has been gradually ousted from its place as the center of the American story” (Ooms 42) That is what the many sides of the story are in conflict while purporting to be the one true version of what happened. No one’s account is really reliable. All of the accounts are based on individual impressions including those of solidarity among the soldiers. O 'Brien demands that outdated stories of grit and valor be put aside to make room for a new kind of war story. One that may not be particularly commendable, but one that is nonetheless

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453 Words | 2 Pages

Erik DiLibero Mr. K World History H 5/9/16 Why the United States Should Not Have Entered in the Vietnam War The topic of the United States entering the Vietnam War was and still is controversial. Some feel that America needed to stop the spread of communism and that we should have tried to stop South Vietnam. However, it should not have happened. The United States could have prevented many deaths by staying out of the war.

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1292 Words | 6 Pages

Readers, especially those reading historical fiction, always crave to find believable stories and realistic characters. Tim O’Brien gives them this in “The Things They Carried.” Like war, people and their stories are often complex. This novel is a collection stories that include these complex characters and their in depth stories, both of which are essential when telling stories of the Vietnam War. Using techniques common to postmodern writers, literary techniques, and a collection of emotional truths, O’Brien helps readers understand a wide perspective from the war, which ultimately makes the fictional stories he tells more believable.

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423 Words | 2 Pages

(page 68). This is why Tim O’Brien writes the way he does. He wants the reader to believe his story and get a sense of what war is truly

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730 Words | 3 Pages

The men who served in the Vietnam War were just barely men, some of them were just hitting the age twenty. It was the draft which brought these boys into the fight involuntarily, to fight a war which they saw no meaning in. Many of these boys are the sons of veterans who fought in World War II, that came home to parades and were held up like heroes for fighting. Honorary men of the country and the soldiers fighting for Vietnam did not want to disappoint them. Thus, when O’Brien mentions in the quote, valor was not the point, he is trying to explain to the reader that the men went like it was a job they had to do, not a random act of courage that willed them to proceed.

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1094 Words | 5 Pages

This forewarns the reader that they could be reading something that is real or something that is completely made up. O’Brien is a masterful writer who has created an unique story about the experience of war through his style of writing.

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919 Words | 4 Pages

Human beings often claim to be searching for the truth. The truth often entails finding the right answer, choice, or formula. The search for truth develops a tendency to settle for the easiest choice—a false truth; more often than not, a false truth goes unquestioned in order to remain benighted. Concerning the false truth in The Things They Carried, information—specifically memories, must be sorted into two categories: those stories that are true and those which are simply glorified recreational war stories. It would be a near impossible task due to the extent that the tales mix.

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886 Words | 4 Pages

O’Brien goes into great depth in this small quote on how loss of innocence and war can affect people in the war. The quote “Often the crazy stuff is true and the normal stuff isn’t” shows how war is so different from what any human experiences at home. After that small quote he follows it up by bringing up how you have to use normal stuff to show how crazy these things are and how much of a pole it can have on somebody during a war. The way that war is treated for many is mostly the mental part that is struggling. But for many "War is hell, but that's not half of it, because war is also mystery and terror and adventure and courage and discovery and holiness and pity and despair and longing and love.

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813 Words | 4 Pages

Regret is a powerful emotion that has the ability to scar someone for the rest of their life. Moments of regret can come from relationships, self-made decisions and life changing events. The idea of regret also applies to “A Marker on the Side of the Boat” by Bao Ninh and “On the Rainy River” by Tim O’Brien. Although these two literary pieces are very different in many ways, both authors describe the experience of the Vietnam War as a time of regretful decisions that negatively impacted people of both the American side and the Vietnamese side. Both authors tell a story about a character that recalls of flashbacks of the war, where they grieve over the past decisions that have affected them for the rest of their life.

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992 Words | 4 Pages

The big failure America in the Vietnam War is the shameful history of tragic scene for arrogant American, whose pain is still difficult to ease. The crucial event also had a profound impact on today 's international situation. It is believed that the failure included political, economic, military and cultural background and other aspects, which are that common. When it comes to the controversial subject, I hope to put forward some fresh views from where I stand. 1.

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1284 Words | 6 Pages

“How to Tell a True War Story” and “Ambush” are stories that both explore on topics: truth, the real definition of a true war story, and the role of truth. O 'Brien starts off “How to Tell a True War Story” with “This is true.” Starting this story with such a bold sentence not only makes it seem more true, but to some extent, it acts as a comfort statement to the narrator’s own doubts, as if there were unspeakable uncertainties and lies of the narrator. The title of this story also comes into play, with a meta-fictional name “How to Tell a True War Story”, as if it were a guide, a manual, having a true war story tell the readers how to tell a true war story. However ironically, towards the middle of the story, us as

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1413 Words | 6 Pages

In The Things They Carried, O’Brien’s story-telling method is an attempt to show that the lines between fiction and reality are often not that far. Even though the names or details may not be fully accurate, this does not change the fact that they are a reality for many. Additionally, he challenges the importance that we place on war and links it to a storytelling aspect because he’s pointing out that not every story has a moral to it. With tragic events, we typically want some sort of meaning behind them, some sort of assurance that the incident was not for nothing. However, this is not always true, as a character “Yeah, well…I don’t see no moral”…

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1093 Words | 5 Pages

He tells stories about when he fled to the border of Canada due to his pride, feels guilty for letting his family and friends down, and then comes back. This trend of guilt felt due to decisions that were made based on pride is also shown when Jimmy Cross has too much pride to tell his higher ups that the place in the field isn’t safe for the troop to settle down, so he feels guilty when Kiowa is lost in the muck. The situations that O’Brien and his comrades are put in because of their pride can lead them to do things out of character and lead to a deep sense of guilt later. These themes in The Things They Carried give the readers a better idea of how soldiers made tough choices in Vietnam and how it affected them

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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.

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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.

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763 Words | 4 Pages

The soldiers in the Vietnams war were there for different reasons, some soldiers were forced against their will and some were there by choice. Because of that, each soldier has their own thoughts about the war, O’Brien has interpreted that “The twenty –six men were very quiet: some of them excited by the adventure, some of them afraid”. This clearly shows how the men

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