O’Brien, Tim. The Things They Tarried. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009.
This source contains a set of connected short pieces that tell the story of soldiers in the Alpha Company. The alpha company is a group of foot soldiers in Vietnam before, during and after the war. The stories captured in the book by O’Brien, portray the surreal nature of the Vietnam War including the inadequacies of previously shared information, some essential truths and the alienation of an ex-military soldier. The author himself took part in the Vietnam War from 1960 to 1970. This makes him offer his insights on the war from a soldier’s perspective. In the book, the audience is introduced to some soldiers and almost immediately one of them by the name Ted Lavender dies. The audience learns that soldiers carry a lot of things not only do they carry guns, but they also travel with fear and expectations. As one continues to explore the novel, they discover that one of the most important facts is that it is impossible to generalize the knowledge of war. War sucks, but not always, it also corrupts but sometimes it makes people feel alive (O’Brien). O’Brien also confides in the readers that truth is flexible in war. He explains this after another one of his colleague’s dies. This source explores the Vietnam War and particularly soldiers that took part in the war. It gives readers insights on the happenings that occur in war giving soldiers perceptive on some of the gory details on the battlefield. Furthermore, the author also takes a light-hearted approach to the aspect of war by explaining to the audience the good experiences that he and his company go through as they take part in the war.
Caputo, Philip. A Rumor of War: The Classic Vietnam Memoir. Picador USA, 2017.
This source presents the memoir of Philip Caputo and the experiences that he went through during the Vietnam War. Caputo himself was a Marine Lieutenant in the U.S Marine. He was also a member of the first ground unit deployed to Vietnam, and his group reached Da Nang in March of 1965. After fighting in the Vietnam War for sixteen months, he returned home in April 1975. His book strives to represent the reality of soldier’s experiences during the war. He also explores the wartime experiences as a way of changing the American perception of conflict and introducing them to the reality of combat and military service. Caputo in his article writes that “Life on the front lines continues, and the men are tired, angry, depressed, hungry and wet. They have fought long enough and hard enough to see their romance of war vanish into the reality of it. Moments of temporary insanity increase…” (10). Based on his experience with his company, the soldiers went to want to romanticize the aspect of fighting for their country. However, after experiencing that war first hand as well as the massacre and horrific images of people losing their lives, they end up becoming stressed and depressed and sometimes losing their minds due to PTSD. This source shows the real picture of the happenings in Vietnam by giving a clear mental image of the horrible things the soldier had to do in the name of fighting for their country. The information contained in the source serves well in demystifying the real elements or aspects of war.
Blyth, Dana M., et al. "Lessons of War: Combat-Related Injury Infections During the Vietnam War and Operation Iraqi and Enduring Freedom." The Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery 79.4 0 2 0 0 2014 0 0 0 0 0 (2015): S227.
Blyth et al.’s article confirms the struggles endured by soldiers during the Vietnam war. Many were injured, but the dirty situations in hospitals contributed to the infections they got in their wounds. In fact, the authors confirm that the hospitals were unable the huge admissions of people who needed surgery leading to increased deaths and soldiers with amputee hands or legs. Therefore, the article is relevant to O'Brien's text because it explains the adverse health conditions experienced by soldiers in Vietnam, including poor sanitary in hospitals that accelerated deaths. Blyth's source will help prove that most deaths in Vietnam were caused due to inadequate personnel and attention in hospitals. The writers depict that soldiers were admitted to hospitals due to pulmonary embolism, hemorrhage, burns, upper gastrointestinal bleeding, respiratory failure, and fat embolism among others. Many did not get quality services from the hospitals, and this led to their deaths. Moreover, the wound infection rates in Vietnam was high, and many suffered from mental issues from the experiences of the war, which deteriorated their health. Although soldiers died in battle during the Vietnam war, the unsanitary and underequipped conditions in hospitals failed to treat the soldiers, leading to most casualties. The article is well-researched since it includes the type of diseases alongside their percentages that soldiers in Vietnam encountered. The writers begin by stating that in the military sector, improvements have been made to decrease the soldiers’ mortality rates. From their statement, the Vietnam war was underequipped, and the soldiers did not have sufficient medical practitioners, adequate military devices and well-equipped hospitals that could cater to their wounds. As a result, many died, mental health deteriorated or became amputees, which interfered with their plans after the war ended.
Steger, Michael F., Gina P. Owens, and Crystal L. Park. "Violations of War: Testing the Meaning-Making Model among Vietnam Veterans." Journal of Clinical Psychology, Vol. 71, No. 1 (2015): pp. 105-116.
The article begins by arguing that Posttraumatic Stress Disorder is a critical condition since it distorts an individual's way of living. That is, they are unable to progress positively because PTSD destroys their mental issues, hence unable to interact effectively with other people. In this case, the authors depict that the Vietnam soldiers have the highest PTSD percentage (approximately 50%), due to the challenges they encountered during the war. Moreover, the stressful events these Vietnam veterans faced destroyed their health and future dreams of having a family or a peaceful mindset since the war memories keep reoccurring. The article is useful because it confirms that Vietnam veterans encountered stressful events that increased their chances of having PTSD. Furthermore, from their research, most war soldiers ascertained that their inability to achieve their future goals accelerated their PTSD levels since many returned to their families with burns, bruises, and amputated legs or hands. However, factors such as searching for the meaning of life did not contribute to having PTSD. In this regard, the article will help me prove that after the war, the Vietnam soldiers had little or no hope of returning to their families due to the harsh conditions they encountered. Although some of them made it to their families, the stressful events interfered with their ability to achieve their goals, hence high PTSD levels. The quality of the article is excellent since the authors experimented on Vietnam veterans by asking questions such as how the stressful events of the war impacted their lives and whether they have a meaning of life. They used their answers to identify the main factor that made them experience PTSD and the research was adequate. Besides, they included the failures of the study to help the readers know of the challenges and bias of their findings.
