
Let us go back in time to the Vietnam War era. It is December 2nd, 1969 and you are a student going to school and seeking a degree, everything in your life is going great. However, when you get home from school, you get the letter informing you that you are being called up to service due to the draft lottery for the Vietnam War. You have to drop everything in your life and pack up your bags to head out for training at Fort Benning, GA tomorrow. The draft was a very interesting and important concept to understanding the struggles that a lot of grunts faced during the Vietnam War. The first two draft lotteries for the Vietnam War were conducted on December 1st, 1969 by the Selective Service System of the United States. This determined the order of call to military service for men born from 1944-1950 and was followed by draft lotteries conducted again in 1970, 1971, and 1972. “During the Vietnam War, about two-thirds of American troops were volunteered, the rest were selected for military service through the drafts” (Bia 1). In order to understand Tim O’ Brien’s, “The Things They Carried”, it is important to understand the historical and cultural context of the American draft. 

Lieutenant Jimmy Cross suffered in his leadership position because of his passionate love for Martha back home and this adversity was a result of the spontaneous draft which brought him into the War. “Vaguely, he was aware of how quiet the day was, the sullen paddies, yet he could not bring himself to worry about matters of security. He was beyond that. He was just a kid at war, in love. He was twenty-four years old. He couldn’t help it” (O’ Brien 333-334). This quote is a great example of a time when 2nd Lieutenant Cross was too relaxed during a time when security was imperative. This complacency that Lieutenant Cross displayed when drifting away from his duties as platoon leader is a result of him thinking about his lover back home. However, it was not necessarily 2nd Lieutenant Cross’s fault that he could not set his priorities straight, the draft lotteries during the Vietnam War made young men drop everything to go out and fight in this war they may not have even believed in. Of these young men that were drafted, the college graduates were often given leadership positions relatively quickly based on their level of knowledge. Jimmy Cross, a college graduate, was a very young 2nd Lieutenant who seemed to be too distracted by his imaginary love back home to lead his platoon with the proper focus and attention that he should have. This distraction of Martha resonated within 2nd Lieutenant Cross throughout the story and caused him to make several careless mistakes regarding security of his troops.  But, 2nd Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, like O’ Brien states, is just a kid at war. All of these “kids at war” had varying issues to deal with back home after they were drafted into the Vietnam War. However, 2nd Lieutenant Cross ultimately had to decide between his fantasy love for Martha back home or his troops, whose lives were in his hands. This inner struggle that 2nd Lieutenant Jimmy Cross faced, due to the draft that brought him into the war, resulted in his self-blame for Ted Lavender’s death and his resentment of Martha. 

These young men, like 2nd Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, had to change everything in their lives and put their life on the line all because of a draft lottery number. According to James Burk, in his article titled “Debating the Draft in America” he argues that,

Societal concerns about external threats to national order and the growth of militarism were largely subordinated during the Vietnam War to individual concerns about the need for equity and respect for individual conscience (Burk 433). 

This was a view from the American populous regarding the draft during the Vietnam War and this translates to 2nd Lieutenant Cross and his subordinates’ situation because they are the ones being directly impacted due to being selected because of the American draft.  

It is evident that the draft forced several of these young men, under 2nd Lieutenant Cross’s command, to use embarrassment as their primary driving force to push through the horrors of the terrible war. “They carried the soldier’s greatest fear, which was the fear of blushing. Men killed, and died, because they were embarrassed not to. It was what had brought them to the war in the first place, nothing positive, no dreams of glory or honor, just to avoid the blush of dishonor. They died so as not to die of embarrassment” (O’ Brien 338-339). The American draft at this time did not give these young men a choice. They were either forced to restrict their emotions and maintain their twisted sense of pride or they would die an embarrassment. Not only an embarrassment to themselves, their fellow soldiers, and their leadership, but an embarrassment to their country. These young men that knew nothing about the war until they were drafted used this fear of embarrassment to mask their fear of the war and push them through the hard times. This whirlpool of emotions these young men were having to control resulted in heavy resentment of the American draft. The poor support the soldiers had from their homeland topped with the low morale the young men had during the war led to the abolishment of the American draft in 1973. While these soldiers were in Vietnam, they all had times when their emotions would swell but then pride got the best of them and snagged them back to the reality of war where they had to play this role of a fearless, emotionless robot that came to be known as the American soldier during the Vietnam War. But this was their way to survive. They had to find the will to ruck up and keep pushing through this nightmare they faced because they were drafted into this war and had to keep their sense of pride. 

Some of these young drafted soldiers that were serving under 2nd Lieutenant Jimmy Cross were terrified and had to find their own personal way of getting through the Vietnam War. “Ted Lavender, who was scared, carried tranquilizers until he was shot in the head outside the village of Than Khe in mid-April” (O’ Brien 328). These soldiers were terrified, finding any way that they could to get through the adversity that they faced. In Ted Lavender’s case, he carried tranquilizers to help him get through his personal struggles. The Vietnam War was one of the harshest conflicts that the United States has ever participated in, with high death rates for friendly and enemy combatants alike. The majority of these young soldiers that were drafted into this war were aware of the extremely dangerous conditions that they were going to face and this spiked fear within a lot of these young men. “The nature of the conflict makes it exceptionally difficult to justify to the American society the loss of lives in clear-cut moral terms. (Gard Jr. 702). These young soldiers serving under 2nd Lieutenant Cross knew that the possibility of them being KIA was relatively high and statistically they had a right to be scared. In “The Things They Carried”, these soldiers, knowing that they were being drafted into the Vietnam War, carried their own superstitious items such as tranquilizers, dope, bibles, a good-luck pebble, and a rabbit’s foot. These personal items helped these soldiers to muster up the courage to keep driving on and push through the scary missions and the horrific scenarios that played on repeat in their heads. The simple thought that they could die at any moment made these peculiar items a necessity. 

In conclusion, in order to understand Tim O’ Brien’s, “The Things They Carried”, it is important to understand the historical and cultural context of the American draft. The American draft Brought 2nd Lieutenant Cross and many of his young soldiers into the war. Every single one of these young men that were drafted into the Vietnam War experienced a life changing event that would mold them into the men that they became, good or bad. For 2nd Lieutenant Cross, the war has caused him to give up on Martha for the good of his men. For several of the young men under 2nd Lieutenant Cross’s command that were drafted, had to constantly put on this façade to ensure that they did not show any emotion. These young soldiers had to pretend that the war did not bother them and that they were not on the brink of collapsing with fear and physical strain alike. Instead, they pretended that they were alright and pushed through so that they did not die an embarrassment. These young men had to find ways to cope with their fear, whether that be a peculiar necessity such as a rabbit’s foot that they carried with them or a good-luck pebble that they kept in their mouth to remind them of the good times back home. Though the American draft is no longer in use, it was a very significant historical concept to understanding the struggles of 2nd Lieutenant Jimmy Cross and his men during the Vietnam War. 
