




“Boom-down, and you were dead, never partly dead.” (O’Brian) The Vietnam War was one of the most infamous wars fought by America due to its longevity and thousands upon thousands of gruesome deaths that the USA suffered. It is known as one of the bloodiest wars with nearly 60,000 dead, 150,000 wounded, and 10,000 missing. (historynet.com) Tim O’Brian, a Vietnam War veteran and author, writes about a young Lieutenant, Jimmy Cross, who desperately hangs on to the hope of his want-to-be lover from back home but getting his friend killed while being delusional. While following Cross, O’Brian also ensues several other characters including an apathetic Native American, Kiowa, and O’Brian explains that the things they carry aren’t just as superficial as rations and gun, what they carry is deep, burdening guilt and pressure from fighting in this war. One concept rings loudly throughout this entire novel - the lack of support these soldiers have for this war. Kiowa shows the most disinterest in this war and Cross has the greatest character declination from being filled with love and care to a machine-like soldier. It is this concept of disinterest that stretches out of the novel and reaches into the real world of the Vietnam War and touches the soldiers who fought in these battles. 

After WWII, North and South Vietnam was separated and the South territory was given to France while the North remained a communist area. The North fought the South along with the U.S. Our involvement was extremely controversial because many believed we had no business being there. While at first there were many volunteers that joined the war thinking that they were doing the right thing for their country, it didn’t take long for them to realize that their efforts were in vein. Tex Howard, a war veteran was interviewed about what he experienced. (learnnc.org) He was asked “Did you understand the purpose of the Vietnam War?” He replied with “he thought he did” but later says that he started questioning his beliefs after he began hearing rumors about different reasons as to why they were at war. One of the biggest ones that influenced him was that “people thought that it was a chance for the higher-ups or the rich folks so to speak to make more riches.” (learnnc.org). Shifting to the text, you can see this same absence of support clearly with the tone of the writing and small comments about their duties. They had no passion about these orders they were given and this hurt them in the long run. Without the passion and support of the soldiers, the less effective their work will be and they won’t be able to focus. This also connects to the reason as to why Cross believes he let his aforementioned friend die; because he was not focused. Cross says that sometimes they were ordered to clear out tunnels which was “bad news” but they “just shrugged and carried out orders.” (O’Brian) The tone in this is bland and without any voice to it, which indicates a lack of emotion and opinion toward the war Cross is fighting in. Both fictional characters and real life soldiers felt the same apathetic emotions toward a war; they weren’t sure why they were fighting or if it was even worth fighting. O’Brian states that “Their calculations were biological. They had no sense of strategy or mission.” These soldiers were just marching without any thought and “their principals were in their feet.” (O’Brian.) 

Daniel Bergen, a writer at Oxford University, delves into the fact that the Vietnam War lacked self-interest. Soldiers weren’t even sure the different standpoints between the political parties at the time. (Bergen) Bergen says without recognitions of these standpoints, it was hard to create attachments to provide a sort of guide of support to the war and this made little room for interest for the soldiers. (Bergen) If the government doesn’t know what they want, why should they? We see this disinterest in O’Brian’s work when he says “[They] just humped, one step and then another, but no volition, no will.” (O’Brian) Since O’Brian fought in the war for 2 years, he had a chance to feel this profound dispassion and the way his writing comes across really shows this with saying that they had no “volition.” He chooses his words carefully in order to bring out the best ways to represent the stagnant emotions among the people and the fact that we can see this in real soldiers connects that sense of indifference which helped O’Brian capture those feelings perfectly.

Besides what we see among the emotions of Cross and of the story in general, one man comes across as especially uninterested. Kiowa, a Native American, who is told to carry “the distrust of the white man,” finds himself flooded with relief and contemplating being alive after the death of one of his friends in battle. It’s stated that Kiowa wishes to “find some great sadness, or even anger, but the emotion wasn’t there.” (O’Brian) This man has witnessed his friend die before him, but he only feels relief that he is surviving during this war. Robert Jones, another real life Vietnam War veteran explains what he was told to believe in. He says that they told him they were fighting to stop aggression between the North and the South but, inevitably, that only a few would make it out alive. They would die in Vietnam and in reality this was the only thing that was guaranteed in this war. (learnnc.edu) This is not something you should tell your troops. If you send a man into battle with the purpose to die, they will not support it. Who would want to walk straight to death? America failed at explaining this war to our troops and in turn, our fighters lost their incentives to fight harder. Seeing this, O’Brian created this character directly 

from this feeling; an aloof person who isn’t totally selfish, but just enough to distance himself enough to not get hurt. Kiowa was created very closely to real life veterans and his attitudes toward this war greatly reflect the soldier’s opinions. 

The Vietnam War was one of the most controversial wars ever fought, and still is. Many different arguments can be make about whether we should or shouldn’t have been involved or not but in the end, the troops can tell us this answer. Comparing the ways that O’Brian depicts his characters, to the way our veterans describe their experiences, they all seem to go hand in hand in the fact that this war lacked the support it needed to thrive. These unfortunate events that took place in Vietnam greatly affected O’Brian’s writing by really allowing him to channel these apathetic feelings and in turn, he created an amazing story around this concept. O’Brian was able to accurately describe many of the emotions soldiers had during this war and as troubling as it is, the real world of apathy creates an amazing story. 





