Being a part of the American Dream, most people are disgusted by the use of hard drugs. But little do most Americans know that soldiers during the Vietnam War were corrupted by the conditions of the war and left with no choice but to use hard drugs such as heroin in order to cope with their pain. Looking through Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried the troop's in his novel were guilty of using hard drugs in order to cope with the war.  The Vietnam war was a highly disputed war in the United States, many Americans were against the fact that we were participating in this war in the first place. It infuriated the American population because their men were going to be stripped from them in order to fight in a War, they had no business being in. At first it was thought that drug use in Vietnam derived from the inability to withstand the temptation of an easily accessible drug. But when analyzing the behaviors and actions of troops in the novel The Things They Carried  it becomes evident the Vietnam War sickened them making them feel depressed, stressed and lonely.

 It was 1954 when South Vietnam initiated its rise to freedom against the more communist North Vietnam. Being a part of the South Asia Treaty Organization, the United States heard South Vietnam’s cry and desire for independence and decided to join forces with the republic of South Vietnam. As the United States entered the war they needed to gather troops in order to fulfill their promise for South Vietnam. This resulted in a Draft Lottery, arguably the most catastrophic setback to the modern American family during that time. Men born from 1944 through 1950 were going to be sent to war, the United States of America ripped these men apart from their families, sending them to a dismal jungle.  Living in the jungle for an unknown period of time, these men began to develop mental illnesses such as depression stress and loneliness. With such sicknesses looming over their heads, troops needed to find ways to eliminate their overwhelming emotions. Conveniently enough these troops were being stationed near the most plentiful poppy fields in all of the world, making heroin one of the greatest dopamine boosting drug very easy for them to get ahold of.

 In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried his character Tim was affected by the use of heroin in a non direct way. A good friend of Tim's became addicted to the substance. Ted Lavender, the friend of Tim insisted on fighting throughout the war high, to alleviate his pain. The article “Hard Drugs in the Military” by Harold E. Hughes directly relates to the historical context used in The Things They Carried because it reveals the origin of the troops involvement with heroin during the Vietnam War and looking through the point of view of Ted Lavender a drafted troop in the Vietnam War, it is obvious that the Vietnam War had a negative effect on soldiers. This then led to the troops to experiment with the most commonly known dopamine raising drug heroin. The drug made the troops feel good and forget about the pain that they were feeling in Vietnam. The article “Hard Drugs in the Military”, supports the argument that the Vietnam War broke down soldiers causing them to use heroin. According to author Harold Hughes “Soldiers are lonely, homesick and bored. With drugs plentiful and cheap it is understandable how the average GI can ease into a fully-fledged addiction without realizing it” (Hughes, 1).  Soldiers did not use heroin because they wanted to, they did so because they had to. The more that troops used heroin, the less they actually felt during the war like Ted Lavender described (O’Brien, 96). If the troops had not used heroin during the war, they would have been under constant stress, depression and left always feeling lonely and those are not the emotions a troop wants to experience. The better they feel, the more likely they are to do their job and come home safe (Hughes, 2).

 Lee Robins author of “Lessons From The Vietnam Heroin Experience” points out that drug use has a direct correlation with the conditions of the war as well. In his quote,

“A more plausible view is that addiction was "normal" as a response to the extreme stress of war, and its relatively benign outcome in these men is therefore irrelevant to a more general understanding of the disorder” (Robins, 1).

  This quote is significant because Robins is also agreeing with the points made in Hard Drugs in Vietnam and the actions of troops in the novel The Things They Carried. Like Hughes, he is making the argument that troops strictly used heroin to cope with the war. In addition to finding the source of their usage, Robins also found little to no evidence that their usage was actually an addiction because many of the troops did not relapse upon their return. According to Robins “most of them had no difficulty giving up heroin, and that should not have been surprising” (Robins, 1). The troops came back to the life they left, alternatively leaving their war life behind. As seen in The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien came home to live a normal life along with the rest of the drug using troops in his combat unit, with the exception of Ted Lavender. Their Drug usage was suspended because it was not needed, had ted lavender made it home from his tour, he would have been greeted by the same love he left behind, ultimately eliminating his need for dopamine enhancers.

Prior to reading The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien one would suppose that Troops used because they just wanted to get high. But actually troops needed  heroin  because of the draft lottery, inevitably troops were taken away from their families, which then led them to develop mental illnesses such as depression stress and loneliness. To cope with these newfound mental illnesses members of Tim O’Brien’s combat unit experimented with dopamine enhancing drugs such as heroin (O’Brien,108). It can be concluded that their heroin usage derived stickily from their mental and emotional struggles created by the Vietnam War. It had also been discussed that their heroin usage led to an addiction. But because when troops returned home and were met with love  and compassion any heroin addiction that was thought to exist evaporated. Adding to the argument that troops didn't want to use the drug. The usage of heroin was not the worst thing that happened during the war, for one because it certainly helped the troops and allowed them to continue their mission on fighting for south Vietnam's independence (O’Brien, 108). The historical aspect must be observed to interpret why members of Tim O’Brien’s combat used heroin in order to cope with being drafted into the Vietnam War and why troops heroin usage was left behind in Vietnam along with the war itself. Finally, Tim O’Brien’s contradicted what was the public previously thought about the Vietnam War and heroin usage within the war because he highlighted that heroin being readily available was not the chief reason as to why troops used it.
