Young American soldiers were sent to Vietnam and left, feeling unsupported, to carry the burdens of a nation.  In The Things They Carried, author Tim O’Brien shows the reader the burdens American soldiers had to bear by listing the physical and emotional items the members of Alpha Company carried with them in the jungles of Vietnam.  By looking at the physical and emotional items the soldiers carried, we can see that the load was overwhelming for young men, most ranging in age from late teens to early twenties, to cope with (Rice, 11).  Upon taking a closer look at the physical and emotional things that weighed down the soldiers in The Things They Carried, the reader can clearly see the culture in America during the 1960s was a major contributor of the figurative weight.  

The relationship between First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross and Martha in The Things They Carried can be seen as a metaphor of the relationship between the American soldier fighting in Vietnam and Americans living stateside.  Cross carried pictures and letters from a girl he purported to love named Martha.  After a member of Alpha company was killed, Cross burned the letters from Martha in a fit of rage, blaming himself for the death because he was daydreaming of Martha.  Cross [Vietnam soldier] came to a realization about Martha [Americans living stateside], “In those burned letters Martha had never mentioned the war, except to say, Jimmy, take care of yourself.   She wasn’t involved.  She signed the letters Love, but it wasn’t love, and all the fine lines and technicalities did not matter” (O’Brien).  Like Cross, the soldiers in Vietnam commonly felt unloved, blamed, and disrespected by the American people (Galt, 75).  Upon returning from the Vietnam War to the states an injured soldier said “I served two tours of duty in Vietnam, I gave three quarters of my body for America.  And what do I get?  Spit in the face by those [Americans] I thought I was serving for (Galt, 76).” 

O’Brien listed the actual weight of some of the physical items the soldiers carried to emphasize the burdens carried.  One of the heaviest items listed, was the “…the PRC-25 radio, a killer, 26 pounds with its battery (O’Brien).”  The radio in the story is symbolic of the emotional weight American media coverage, both televised and radio, placed upon the soldier during the Vietnam War.  According to Holland, “New technology made a difference in how people perceived the war in Vietnam.  News broadcasts showed many people, including innocent civilians, being killed every day (45).”  Adding to the burden the televised news coverage placed on the soldiers, actress and anti-war activist Jane Fonda, visited North Vietnamese troops and gave and gave an infamous anti-war radio address and posed for pictures on North Vietnamese anti-aircraft missile launchers that were broadcast on the evening news and seen by many and treasonous acts (Holland, 46).  

Luck and superstition is referenced frequently by O’Brien, “The things they carried were determined to some extent by superstition.  Lieutenant Cross carried his good-luck pebble.  Dave Jensen carried a rabbit’s foot.”  Luck also comes into play in O’Brien’s tale when the men of Alpha Company drew numbers to see who would have tunnel duty.  The soldier who drew number 17 would have to “…strip off his gear and crawl in (to an enemy tunnel) headfirst with a flashlight and Lieutenant Cross’s .45-caliber pistol (O’Brien)”  The frequent references to luck and superstition lead the reader to consider the bad luck that got the majority of soldiers to Vietnam in the first place, the draft.  The majority of soldier’s carried the burden of bad luck, having been randomly chosen to in the armed forces in the Vietnam War era draft held between 1958-1973 (Rice, 46).  

Ted Lavender, a soldier in Alpha Company, carried tranquilizers and “premium dope” and Mitchell Sanders carried condoms in The Things They Carried (O’Brien).  By listing condoms and drugs as things the soldiers carried, O’Brien gives the reader the impression that the soldiers of Vietnam were not untouched by the use of drugs and freer attitudes towards sex brought about by the hippie culture that arose in 1960s America.   According to Callan, “Many hippies were also heavy drug users, particularly of LSD and marijuana, both of which provided escape (86).”    

After Ted  Lavender was shot in the head and killed, the remaining members of Alpha Company “…sat around smoking the dead man’s dope until the chopper came” and “Afterward they burned Than Khe [a Vietnamese village] (O’Brien).”  According to Hakim, “Some soldiers were angry and violent.  Many were introduced to drugs in Vietnam.  They had killing weapons and they used them on innocent villagers as well as on enemy soldiers (130).”  When the emotional burden became too heavy upon the soldier in The Things They Carried they reverted to the stress reliever of 1960s America, dope, in an attempt to numb the pain of carrying the emotional burden of a death of a friend.   The attack of a village within O’Brien’s story is by American soldiers is historically precedent.  According to Hakim, on March 16, 1968, the 11th Brigade of the American Division in Vietnam, entered the village of My Lai and “The American soldiers shot, at point-blank range, everyone they could find:  old men, pregnant women, children, and babies – 347 civilians in all (136).”   

According to Card and Lemieux, “During most of the Vietnam War the draft operated under procedures similar to those used in World War II and the Korean War.   Men who reached the age of 18…could be issued deferments for a variety of reasons, including school attendance (97).”   As a result of college attendance draft deferments minorities and those of lower socio economic status were more likely to be drafted than those of a higher economic status that could financially afford the cost of attending college.  In The Things They Carried, O’Brien describes the soldier Kiowa as carrying his grandfather’s feathered hatchet and later references him carrying moccasins, leading the reader to conclude that Kiowa is a Native American. By making it clear that at least one of the soldiers is a minority, O’Brien is leading the reader to consider the unfair burden minorities carried during the Vietnam era.  The disparity between the rich and poor that took place during the Vietnam era is further illustrate d in the lyrics of the 1969 hit song by John Folgerty, Fortunate Son, wherein the lyrics reference rich people who get the U.S. involved in wars and then draft the poor unfortunate ones to fight in them.   

The culture in America during the 1960s contributed to the emotional and physical burdens young American soldiers carried in the Vietnam War.   The soldiers carried far more than the physical burden of basic military items.  They carried the burden of judgment, guilt, and the poor decisions of American leadership that landed them in Vietnam.  
