The Vietnam war and negative sentiments towards the war influence how Tim O’Brien wrote The Things They Carried. O’Brien ties in the history of the Vietnam war with the events soldiers face in the story and by highlighting the feelings of the soldiers in relation to these events. O’Brien highlights the scared feelings of young soldiers, ones they will not reveal to others, and contrasts those feelings with that of the public on the home front. O’Brien also delves into the history of the Vietnam war and how a war that is pointless with no direction can influence the feelings of the soldiers and the people back in America. 

The Vietnam war is considered by many to be a pointless war, according to The Oxford Companion to American Military History. America supported South Vietnam against the Vietcong in an effort to stop the spread of Communism throughout Vietnam. President John F. Kennedy sent over 2,000 US soldiers to fight and by the end of the war 2.7 million Americans had served. However, the losses were many and South Vietnam could not retain a stable government to fight against the Vietcong when America extracted troops. In addition to the losses, “the Vietnam War was a tragic event whose costs far exceeded any benefits for the United States” (Anderson). This piece of history had an impact on O’Brien’s story as seen by the actions of the soldiers and the pointlessness of the war. The soldiers in The Things They Carried “searched villages without knowing what they were looking for” and spent many days marching through different villages (335). Furthermore, the soldiers had no orders other than to march so they were constantly making jokes and messing about. An example of this is how they would waste food and supplies knowing that the American government was going to keep shipping supplies and they could receive rations almost every other day. Additionally, with no direct orders the soldiers almost had free will to do as they pleased. This led to events such as burning and destroying the village of Than Khe because they were angry that Ted Lavender had been killed. Lack of direction continued through the book because of Lieutenant Cross not taking command and being distracted by his love Martha. 

In America, there were differing opinions towards the war. At first, a majority of America was in support of the war, but “as troop levels rose rapidly and combat deaths grew apace of those levels, so too did public attention and opposition to the war” (McAdam, Su, 698). Although those who opposed the war were a minority group, antiwar movements expanded and grew more prominent as the war continued and more people began viewing the Vietnam war as a mistake (McAdam, Su). The antiwar protests did not settle down until the Paris Peace Accords were signed and an end came to the Vietnam War. However, the antiwar protests do not just depict the public’s unhappiness with the war. The antiwar protests address the American public’s “confidence in the government’s handling of the war” and the “assurances that the war was ‘winnable’” (McAdam, Su, 698). An understanding of the antiwar movement on the home front allows for O’Brien to take into account the actions of the government and how soldiers may have viewed the war when initially drafted. Thoughts that plague the soldiers, ones where they wonder why they are in Vietnam, relate them to ordinary citizens who do not believe they should be fighting there either. On the other hand, O’Brien utilizes this historical information to contrast the citizens with the soldiers. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross believes that Martha is in love with someone else and has been living a perfect life, yet he would not know because he is not at home. The unknowns of the situation relate to the cultural aspect of war that is antiwar protests and how people will protest, yet they don’t fully know what is going on in the warring country. 

The anti-war sentiments in America contrast greatly with the sentiments of those fighting in the war. The Things They Carried focuses on the thoughts and emotions of a group of soldiers marching through Vietnam. On the home front, the war is seen as unnecessary and there is much protest towards the war and the draft. In Vietnam, each of the soldiers are scared, yet will never admit it out loud because they are “maintaining the masks of composure” (339). The soldiers were not meant to be there because they were “just kid[s] at war” (334). O’Brien addresses the insecurities of the soldiers that others are not able to see. An understanding of war would allow for him to write what can be afflicting the soldiers and how they are haunted, but refuse to show emotions. 

The topic of PTSD is an underlying theme that is woven into this story and is an aspect of war that still exists today and holds a lot of stigma. O’Brien uses his understanding of the effects of war and the influence of others on mentality to portray the PTSD of the group of soldiers. Each of the men humped their supplies and “almost everyone humped photographs,” but “they all carried ghosts” (329; 332). O’Brien inadvertently creates a distinction between what the men humped and what they carried. To carry almost implies a burden, one where they are holding “all the emotional baggage of men who might die” (338). Lieutenant Jimmy Cross has to hump the guilt of Ted Lavender’s death and it is “something he would have to carry like a stone in his stomach for the rest of the war” (336). The men laugh about Lavender’s death, but they know they are trying to block their feelings, which cannot be done as exemplified by Lieutenant Cross. 

Historical texts can influence a written work in the sense that they enhance the material and provide credibility for the work. Throughout the piece The Things They Carried, O’Brien incorporates facts about the war, like the pointlessness of the war and key events like burning cities that influences how people perceive the war, and weaves in emotions that could only be known by someone who has researched the war or lived during and experienced the war. In the case of Tim O’Brien, the stories relayed in The Things They Carried are based on personal experience having been drafted into the war himself.  
