
In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, He discusses some of the harsh truths that young men faced during the Vietnam War. One thing that O’Brien touches upon is the draft and the choices that young men would have to make if their name was selected. It is evident that O’Brien, the main character struggles to face the reality of  being drafted in the chapter “On the Rainy River” The information that is discussed in an article by Donald Maxwell  titled “Young Americans and the Draft” in  OAH Magazine of American History, also discusses the harsh truths about the draft. Another article from The American Association for the Advancement of Science titled “The Draft: Tormenting Uncertainty”, focuses on the mental stress that the draft gave young Americans during the time period. Aspects from both of these articles contain aspects that are evident in The Things They Carried and together, they can help you better understand what O’Brien was going through in the chapter “On The Rainy River.”

In “Young Americans and the Draft” Maxwell states how young men were faced with the choice of being forced to fight in a war that many Americans thought to be illegal and morally wrong, try to find some form of draft deferment for a variety of reasons, or being imprisoned for avoiding their military service. “Some men entered the military, but later regretted it and chose to desert. Some men were unable to find deferments or could not face jail. Both of these groups were forced into exile and went into hiding all over the world, including underground in the United States. Canada and Sweden were the best places to go in order to avoid the risk of arrest or extradition for violation of the Selective Service and military laws”(Maxwell). In  “On The Rainy River”, O’Brien is faced with this same choice in “On The Rainy River” when he receives his draft notice and begins to struggle with the idea of going to war or running away. He eventually decides to go into hiding for a week or so just to clear his head in a small lodge by the Rainy River near the US-Canadian border. O’Brien, just as many other Americans did, thought he war was morally wrong. He even campaigned for an anti war presidential candidate Gene Mcarthy over the summer during his internship. Shortly after his character receives his draft notice, he expresses his displeasure towards the idea of fighting. “ I was a liberal, for Christ sake: If they needed fresh bodies, why not draft some back-to-the-stone-age hawk? Or some dumb jingo in his hard hat and Bomb Hanoi button, or one of LBJ's pretty daughters, or Westmoreland's whole handsome family—nephews and nieces and baby grandson. There should be a law, I thought. If you support a war, if you think it's worth the price, that's fine, but you have to put your own precious fluids on the line”(O’Brien 174).  “Young Americans and the Draft” also discusses the ways in which people avoided their draft using deferment reasons such as having children or being a student. In The Things They Carried O’Brien expresses his displeasure towards being drafted and states that he believes that he shoulder have been drafted due to the fact that he is a recent college graduate. “I was too good for this war. Too smart, too compassionate, too everything. It couldn't happen. I was above it. I had the world dicked—Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude and president of the student body and a full-ride scholarship for grad studies at Harvard. A mistake, maybe—a foul-up in the paperwork. I was no soldier” (O’Brien 174).  O’Brien believes that by being drafted and being forced to go to Vietnam is a waste of his education and his intellect. He believes that he was part of a more elite class that did not deserve to be drafted as opposed to people without his level of education. 

In “The Draft: Tormenting Uncertainty” The author, Professor Lowell Hattery of American University, is writing in response to another paper that states that the draft was the “focal source” of student anxiety to which he disagrees. Hattery then begins to write about his own observations of student anxiety and his own views about what the draft process should look like.  He states that the anxiety and “tormenting uncertainty” particularly on college campuses does not stem from the idea of being drafted, but rather from the idea that college students are saved from the draft. “Unrest on our college campuses may very well result from our present draft policy, which exempts young men from military service while they remain in college. The immorality of this policy, especially during a war which, we must assume, is of limited duration, and therefore will result in some youths’ permanent exemption from the rigors of warfare,is more likely to have a more profoundly disturbing effect than any question of the validity of the war itself”(Hattery). It is apparent that Tim O’Brien has very conflicting views as he stated that he believed that he should be exempt from the war due to his high educational status, even though he was no longer a student. Hattery states that “It is not easy for men to live with the knowledge that their lives have been spared because they happened to be born into a social class that achieves college”. O’Brien even thought about trying to going back to school in order to avoid service, but the government had ended most deferments for graduate school. O’Brien began to stress over what to do about the war. Contrary to Hattery’s belief, O’Brien’s anxiety did  in fact come directly from the draft process because he had actually been drafted and needed a way out. “ At some point in mid-July I began thinking seriously about Canada. The border lay a few hundred miles north, an eight-hour drive. Both my conscience and my instincts were telling me to make a break for it, just take off and run like hell and never stop. In the beginning the idea seemed purely abstract, the word Canada printing itself out in my head; but after a time I could see particular shapes and images, the sorry details of my own future—a hotel room in Winnipeg, a battered old suitcase, my father's eyes as I tried to explain myself over the telephone. I could almost hear his voice, and my mother's. Run, I'd think. Then I'd think, Impossible. Then a second later I'd think, Run”(O’Brien 175-176). In this excerpt from “On The Rainy River”  we see the pressure and stress that the stress of actually being drafted puts on someone. The stress of having to make a decision to fight or flee. 

In the fictional memoir The Things They Carried, the author, Tim O’Brien shares his own personal experience through the process of being drafted in the chapter “On The Rainy River”. The process filled him with, stress and anxiety, as well as forced him to make tough life altering decisions as whether to go to war or flee to exile. The information gained from the articles “Young Americans and the Draft”, and “The Draft: Tormenting Uncertainty” Help the reader to better understand what Tim O’Brien’s character is going through because they provide historical information about the draft which helps you to better understand the process that O’Brien’s character is going through and what his options are. “The Draft: Tormenting Uncertainty” also provide some conflicting ideas to those of O’Brien’s character. Which in turn, help you to better understand the sense of arrogance that O’Brien had before he was actually deployed to Vietnam. Both of the articles make the book more understandable and provide context to what O’Brien is saying. .
