
Very often when discussing the matters of the traumas associated with the Vietnam war, people tend to directly correlate the bloody war scenes and deaths of friends and fellow troops as having the longest lasting negative impact on the soldier’s mental state. Others will argue that the loved ones left behind, memories of being home, and the familiar feeling of American soil under their feet will have the most detrimental effects on the soldiers. In “The Things They Carried”, Tim O’Brien talks about the things that soldiers had to carry in Vietnam and he focuses on both the shameful memories of experiences at war and distant memories from back home. In “Study Raises Estimate of Vietnam War Stress”, Leslie Roberts explains that “…15% of veterans who served in Vietnam, Laos, or Cambodia still suffer from PTSD.” (Roberts, 788) So, what really causes so many veterans that served in the Vietnam war to have long lasting traumatic mental health issues? The incomprehensible gap that exists in the soldier’s mind about where he is, Vietnam, an unfamiliar warzone where he experiences brutal killings of enemies and the death of his own soldiers and friends, and where his mind would like to be, home, where he has established meaningful relationships with his family, friends, and other loved ones, is what causes the most impactful trauma on the soldier. When reading “Vietnam War and US: Haunting Legacy” and “Study Raises Estimate of Vietnam War Stress”, the stories and statistics portrayed in the texts give you a sense of realism that Tim O’Brien displays when talking about the perplexed emotions of Lieutenant Jimmy Cross.

Research conducted by the CDC found that only 2% of Vietnam veterans currently suffer from PTSD. The CDC conducted this evidence using tests that were not fully effective in diagnosing those with PTSD. (Roberts, 788) “According to the new study, conducted by the VA by the Research Triangle Institute of North Carolina, 15% of veterans who served in Vietnam, Laos, or Cambodia still suffer from PTSD.” (Roberts, 788) The reason why a large majority of Vietnam war veterans go undiagnosed with PTSD is because they are ashamed to speak out and get tested. For some veterans, openly talking about PTSD will bring back horrid memories of the war. Soldiers throughout history have been taught to be tough in times of adversity and not show their emotions because showing emotion is thought to be a sign of weakness. In “Vietnam War and US: Haunting Legacy”, Bob Kerrey’s war record was under review for his decision to order an attack on a Thang Phong village, killing several unarmed citizens. During the Vietnam war, incidents like this happened frequently because Americans were given orders that did not align with American’s views on fair warfare. “Vietnam War and US: Haunting Legacy” states, “The American political establishment is nervous about reopening the old wounds. The war involved government duplicity and deceit on a monumental scale with countless illegal actions undertaken.” (Vietnam War and Us: Haunting Legacy, 1793) Furthering the investigation against Kerry’s war crimes would not be beneficial because it would bring back the memories that Bob Kerry would undoubtedly love to forget. 

In writing “The Things They Carried”, Tim O’Brien looked to instill a sense of realism into his writing by capturing the stresses soldiers experience during war. The main character, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, is a young man sent to war in Vietnam after being drafted. Cross not only leaves behind his family and his familiar home environment, but he leaves behind a girl that he loves. Cross experiences the death of some of his close friends and fellow soldiers in the war. Tim O’Brien creates the characters as having a sense of hardness by them not talking about their feelings. They would carry around certain keepsakes to take their minds off the war. Nearly every soldier had something to remind them of home. Not only did they have superstitious keepsakes from back home, but they had some war trophies they kept with them. Norman Bowker, a soldier in “The Things They Carried”, carried around a thumb of a dead boy. He carried this to further show his hardness and to try to act as if he was unaffected by the death. In reality, these deaths occurred all the time and it was just a part of the war experience. By carrying this thumb, Bowker blocked out the remorse he should feel for the departed young boy. He draws this from actually historical context of the way veterans will keep their feelings locked up inside of them. In “Vietnam War and US: Haunting Legacy”, the piece talks about how forums exist on the internet where veterans can express their feelings, yet most still choose not to, in fear that bringing back the memories would further their symptoms of PTSD. O’Brien uses his knowledge of how soldiers often kept their feelings to themselves to accurately represent his characters in his book. When writing about the soldiers he writes, “The were afraid of dying but they were even more afraid to show it.” (O’Brien, 338) This quote in the text is shaped by the historical background of Vietnam war veterans. 

PTSD has often been a sensitive topic, not only because soldiers are embarrassed to talk about how they are affected by the war and their feelings, but because by bringing back up the discussion of the war will bring back memories they wish to leave behind. To show the most traumatizing aspect of where a soldier stands in a war zone, O’Brien brings in both aspects of the feelings soldiers experience during battle. He talks about the different things that the soldiers carried, “They carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die. Grief, terror, love, longing…” (O’Brien, 338) The main character, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, carries around his things from back home including pictures of Martha, the girl he loves, and letters he received from her. On the aspect of the war, Jimmy carries the emotional weight that comes along with the death of his close friend Ted Lavender. Yes, both leaving behind the girl you love to go to war, and seeing horrid deaths of soldiers in your troop, will cause you to undergo large amounts of stress. But what is the most traumatic to experience, is the intangible distance gap between those they love, back home, and the war stresses in Vietnam. When being sent to war, a soldier enters an unfamiliar territory, often where their language is not the primary language of this region. The soldier is forced to leave behind all their past relationships and any familiarity that is associated with being on home soil. Jimmy Cross’s only way of communication with Martha is through letters. Like the similar situation stated in “Vietnam War and US: Haunting Legacy”, Tim O’Brien shows how Lieutenant Jimmy Cross is torn by putting him in a situation where he is able to write letters to the girl he loves, but does not want to express his feelings. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross also carries the emotional weight of the death of Ted Lavender because he feels responsible for his death. He was thinking about Martha when Ted Lavender was shot and killed. This traumatic gap between being away from home and the experiences at war, only grows from incidents like this. Memories from back home will often obstruct the soldier from being able to think clearly and have complete focus on the war. 

Some people will state that one of these traumas will have a more sever effect on the soldier in the long run. The argument is presented that leaving behind their homes is what is most traumatic to a soldier and on the other side, being in unfamiliar war situations is more traumatic. But post-traumatic stress disorder does not have bias. Veterans that suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder do not get to choose what brings about their flashbacks or visions of the serious incident they have witnessed. Sometimes PTSD is caused by the thought of a loved one that is no longer with them and other times it is the very war tragedy that will cause it. That is why the broad spectrum of all aspects of events a soldier will experience when forced to enter a war has the most lasting mental impact on them. 

O’ Brien cleverly draws off historical thought processes that soldiers underwent throughout the Vietnam war to help guide his writing process for “The Things They Carried”. He frequently refers to the soldier’s emotional states to let the reader get insight into how they were feeling. He also speaks on the reality of how most of the soldiers were feeling bad about the deaths of their friends but tried to mask it by making up phrases to hide their feelings. To further the point that the gap between home and war has such a traumatic impact on the soldiers, O’Brien talks about the things they carried from back home and the things they collected on the battlefield as keepsakes. O’ Brien does not talk about one kind of thing they carry more than the other, whether it be the emotional baggage that they carried around or the physical objects. Historical contexts shapes the majority of texts we read, and O’Brien does an excellent job at using the public’s awareness of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and the events of the Vietnam War to shape his piece, “The Things They Carried.”
