
Imagine going from playing war in the safety of your backyard, to actually fighting in the depths of the Vietnamese jungle, all in the matter of a few years. For many this was the case when the Vietnam War began.  With 58,220 United States military servicemen being killed in Vietnam War, it is a major United States war that is still talked about and analyzed to this day (Statistical Information). It is not the longest war, nor the deadliest, but it is one of the most controversial. It has left a lasting effect on the United States not just in terms of lost lives or money spent. The Vietnam War has a large ramification in this country than it would appear when only looking at those factors. The war left the country at odds with itself over if and how to end it favorably. In this war’s wake it leaves a political repercussion that can still be felt today in political ideas within the party and voting habits of different demographics. When linking “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien, with studies done by researchers, election results, and scholarly journal articles, the story takes readers on a firsthand experience of the influence that the war had in order to argue that the war had a lasting effect on U.S. politics that continues to this day.

The Vietnam war was unlike any war fought before. The young men serving in it had nothing to compare it to, therefore, leaving them with no good way to prepare for it unlike servicemen in the past. So it is no wonder that the men fighting it would be of a different type than in previous wars. In “The Things They Carried” the servicemen were an interesting group, each member having a different story and background. This naturally creates diversity in how they deal with the traumatic experience this war. 

When examining the items that the inexperienced soldiers carried to remind themselves of home, it reinforces just how young and pliable their values were. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carries a photo of a girl that he is head over heels in love for but in his heart knew would never love him back (O’Brien). The severe infatuation that Cross has for Martha is an indicator that he is at a time in his life that he is beginning to mature. Part of becoming an adult is earning voting rights, which requires political opinions on tough issues that can often not have one clear answer. In a study done to see if major events, such as war, affect young adult’s political opinions they were able to see that there is a “’critical period’ of early adulthood when political attitudes and beliefs are most malleable” (Flores). When these young men were at home just coming to terms with their transitions into adulthood are instead flown half way across the world, it does not provide them a good environment to build their political views off of. The war robs them of a safe climate to think through and construct their views. The only research they could do to base their opinions off of was their own first hand experiences during the war. 

These young men being forced to deal with problems that most will never face and also internally working out their own ideas can be traumatic. Situations like this leave the people that suffered through it different. With an entire generation of young men being drafted and told that they had to fight a war that did not make sense, one can only expect that it would leave an impression on their political values. The Vietnam War and the draft process has been proven to shape the opinion of the masses by a study done by Mark Levine and Serge Denisoff. They were able to link the effects of draft susceptibility and attitude toward the military by surveying students about their thoughts on the war and associating it with their draft status (Levine). This research proving the association leads to the political divide that the nation faced during and following the war. If a majority of any major voting group changes opinion on a large issue, such as the military, it can greatly change major elections throughout a country for generations to come. This happens because of a domino effect of generation after generation learning from their elders and from the leaders that hold office.

The public’s attitude towards the government during the war was often unfavorable because so many people disagreed with our involvement in the war. With so much of the unrest coming from young people in the same age group as the men that were draft eligible, it would create a lasting effect on political attitudes due to the fact that many were just becoming eligible to vote. 

In this time when the nation was in unrest and a new voter generation was being shaped by a confusing war, the veterans held lots of power in the political opinion of their citizen peers. In a journal entry by David Flores, he explains how new voters saw veteran activists voicing their experiences and molded the public opinion, “they exercise powerful influence over how the events of that war are translated into the collective memory of Americans” (Flores). The way that the masses remember major historical events is how majority opinions are created, in turn influencing elections. Majorities are what win elections, and with many people opposing the war, the country was seeking a leader that could bring an end to it. 

This leader that the country chose to bring an end to the war was Richard Nixon. He was a republican that focused his campaign on the issue of Vietnam. The election was unlike many elections because a third party candidate managed to swing fourth six electoral votes (U. S. Electoral College). This is another example of the Vietnam war having effects on political elections. It also continues to influence our country because it showed people that third party candidates cannot be ignored. This election was won by a large margin in the electoral college but when one looks at the popular vote it is a much different story. Nixon won the electoral college by 110 points but only won the popular vote by eight tenths of a percent (U. S. Electoral College). This popular vote difference shows how divided the country was over the election. The war was the biggest issue that candidates hoped to win voters over by, showing just how much the war shaped this election. There is no saying how our country could have been different had the election ended differently, or if the war had already ended and was not the hot topic of debate between candidates. 

Regardless of opinion on the war, it is a part of American history that must be remembered and studied. It leaves our country a map of how a war such as Vietnam can continue to effect a country nearly half a century later. Aside from the war being unlike any of the previous in terms of warfare style, it was one of the first that was highly controversial on the home front. It left a generation of young men traumatized and confused on how to move on. The fictional charter Lieutenant Cross, in O’Brien’s story “The Things They Carried”, goes to war a man in love and returns without a trace of that affection is an example of this disturbed group of men who served (O’Brien). The subjects of the study conducted by Levine and Denisoff, who found that draft susceptibility can change the opinion of people across the country, did not even need to serve to have their political ideas affected by the war. Even the final presidential election of the war was affected by the war, because of how divided the country was due to the war. Now forty-three years later we can still see the war leaving an impression in our country. Many people including veterans of Vietnam who supported the war are still skeptical of U.S. involvement in wars, “Brian, another Vietnam War supporter, asserts his frustration with the Iraq and Afghanistan wars” (Flores). With the Vietnam War having the influence on American history that it did, evidence like studies, election statistics, and scholarly journals allows for easy recognition and understanding of just how important it continues to be politically. 
