Imagine a young boy going from playing war in the safety of his own backyard, to being dropped off half way across the world and expected to fight in the depths of the Vietnamese jungle, all in a span 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. By linking “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien, with studies done by researchers, election results, and scholarly journal articles, the story brings readers along for Lieutenant Cross’ experiences in order to argue that the war altered a generations worth of servicemen and in turn transformed our countries political track.

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. 

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. This can be seen in Lieutenant Cross’ actions when he accepted that his love of Martha could go on no longer, “He hated her. Yes he did. He hated her. Love, too, but it was a hard, hating kind of love” (O’Brien). The jungles of Vietnam changed him, it converted his puppy love into hatred. Wars change people, it can be seen in PTSD patients with the research that has been done, however this disease was not understood at the time this story took place. If it can change this character’s love life, then it would be no stretch to see it shaping his political affiliations once he returns home. The combination of both age and environment that not only this battalion of troops, but an army of 2.7 million (Statistical Information), suffered through it is hard to imagine that many left Vietnam without reconsidering their political opinions or how they would choose the next Chief Executive. 

These young men were forced to deal with problems that most will never face and internally work out their own opinions about them, which 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 young men that are followed in O’Brien’s story are products of this draft process that sampled the American population to create our military force that fought this war. With the draft taking all types of Americans, it provides an accurate representation of our nation at this time. The description of the soldiers and their personal items in the beginning of the story show this to readers, “Ted Lavender carried 6 or 7 ounces of premium dope … Mitchell Sanders, the RTO, carried condoms. Norman Bowker carried a diary. Rat Kiley carried comic books. Kiowa, a devout Baptist, carried an illustrated New Testament [and] … his grandmothers distrust of the white man” (O’Brien). If someone were to ask a student on any college campus to empty their pockets, finding one of those items would not raise many eyebrows. This description coming at the beginning of the story is important because this is how the soldiers were when first arriving in Vietnam, which is likely how they were at home. The young men did not bring items that prepare you for war, they brought typical pocket items, showing that they did not know what to expect and left them vulnerable to the war which shaped their opinions on the world. Being thousands of miles from home for the first time is eye opening, and if they were not willing participants to this war, could cause them to go home and use their right to vote in order to change our country. They could oppose candidates running for public office that would put the country and its citizens into another war or increase military spending. This idea that participating in the war can change your political views has been proven true in 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. This can even change a countries path through the future because of a domino effect from veterans, like the ones in this story, sharing their experiences and redeveloped beliefs with the next generation of voters. This process is how the collective memory of a nation is changed creating a turning point on the timeline of U.S. history that cannot be reversed, like Lieutenant Cross cannot go back to the person he was before his service. 

The public’s attitude towards the government during the war was often unfavorable because so many people disagreed with the U.S. 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). Soldiers like the unit in this story are the veterans that Flores wrote about in this journal, they were the ones coming home and actively working to change the nation and how it was run. The GI’s were returning from war in a time when mass media was becoming a part of everyday life in the United States. The media, and its bias, shape the opinion of the masses, giving Lieutenant Cross’s real life counterparts the main stage to mold the nation by sharing their stories of their employment. These accounts of the war are what the public had to create their own opinion on the war and military.  The way that the masses remember major historical events through the experiences of soldiers like O’Brien writes of it is apparent as to how a majority opinion on this issue could become. With a large majority of people already 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 example of the Vietnam war having effecting political elections shows the differing opinions on what solution voters wanted. 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). The war was the biggest issue that candidates hoped to win voters over by, showing just how much the war shaped this election. The people elected a President that they thought could bring an end to the unnecessary deaths of its citizens like Lavender. 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). Brian, who is the nonfictional version of O’Brien’s characters, expresses what the fictional characters likely would have agreed with. He supported this war because he respects the sacrifice that he and many others made, however, he does not want the next generation of young men and women to go through and live with the experiences of a war that is not one that directly threatens this country. With the Vietnam War having the influence on its veterans and consequently all American’s that it did, evidence like studies, election statistics, and scholarly journals provide explanation for how the characters in “The Things They Carried” were the start of a political lane change that affected our nations path to where it is in the present day.
