The military is a place where people can serve their country if they feel lead to do so. This was not the case in 1969 when young men were drafted every day to join the army and fight for their country whether they wanted to or not. The draft left many people questioning their government and wondering if the fight was actually worth innocent American lives. The struggle of the everyday young man being drafted into a time of war is well represented in Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried” by showing a first person perspective of what it was like for the young men who were drafted to go off to war.

Imagine being a young 19-year-old boy in 1969 getting ready to go off to college and studying to be a doctor or lawyer or any other profession that you wish to pursue. One day you are getting a college acceptance letter, and the next you are getting drafted into the military. This was the struggle for many young many as they felt they were pulled out of their everyday lives to fight a fight that had nothing to do with them. As a young soldier they were put in front of scenarios in which they never would have experienced through their normal lives. O’Brien explains the items that they carried with them, “As a first lieutenant and platoon leader, Jimmy Cross carried a compass, maps, code books, binoculars, and a .45-caliber pistol that weighed 2.9 pounds fully loaded” (O’Brien 330). A young man going off to college would never have to wield a .45-caliber pistol in order to look after his own life, and this was a complete turn around for many of the newly drafted men. The things that they had on them was not only new, O’Brien discusses how Jimmy Cross had to protect his men that were with him during the war. “He carried a strobe light and the responsibility for the lives of his men” (O’Brien 330) Not only were they put in front of weapons and other gear in which they had to haul around, but they also carried the lives of the ones around them. If they were to make a small mistake, it could cost them their life and even the life of others. 

There were many men who were drafted and felt that they had no responsibility to fight for a cause that had nothing to do with them. These men gathered together and would protest against the draft system. The article “Hell, no, we wont go” was written about the draft resistance during the time before the Vietnam War. The article greatly expresses the frustration and anger that the draftees had towards the government, as they did not want to fight someone else’s war. As many as 10,000 Americans left the United States to migrate to Canada in order to avoid the draft, a number just as great as those who left to avoid fighting in the Civil War. Others who were drafted hid and tried to avoid it. “Hiding out with the hippies in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York, he has used half a dozen names” (Davidson 21). Many young men even when to the extent that they would change there name or introduce themselves to strangers with a fake name so that they authorities could not find them. “Johnson hasn’t been Johnson for a long time. In the East Village he is known simple as scrubby” (Davidson 21). No one should have to go to the extent that they have to hide out or change their name in order to avoid fighting a war. It is simply unfair to ask someone to fight a war for you who are not willing to. Not only are you asking someone to give up their daily lives and quit everything that they are doing, but you are also asking for someone to risk their life for a cause that may not even concern them.

The effects on the lives on the young men who were drafted into the war did not only affect them in the present. Many of them were effected long term due to the experiences that they went through during the war and developed PTSD after they left the military. The affects of PTSD are known to induce paranoia, sleep deprivations, depression, lack of appetite, and many other negative symptoms.  Not only does this disease affect the person dramatically, it also affects the person’s family and friends. It is very hard for loved ones to go through this as the person they love has come back as some one whom they do not recognize due to their behavior. “Clinical accounts suggest that the Vietnam veteran with PTSD may have great difficulty in area of interpersonal relationships” (Caselli and Motta 5). The way that the veterans of Vietnam were affected did not only effect them, but also their families. “For instance, the veteran often experiences difficulties with the control of aggressive impulses and with involvement in specific tasks and routines.” The most effected out of the veterans could most likely be the children. Effects caused “Self-absorption; isolation; the inability to express emotions or share feelings; and overprotective, over controlling relationships with their children all appear to be characteristics of Vietnam veterans’ difficulties in functioning within the family system” (Caselli and Motta 5).

Tim O’Brien does a great job in his short story “The Things They Carried” by bringing light to the struggles that the everyday draftee had to go through when they were taken from a normal life into a time of war. No young man should have to change what they are doing to fight a fight for a cause in which they are not concerned and which has nothing at all to do with them. Those who feel lead to fight for there country should have the right to, but every man who does not want to risk their life for their country should not be forced to.

