The War Is Wrong, By Tim O ' Brien

military was the Vietcong’s use of guerilla warfare tactics. Guerilla warfare is defined as the use of hit-and-run tactics by small, mobile groups of irregular forces operating in territory controlled by a hostile, regular force. A lot of the Vietcong's fighting was done through ambushing, booby traps and mines, use of tunnel systems, but did include some pitched combat with the Americans when necessary. The Vietcong’s guerrilla warfare also made it really hard for the U.S. military to find the enemy, especially when they blended in as everyday Vietnamese citizens. They would use their environment to attack the Americans quickly and then dip out. Whether it was through the over two hundred mile long tunnel systems, or escaping deep into the Vietnamese forests.

According to Brandon Mull, the New York Times bestselling author of the Beyonoders series, “…heroism means doing the right thing regardless of the consequence” (Mull 39). In The Wars by Timothy Findley, the protagonist, Robert Ross, displays key characteristics of heroism throughout his struggle to maintain his morality. In the novel, Robert displays an admiration for the sanctity of life, a desire to achieve the greatest good, and a virtuous moral conscience which all contribute to him achieving heroism in the face of adversity.

To the United States, World War II is believed to be a good war, and why wouldn’t it be considered as such? During World War II, in addition to stopping mass genocide and stopping the spread of Nazism and Fascism, the United States beat Japan after their attack on Pearl Harbor. As a result, the U.S. was no longer in the Depression and the United States became a world power. However, in “The Best War Ever,” Michael C.C. Adams argues that as a result of Hollywood’s glamorization of the war, government propaganda/censorship, and the widespread of economic prosperity, Americans were kept in the dark about the truth regarding World War II resulting in the popular belief and myth that World War II was a good war.

The Best War Ever, written by Michael C. C. Adams, is a book focusing on the balanced history of the experience from America’s view during World War II. It neither glorifies nor vilifies the U.S. participation but discusses the real horrors of the war by using glorifying aspects that could have been deceptive or even misleading. World War II defined and transformed the rest of our lives. Americans viewed World War II as the “Good War” or “The Best War Ever”. After the end of the war, Americans had a positive outlook after overcoming the past years. German fascism and the Japanese were defeated but were also encouraged to resume roles of our world responsibility in our image of democracy. It is generally agreed that World War II was a necessary war.

The glorified act of war is often staged in historical literature by idolizing the soldiers who partake in the event. Soldiers are made to seem intrepid, ruthless and muscular, each with a ceaseless desire to fight valiantly for their countries. Timothy Findley and Kurt Vonnegut discard this typical hero archetype in their anti-war novels by portraying the soldiers who fight in the war as the men they are, not as the templates of heroes they are expected to fit, in furtherance of strengthening their anti-war stances. Findley and Vonnegut illustrate their protagonists as a tragic hero and an anti-hero, respectively, in order to juxtapose the atrocities of war with the flawed humanness of man and to challenge the stereotypical image of a

Tim O'Brien is confused about the Vietnam War. He is getting drafted into it, but is also protesting it. He gets to boot camp and finds it very difficult to know that he is going off to a country far away from home and fighting a war that he didn't believe was morally right. Before O'Brien gets to Vietnam he visits a military Chaplin about his problem with the war. "O'Brien I am really surprised to hear this. You're a good kid but you are betraying you country when you say these things"(60). This says a lot about O'Brien's views on the Vietnam War. In the reading of the book, If I Die in a Combat Zone, Tim O'Brien explains his struggles in boot camp

The conspiracies associated with the reason why the USA joined the Vietnam War led to massive resistance against the draft in the early 1970’s. In response to being picked in the draft, many Americans fled to Canada because American citizens believed that the federal government had selfish and unreasonable intentions in joining the war in Vietnam, which was to destroy the spread of communism. The intentions of the federal government when joining the Vietnam War relates to The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien because Tim O’Brien also considered dodging the draft and immigrating to Canada but as a consequence of social pressure, the guilt he felt resulted in the change of his mindset. While “On the Rainy River” condemns the idea of heroism because it applies oppressive pressure on soldiers, “The Ghost Soldiers” celebrates the idea of heroism because it allows one to enter dangerous situations with great fortitude in order to save others’ lives.

During the Vietnam War, American soldiers that did not directly kill another human being still felt to surge of guilt by being a part of the force that killed innocents. In particular, Tim O’Brien never killed a soul during war, nor did he ever look at the faces of the dead. However, O’Brien dedicates multiple chapters to the man he “killed.” The man is described in the saying, “He was not a fighter. His

Mareez Reyes once said, “One of the hardest lessons in life is letting go. We fight to hold on and we fight to let go” (Reyes). This quote shows relationship to Tim O’Brien because he struggles with letting go of situations that occurred during the war. O’Brien wants to put his hurt in the past, but the memories haunt him in his everyday life, so he writes stories in order to cope. The Vietnam war was a war that many people did not support, innocent young men were drafted to fight for their lives and country without having a choice.

After viewing the documentary film ‘The War You Don’t See’ by John Pilger, my previous feelings towards the war and the way people are treated grew more immense as I felt more informed as to what was going on behind closed doors. I have always found the thought of war pointless, destructive and inhumane, this documentary supports my previous attitudes. The way certain media associations manipulate and hide the truth is a scary thought, this film shows how the media lacks honesty on a destructive level. How can one take a position and make an informed decision towards what they should do or how they should react towards these global issues? They can’t, it is impossible to make an informed decision when one is not told the whole truth. ‘The War You Don’t See’ also informs the viewers to see how poorly the innocent civilians are treated and in many cases how their lack of rights results in cruel deaths. Pilger presents these issues to the viewers of this film in a way which looks down upon the people of the military and media and sympathise toward those innocent civilians of these war stricken countries, which I personally strongly support and am left feeling pleased with Pilger’s work.

If I Die in a Combat Zone, author Tim O'Brien argued that the Vietnam War was not as honorable as it was seen to most citizens through his depictions of his experiences throughout the war, by how the surroundings around him played a role in his mindset of the war, and the examples of soldiers mistreatment to civilians and misconduct in vietnam.

If I Die in a Combat Zone, author Tim O'Brien argued that the Vietnam War was not as honorable as it was seen to most citizens through his depictions of his experiences throughout the war, by how the surroundings around him played a role in his mindset of the war, and the examples of soldiers mistreatment to civilians and misconduct in vietnam.

Death; destruction; crawling, bloody men without jaws; and a child in the middle of it is just a glimpse of the grotesque short narrative “Chickamauga” by Ambrose Bierce. Chickamauga Creek is an area near Chattanooga, Tennessee and northwestern Georgia, plagued by war, suffering, and bloodshed from the Civil War (Bohannon). Bierce served in the Union Army during the American Civil War (Campbell). Many Americans then, and today, romanticize war with glory, heroism, and patriotism. Bierce defied literary status quo, creating graphic accounts of war, in an age of sentimentalism and melodrama (Morris). Lesser publicized were the perspectives, thoughts, and realities of the soldiers after serving and surviving in the civil

“Hell no, we won’t go!” was a slogan that many of the drafted soldiers chanted all over the United States. This slogan was a way for American people to stand up to the government by stating that they will not kill for a cause they do not support. However, many of the soldiers that fought in the Vietnam War were not sympathetic about the cause, nevertheless, they were forced to attend this gruesome war due to the pressure put on them by their government, family and peers, one of those soldiers is Tim O’Brien. O’Brien was pushed to doing actions he would've never thought of committing until he entered this war. Moreover, O’Brien had to kill a young vietnamese soldier to ‘protect’ himself and his platoon, which shows

The Forever War by Joe Haldeman is a classic work of military science fiction depicting a war between the human race and an unfamiliar alien entity known as the Taurans. The overall plot line follows a fairly typical path, but Haldeman’s real genius is realized through the interactions that take place between the protagonist, William Mandella, and the Earth he returns to between military operations. Developing beneath the ever-present war of the two species lies a much subtler conflict between generations of human thought and culture. Brought about by the way troops are transported in space, time dilation creates an interesting dichotomy between the early soldiers of the war and the rapid evolution of human society and culture remaining on Earth. The Forever War questions the stability of human nature by creating a scenario where its fluidity is exposed through an invariable link to time. The expression of human nature changes as cultural and personal identities adapt to new situations; viewing these changes through Mandella, we begin to see how different expressions of human nature can impact human nature itself.