Tim O’Brien’s “Bad” Vietnam War: In the Lake of the Woods & Its Historical Perspective

Award-winning author Tim O’Brien was sent to Vietnam as a foot soldier in 1969, when American combat troops were gradually withdrawn from the country. A closer look at his Vietnam war stories reveals that he indeed touched upon almost all issues or problems of American soldiers in this “bad” war; yet not many peer-reviewed authors or online literary analysis websites could identify and discuss them all. The purpose of this article is to address the war details in O’Brien’s In the Lake of the Woods and its historical perspective, so that middle and high school readers can understand the meaning behind Tim O'Brien's stories and know the entire big Vietnam War picture. Specifically, this article discusses the following issues that are raised by O’Brien in this novel: the Mỹ Lai Massacre and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in Vietnam War veterans. In addition, the Mỹ Lai Massacre cover-up, forgotten heroes of Mỹ Lai, and soldiers’ moral courage are also presented.

Tim O’Brien’s “Bad” Vietnam War: Going after Cacciato & Its Historical Perspective

Being the only Vietnam War author on the English curriculum for American middle and high schools, Tim O’Brien skillfully mixes his real wartime experience with fiction in his various bestsellers and awarded novels. All O'Brien's Vietnam War stories are always "bad," meaning that the war contains mostly sad and horrific experience for American soldiers and Vietnamese civilians. A closer look at O’Brien’s war stories reveals that he indeed touches upon almost all issues the American GIs encountered during this war; nevertheless, not all online literary analysis websites and peer-reviewed authors can identify or call them all out. To assist middle and high school readers in understanding the meaning behind Tim O’Brien’s Vietnam War stories, the war details in Going After Cacciato and its historical perspective are discussed in this article. The war-related issues that O’Brien touched upon in this novel are: lack of purpose, the lower standards of the American troops (McNamara’s morons), desertion, lack of courage, friendly fire, fragging their own officers, and contemptuous attitude toward the Vietnamese, the very people they came to help and protect.

Tim O’Brien’s “Bad” Vietnam War: The Things They Carried & Its Historical Perspective

Tim O’Brien was sent to Vietnam as a foot soldier in 1969, during the later part of the Vietnam War that can be called the “bad” or unwinnable war. Based on his experience, O'Brien's writing about the Vietnam War in his award-winning fiction novels is always "bad," meaning that the war was terrible for American grunts like himself, his fellow soldiers, and Vietnamese civilians, with practically no good or inspiring stories. Nevertheless, O’Brien touches upon almost all problems of American soldiers in the Vietnam War, but not many peer-reviewed authors or online literary analysis websites could identify or discuss them all. The purpose of this article is to discuss the war details in O’Brien’s The Things They Carried and its historical perspective, so that young middle and high school readers can understand the meaning behind Tim O'Brien's writing about the Vietnam War. The goal is to summarize the entire big picture of the Vietnam War and to help students determine whether American soldiers’ actions, as described by Tim O’Brien, were morally right or wrong and were legal or forbidden according to the US law of war. The war-related issues that O’Brien mentioned in this novel are: boredom and meaningless death, abusive violence toward Vietnamese noncombatants, drug use, in-fighting, thefts within barracks, grief, rage, self-mutilation, mutilation of enemy corpses, and senseless animal and civilian killings.