In 1959 Americans saw that Vietnam was experiencing a civil war that had split the country into North and South Vietnam. Reasons for American involvement in the war stemmed from the threat of the Communist party found in North Vietnam. The United States believed that if the South Vietnamese fell under Communist rule then surrounding countries would also be invaded and this influence of Communism would create a domino theory that would spread throughout Southeast Asia and beyond. In 1965 America decided to increase their involvement in the War effort and changed their military strategy in an effort to end the war quicker.This book tells of stories that were inspired by the Vietnam War. While many of the stories were fiction, OBrien uses elaborate imagery to convey a true feeling of the Vietnam War through a soldiers eyes. He actually did serve in the Vietnam War and many of his accounts were non-fictional as well. The Things They Carried is a book that contains the emotions, capacity, and reasoning of the American soldier during the Vietnam War, while vividly describing the driving forces and experiences that influenced them throughout it as well as its lasting impact on their lives. OBrien describes the situation presented in Vietnam War with incredible detail and powerful verbal illustration. Often he notes that some of the stories arent totally true but the feeling that can be associated with his fictional material can be related to the same feeling of actually being in the war. These men did carry heavy baggage both physically and psychologically. These men experienced a full scale war that was made up of the same stuff as nightmares. Incredible atrocities happened before these soldiers eyes on an almost daily basis. In effect, these mens personalities became cruder and senses duller every time they became exposed to the recurring carnage that was witnessed. These men werent just fighting Vietnamese, they were fighting...
