Dear_America

Chapter 3“Beyond the Body Count”: Attitudes and arguments about the war • Soldiers feel as if they won’t make it out alive “at time I feel I will never come home” after seeing all their fallen comrades. • Soldiers are doing something they believe in, helping the Vietnamese people “I hope that’s one reason we’re here, to secure a future for them” • Mixed feelings “Vietnam has my feelings on a seesaw”; beautiful country but still in war “for a fleeting moment I wasn’t in a warzone, just on vacation” • Numbing emotions “I rarely acknowledge the emotions attached anymore” • Being in the war turns you into a man “Being here makes a man feel proud of himself” • They see the war as a responsibility for them to fight “Here there is a job to be done” • They see it as an exciting challenge “you raised a son who likes the excitement and challenge he finds here” • Soldiers wishing they were back home “wishing like hell that I was somewhere else” after being deprived of all the luxuries they are used to • Some soldiers feel empathetic towards the Vietnamese and question whether they are really helping them “the war turned them into thieves, black marketers and prostitutes” Soldiers have come to these attitudes after experiencing the war first hand and seeing the damage it has done, not only physically, but mentally. The Vietnamese have been corrupted and some GI’s “can no longer talk in coherent sentences” Soldiers try to justify their involvement in the war by claiming it is their duty and they are helping the Vietnamese people. However this may be just a coping strategy for all the traumatic events they have experienced at war. Chapter 4“Base Camp”: Yes, there are similar experiences in the rear and at the front. However, the people at the rear aren’t faced with the likely hood of death as much as those at the front are. For example, although the people at the front do the shooting of the VC and NVA, the people at the rear need to lie about this and amp up the numbers to satisfy the generals at the top. The people working at the back are put under similar pressure to those fighting on the front lines, for example paper work needs to be done at certain times. Therefore, although their lives aren’t in danger as much as those infantry teams who are out in the front, they still have similar pressures to perform. Although they work at opposite ends of the fields, they both rely on each other to ensure that they both have every chance at survival. For example, the Doctor may need to heal the front-line soldier, but the doctor needs the front-line soldier to protecting him from getting killed. Is there are shift between perspectives in these letters and the earlier ones' What might be the reasons for this change' Yes. There is a shift in perspectives as we are now generally reading from soldiers who are in the rear of the war. They know exactly what’s happening. They know what propaganda is been sold out to the soldiers and they know exactly why they shouldn’t be in Vietnam. It’s a war they cannot win! The soldiers at the rear are the ones ‘forging’ documents to ‘lie’ to the American people about what really is going on in Vietnam. Therefore, the reasons are clear, that the soldiers in the front-line just execute orders from their superiors, as oppose to the soldiers at the rear to write these orders and understand the intention of each. Chapter 5 “World of Hurt”: The soldiers hide their emotional and physical pain through a number of ways. One of them is humour and soldiers joke about the injuries they receive “I’m going to have some pretty nice looking scars”. Again joking about their injuries, they claim what “hard work” it is to lay around and heal. They remain optimistic and reassure their families back home that despite being injured, they are “perfectly alright”. The inclusion of the nurse’s letters contribute another perspective of the war. The nurses look after the wounded and enjoy their jobs “I LOVE IT!” They revel in the bravery of the men who have been injured and still manage to smile despite the great pain they must be in (“it is men like that that make it all worthwhile”). The nurses get close and personal with the soldiers and in this sense provide (at times) a more positive outlook on the war due to their nurturing roles. But seeing all the injuries and deaths “disgusts” them, and they feel as if the war is a “mistake”. As one nurse puts it, “I’m sick of facing, every day, a new bunch of children ripped to pieces”. Although they enjoy helping people, they are beginning to feel as if the war is a waste of young life. These letters shift the tone to an angry and frustrated one. Chapter 6“What am I Doing Here'” The attitudes of those fighting the war change because the soldiers begin to defend their actions. They are starting to think about the threat of communism spreading through South-East Asia, the threat of South-East Asia not been democratic. They have a strong sense of belief that democracy should be instated in South Vietnam with one soldier saying “it’s far better we fight and die for freedom, than live in oppression and fear”. The soldiers seem as if they are more nationalistic about Vietnam than America as one soldier put it, “I’d rather fight to stop communism in South Vietnam than in Kincaid, Humbolt, Blue Mound or Kansas City.” Chapter 7 “We Gotta Get Out of This Place”: For every soldier, getting home alive was the ultimate goal, which is why letters from home were so important to them, giving them a sense of still being a part of their families even though they are so far away. Many of the letters centre around periods associated with family and togetherness such as Christmas and birthdays. This connection makes the soldiers miss their families more especially as they are approaching their time to go home. Going home to the soldier’s means safety and being reconnected with their families again. They can return to the people they used to be instead of the killers they were out on the war zone. However soldiers understand they will not entirely be the same people when they return considering all the things they have seen and experienced. They will have to get readjusted to their old way of life “It’s going to take a while to get used to stateside living”. They also know that after the war, they will not be like everybody else. “You’re not like the people back home” Going home also means that they may not necessarily be welcomed with open arms as involvement in the war was largely frowned upon. Chapter 8 “Last Letters” Why are these letters included in the collection' These letters are included in the collection to give us an idea on what they were thinking before they went to do that last mission of theirs. A lot of these men only had a short time left and were counting down the days, however, most of them died, and it tries to give us an insight into what was going through their heads and what they wanted to say before they go on that mission that would eventually kill them. What seems to be the overriding theme in these letters' The overriding theme in these letters is the fact that all these soldiers died soon after writing these letters. It also seems that most of these soldiers haven’t written to anyone back home in a ‘long time’. A lot of the letters start off with an apology for not writing in so long. This just shows how much time the soldiers had to do the one thing they all wanted to do and that’s write back home. Epilogue What effects are achieved by the change in perspectives from the previous letters' The effects achieved from the change in perspectives from the previous letters are that this one isn’t written during the Vietnam War. This letter is written with reflection upon the Vietnam War. Therefore, now in this final letter, we see what ‘Bill’ thinks when he has had 15 years to think about something. He know probably knows both sides of the story to the Vietnam War and can reflect back on it and say that “no, we shouldn’t have been there.” Therefore, this letter doesn’t have the fierce hatred for the North Vietnamese like all the other letters do, but more of a reflection of what has been lost in the war.