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Memories of the vietnam war essay
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Snap! One would feel tense in this subdued room, and rightly so. The hesitant light cast eerie shadows on the muted grey walls. A cold shudder trickled down the presenter Richard Page’s spine as he found himself deeply aware of the clinical bromide that wafted from the back of the camera to his nose. It mingled uncomfortably with the musky aftershave that his wife bought him last Christmas. Oh yes, of course, the jolly Christmas. His eyes dilated as he adjusted to the room that was suddenly lit up by clunky arc lights. Was it an interrogation room or a television studio? Perhaps it was both. Fear settled in as Page sorted through his typewritten news-script for his interview on the Vietnam War. The reel behind the camera rolled away as if …show more content…
Every day was the same – prolonged and doubtful. The veteran turned around in the confined space with a combat helmet that had the three words written in caps: WAR IS HELL. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God,” the veteran cried out a line from the Bible. His eyes crinkled in dismay and he dove out of the trenches as Nixon snapped a shot of him. Boom! Nixon felt the ground tremble. It was the sound of detonation. Thick smoke clouded the sky. His jaw dropped in horror, but his grip on the camera tightened. The trench felt as hot as a blazing fire, obstructing Nixon’s breath. His heart raced. His breath released in spasms. He peered up at the sky and suddenly felt a gush of cold air. The white fluffy, powder fell from the sky and masked the smoke. He could only see in black and white. --- Nixon numbed his feelings and snapped himself back into the present. “Some of the images you have just seen are from the fierce battlegrounds of Vietnam. These photographs were taken by our guest today, Tim Nixon.” Page spoke with his eyes focused on the camera before he turned back to Nixon and asked. “How does it feel to be back here in the
Wallace Terry has collected a wide range of stories told by twenty black Vietnam veterans. The stories are varied based on each experience; from the horrific to the heart breaking and to the glorified image of Vietnam depicted by Hollywood. Wallace Terry does not insinuate his opinion into any of the stories so that the audience can feel as if they are having a conversation with the Vietnam Veteran himself. Terry introduces the purpose of the book by stating, “ Among the 20 men who portray their war and postwar experiences in this book. I sought a representative cross section of the black combat force.”(p. XV) Although the stories in this book were not told in any specific order, many themes became prominent throughout the novel such as religion, social, and health.
The Vietnam War has become a focal point of the Sixties. Known as the first televised war, American citizens quickly became consumed with every aspect of the war. In a sense, they could not simply “turn off” the war. A Rumor of War by Philip Caputo is a firsthand account of this horrific war that tore our nation apart. Throughout this autobiography, there were several sections that grabbed my attention. I found Caputo’s use of stark comparisons and vivid imagery, particularly captivating in that, those scenes forced me to reflect on my own feelings about the war. These scenes also caused me to look at the Vietnam War from the perspective of a soldier, which is not a perspective I had previously considered. In particular, Caputo’s account of
The Hardships Facing Vietnam War Soldiers in Tim O'Brien’s Going after Cacciato and In the Lake of the Woods
The author, Tim O'Brien, is writing about an experience of a tour in the Vietnam conflict. This short story deals with inner conflicts of some individual soldiers and how they chose to deal with the realities of the Vietnam conflict, each in their own individual way as men, as soldiers.
In this example, after many hours of carrying these supplies the soldiers would start to break down physically. Fatigue and muscle pain would start to cloud their vision and judgment. The weight of the things that they carried had devastating effects on their bodies but the soldiers had to endure. All of these supplies were the most significant to the soldiers because they were the most impor...
...in sympathy was no longer for “the man fighting and dying on the front,” who “went virtually unnoticed as attention was focused on the POWs,” who had become “the objects of a virtual cult.” Schell probed to the core of the growing obsession:”Following the President’s lead, people began to speak as though the North Vietnamese had kidnapped four hundred Americans and the U.S. had gone to war to retrieve them.” Perhaps the most startling and penetrating judgment came years later from Gloria Coppin, VIVA’s longtime chair. Although remaining a fervent believer tin eh existence of living POWs, she had come to a painful realization of how she and many others may have been manipulated. As she put it in a 1990 interview:”Nixon and Kissinger just used the POW issue to prolong the war. Sometimes I feel guilty because with all our efforts, we killed more men than we saved. ”
In his assessment of storytelling, O’Brien highlights the challenges of telling stories by including many tales that take place after the Vietnam War. For example, back in America, the soldier’s of Vietnam found
The origin of this book was not typical. Andrew Wiest, a professor at the University of Southern Mississippi, had invited John Young a Vietnam veteran called to speak to his students. After the video introduction, Young collapsed leaving Wiest to wonder “What could have happened so long ago – what events were so terribly powerful,” he asks, “that they could reach across the decades and pull the man with the piercing eyes back into their awful embrace?” (9)
O’Brien, Tim. “How to Tell a True War Story.” The Things They Carried. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1990. Print.
Since 1968, there have been at least 25 films made that portray the events of the Vietnam War. Historians have to ask themselves when watching these films, "Did the fictional character represent historical figures accurately? Is this how a soldier would react in this situation?" The point of view of the director of the film can change with simple alterations in camera angles. For example, a view from the ground of a battle seen can show how the innocent people had the war in their own backyards. The view from a helicopter can show Viet Cong firing rounds at American troops and the troops can't tell the difference between the innocent and the enemy. The audience feels empathy and sympathy for the person from whose point of view the camera is showing. Historians compare the trueness of one film to the rest, and they have found that every film is at least somewhat fabricated, and at least somewhat true.
William M. Hammond, Reporting Vietnam: Media and Military at War. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1998.
On a rooftop near O'Connell Bridge, a Republican sniper lay watching. Beside him lay his rifle and over his shoulders was slung a pair of field glasses. His face was the face of a student, thin and ascetic, but his eyes had the cold gleam of the fanatic. They were deep and thoughtful, the eyes of a man who is used to looking at death.
The soldiers feel that the only people they can talk to about the war are their “brothers”, the other men who experienced the Vietnam War. The friendship and kinship that grew in the jungles of Vietnam survived and lived on here in the United States. By talking to each other, the soldiers help to sort out the incidents that happened in the War and to put these incidents behind them. “The thing to do, we decided, was to forget the coffee and switch to gin, which improved the mood, and not much later we were laughing at some of the craziness that used to go on” (O’Brien, 29).
War has always been inevitable throughout the history of the world. The outcomes can differ greatly; it’s usually either a win or a loss. Wins or losses are just definite statements, but photos can represent these statements. Alfred Eisenstaedt’s “V-J Day in Times Square” shows an American sailor kissing a young woman right in the middle of Times Square, despite their surroundings. This iconic photo was taken after the U.S. declared victory over Japan in World War II, and was published in Life magazine a week later. John Gap’s (III) photo shows a young girl being consoled at a soldier’s funeral in a local high school gymnasium, later to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery. This humble photo was taken during the war still raging in Afghanistan, showing that these types of losses happen quite often, as there are no iconic photos for Afghanistan compared to the photo shot after the win over World War II. Unlike its counterpart, this photo was published only at a local level on a website. Both these photos show a soldier being dismissed to go home from war. Although the two photos share that common factor, the scenario in which the soldier comes home differs greatly. Through these photos, Albert Eisenstaedt and John Gaps III help evoke pathos and give the observer a sense of the pride and the devastation felt of a home coming from war using photographic elements such as framing, focus, and angles.
Vietnam was a struggle which, in all honesty, the United States should never have been involved in. North Vietnam was battling for ownership of South Vietnam, so that they would be a unified communist nation. To prevent the domino effect and the further spread of communism, the U.S. held on to the Truman Doctrine and stood behind the South Vietnamese leader, Diem.