Philip Caputo Book Analysis

I learned many things about Philip Caputo and his tour of duty. He described how he felt in the beginning about the Vietnamese people, which was not as much hate since him and the other soldiers were not as knowledgeable about all the conflict that was taking place in Vietnam. Caputo was very opinionated towards his views of the Vietnamese people. He actually felt sorry for all the villagers who had to see and deal with the negative environment that was brought upon them, and bear the Marines who probed their homes for prohibited Viet Cong relations. Caputo did not find it fair how the American troops mistreated the villagers and protected the concept of apprehending the Viet Cong. However, throughout the end of his tour, he and his men disliked the VC very strongly, learned how to hate and wanted to kill them.

Americans found this opportunity to join the military, like Caputo, so they could be heroes and help those in need during this period of time. Like numerous soldiers, Caputo was raised in a suburban community, where he was expected to go to college, find a stable job and get married. However, he realized he had so much more to give for himself, his family and his country, so he joined the Marines. There was a frequent misunderstanding, future troops thought that the war would not take as long as it actually did. They underestimated the Vietnamese people, which came with many consequences, which lead to Americans despising them for breaking rules and acting savagely towards