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War and post traumatic stress disorder
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Philip Caputo’s life before the Vietnam War was not marvelous. He did not know how to do anything significant. However, after, he knew how to kill. He knew what caused it, what the effects of it were, and what it meant to those who experienced it. With the simplest of commands, he could create enormous destruction. He came home from the war feeling aged considerably. The entire span of a human life, it seemed, was carried out in Vietnam. Caputo joined the Marines in 1960, mainly due to the patriotism of the Kennedy era. Like many other young men, he was bored of the normal life he led. Born in Westchester Illinois, in 1941, he grew tired of it by his late teens. The dullness of it bored him. The constant barbequing in the summer distressed …show more content…
They would then go to bed at nine, and it all would repeat the next day. Caputo sheds light into this by recalling “We were shouted at, kicked, humiliated and harassed constantly,” (8). As awful as it may seem, that is what life in the military is like. You are property of your superiors, until you surpass your superiors… if you ever do. The marches they were taught were eerie, yet they were installed in the minds of these young men. The purpose of this was to teach them discipline and teamwork, which are two of the Corps’ “cardinal” values. The abuse was to eliminate the weak, and make the strong even stronger. The ones who were unfit, in the end, left. Most were sent home because of their inability to be a Marine, others were mentally unfit. Around seventy percent of the original class passed. Two years later, an advanced course was held for those who passed. Around seven hundred and fifty men began the advanced course. Only five hundred finished. In August of 1963, the men, aged from 21-22, graduated in a spectacular ceremony. None of the men knew that some of them would not live much longer. On February 2, 1964, Philip Caputo was commissioned as a second lieutenant. He went back to Quantico to begin a six-month apprenticeship
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.
A Rumor of War by Philip Caputo, is an exceptional autobiography on a man's first-hand experiences during the Vietnam War. Philip Caputo is a Lieutenant during the Vietnam War and illustrates the harsh reality of what war really is. Caputo's in-depth details of his experience during the war are enough to make one cringe, and the eventual mental despair often experienced by soldiers (including Caputo) really makes you feel for participants taking part in this dreadful war atmosphere. Giving way to the parties and the common fun associated with college kids, Caputo failed out of college and realized what he really wanted to be was a Marine. He joined the Marines and went through a lot of officer training until he eventually reached what would be known as his final rank of Lieutenant. Introduced to the Vietnam War in 1965 as a Platoon leader, Caputo walked into the war a little scared but with a lot of determination. Caputo started the war with a lot of field work including jungle expeditions and shooting escapades, and eventually was sent to keep track of the everyday deaths occurring during the war and all the paperwork associated with such a job. Later he was put back in charge of a platoon which eventually lead to his downfall following an unethical order he gave his men that resulted in the killing of a couple Vietnamese pedestrians believed to be part of the Viet Cong. Caputo was acquitted of all charges and was given a letter of reprimand from the general. About ten years later he continued his Marine endeavors as he reported to Vietnam and witnessed the surrender of the Saigon Government to the Communist North Vietnamese. Caputo's war experience was plagued by...
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
War is cruel. The Vietnam War, which lasted for 21 years from 1954 to 1975, was a horrific and tragic event in human history. The Second World War was as frightening and tragic even though it lasted for only 6 years from 1939 to 1945 comparing with the longer-lasting war in Vietnam. During both wars, thousands of millions of soldiers and civilians had been killed. Especially during the Second World War, numerous innocent people were sent into concentration camps, or some places as internment camps for no specific reasons told. Some of these people came out sound after the war, but others were never heard of again. After both wars, people that were alive experienced not only the physical damages, but also the psychic trauma by seeing the deaths and injuries of family members, friends or even just strangers. In the short story “A Marker on the Side of the Boat” by Bao Ninh about the Vietnam War, and the documentary film Barbed Wire and Mandolins directed by Nicola Zavaglia with a background of the Second World War, they both explore and convey the trauma of war. However, the short story “A Marker on the Side of the Boat” is more effective in conveying the trauma of war than the film Barbed Wire and Mandolins because of its well-developed plot with well-illustrated details, and its ability to raise emotional responses from its readers.
War has always been an essential ingredient in the development of the human race. As a result of the battles fought in ancient times, up until modern warfare, millions of innocent lives have ended as a result of war crimes committed. In the article, “The My Lai Massacre: A Military Crime of Obedience,” Herbert C. Kelman and V.Lee Hamilton shows examples of moral decisions taken by people involved with war-related murders. This article details one of the worse atrocities committed during the Vietnam War in 1968 by the U.S. military: the My Lai Massacre. Through this incident, the question that really calls for psychological analysis is why so many people are willing to formulate , participate in, and condone policies that call for the mass killings of defenseless civilians such as the atrocities committed during the My Lai massacre. What influences these soldiers by applying different psychological theories that have been developed on human behavior.
John Wade left America a human being, yet came back a human killer. His months in Vietnam were filled with bloodshed and human atrocity, and from this, no man could feasibly return the same person. Yet beneath what John endured throughout the war, he suffered many unkindness’ and tragedies that shaped him into adulthood. It was not only the war that made John Wade, but it was John Wade’s existence; his whole life that made him who he was.
This book substantially explains the vigorous training platoon 3086 went through in order to earn the title of being a Marine.
On March 16th, 1968, an act of obedience resulted in a massacre on the people of My Lai. The men of Charlie Company arrived in Vietnam in December of 1967 with the average age of their company being only 20 years young. These soldiers had no prior combat experience, but had performed well within training and had become known as the best company in their battalion. It was these men who arrived in My Lai on that March day – with orders to kill. It was not only actions on this day that lead to the eventual massacre, but factors played into thee soldiers’ training and experiences leading up to the massacre as well. With a mindset reflecting social psychology, one is able to comprehend how obedience can explain the massacre that occurred My Lai on March 16th, 1968 with the use of four factors;
In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, he emphasizes a chapter on “The Man I Killed”, which describes the characteristics of a young Vietnamese man in which O’Brien may or may not have killed with a grenade. The novel is not chronologically sequenced, which leaves more room for the reader to engage in a critical thought process that fully bridges the author’s mind to their own. In O’Brien’s chapter, “The Man I Killed”, he attempts to humanize the enemy in a way that draws little separation between the enemy and himself by relating the enemy’s life prior to the war to his, and illustrates the war through the eyes of the soldiers who fought it.
Usually when someone is murdered, people expect the murderer to feel culpable. This though, is not the case in war. When in war, a soldier is taught that the enemy deserves to die, for no other reason than that they are the nation’s enemy. When Tim O’Brien kills a man during the Vietnam War, he is shocked that the man is not the buff, wicked, and terrifying enemy he was expecting. This realization overwhelms him in guilt. O’Brien’s guilt has him so fixated on the life of his victim that his own presence in the story—as protagonist and narrator—fades to the black. Since he doesn’t use the first person to explain his guilt and confusion, he negotiates his feelings by operating in fantasy—by imagining an entire life for his victim, from his boyhood and his family to his feeling about the war and about the Americans. In The Man I Killed, Tim O’Brien explores the truth of The Vietnam War by vividly describing the dead body and the imagined life of the man he has killed to question the morality of killing in a war that seems to have no point to him.
As our forefathers before us stated, ‘‘No one is more professional than I. I am a Noncommissioned Officer, a leader of soldiers. As a Noncommissioned Officer, I realize that I am a member of a time honored corps, which is known as “The Backbone of the Army (“The NCO Creed written by SFC Earle Brigham and Jimmie Jakes Sr”). These words to the Noncommissioned Officer should inspire us to the fullest with pride, honor, and integrity. The NCO creed should mean much more than just words whenever we attend an NCO’s school.
Caputo’s first experience of the world outside of school had been war. He learned and practiced the murderous trade and then taught it to others at camp Geiger, a training base in North Carolina. The rigorous training by drill instructors was to be their ordeal of initiation, physically and mentally. From four in the morning until nine that night they marched and drilled, went through obstacle courses, and went on hikes in ninety-degree heat. They were shouted at, kicked, humiliated, and harassed. Instead of being called their given names, they were called “scumbag,” “numbnuts,” and anything similar by the DIs.
Four Hours in My Lai revolves around those “others” who died at the hands of the American military, when they never should have. But, it is not just an inquiry into the massacre of up to four hundred unarmed civilians by American troops, it is also a cautionary tale about Western arrogance in South-East Asia. Nevertheless, there is a clear impression that Vietnam has got over the Vietnam War; something, this books reminds us, cannot be said of the United States. The Vietnamese have fought in Cambodia and on their Chinese border since the Vietnam War, a martial fixture-list more punishing than the one faced by the United States in the same period. Of course, Vietnam did not experience the same sense of national humiliation: and yet its losses
"This is what you've been waiting for -- search and destroy -- and you've got it," said by one of the superior officers (The My Lai Massacre). On March 16, 1968 the lives of three hundred innocent members of the village of My Lai Vietnam were taken. They were taken because of the immoral and inhumane commands given by commanding officers of the US. Military during the Vietnam War. The My Lai incident is known as a mission that took place with a lack of discipline, moral of the soldiers, and adequate leadership. This massacre by the Charlie Company, 11th Brigade, American Division was a massacre that could have been avoided had the members of the company thought for themselves, and not follow the inhumane orders they were given. A study conducted by Stanley Milgram, a Yale psychologist, can give one insight into why the soldiers performed with such unquestioned obedience. In the study the teacher was told to ask the student, an actor, questions, and if the student did not answer the question correctly the teacher was to administer a progressively more intense shock to the student. The teacher is told that the study is to test shock techniques and how they affect learning; they were unaware that the study was actually a study of obedience. The soldiers of the Charlie Company were performing the orders of another, and with no real sense of responsibility these people performed horrendous tasks that they would have not performed otherwise.
As we got further and further into the Vietnam War, few lives were untouched by grief, anger and fear. The Vietnamese suffered the worst hardship; children lay dead in the street, villages remained nothing but charred ashes, and bombs destroyed thousands of innocent civilians. Soldiers were scarred emotionally as well as physically, as