- The theme is fear. In the book, it doesn't mention this that clear. Many of those stories that make readers think about the humanity, mortal or some deep stuff, but the truth is everyone is afraid of this war and not to mention those soldiers don't even know why this war is worth to fight. In the chapter Night Life, the author tells us a story about Rat Kiley, how he freaked out at night, and how he lost his mind and shot himself to get out of the war. In the chapter "Field Trip", his daughter asked him "'What did you want?' 'Nothing,' I said. 'To stay alive.' 'That's all?' 'Yes.'"(Page 175). It is a really simple conversation, but it does make me recall the previous chapter about he made those stories up because he wasn't looking at what actually happened. He just trying to stay alive.
- My research question is how many people were killed in the Vietnam War. According to DCAS Vietnam Conflict Extract File record, a total of 58,220 Americans died in the war, which includes 9,107 died by accident, 938 died from illness, 40,934 killed in action, 382 by self-inflicted. Of those killed, more than 61% were younger than 21 years old, and 11,465 of those killed were younger than 20 years old. More from that, over 75,000 serverly disabled, and 23,214 were total disabled. Those are just people drafted from the United States. However, about 1,062,000 people who from North Vietnam, Viet Cong military and civilians, and 741,000 people who from South Vietnam, U.S., South Korea war military and civilians died in the war. The grand total of the war death is between 1,450,000 to 3,595,000.
This is a picture that I found online. Those soldiers didn't choose to fight. They are trained to listen what's been told.
- References:
Gov Vietnam War U.S. Military Fatal Casualty Statistics https://www.archives.gov/research/military/vietnam-war/casualty-statistics
The post fits well with the theme you chose. Although the soldiers are scared, they have no choice but to listen and follow orders.
ReplyDeletewhen you said the death toll was 1,450,000 to 3,595,000, how come the range of these numbers are so large? were they not able to keep track of who died?
ReplyDeleteMichael, I enjoyed reading your post! I think your concept about the theme of the book being fear is very good. Certainly there must have been a lot of fear that the soldiers experienced and it is something that is mentioned throughout the whole book. I think the majority of the soldiers just wanted to get through their time in the war and get home.
ReplyDeleteWow, I did not know that over 20,000 were totally disabled. Although, I did once meet a Vietnam veteran who was only there for a few weeks and he suffered an injury that left him mostly paralyzed from the waist down.
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