Paper #4 Revised

Tim O’Brien’s memoir shows that American shows that American soldiers behaved in ways that alienated Vietnamese people and could not when hearts and minds. The cruelty and vulgarity expressed in the memoir shows that the relationship could not be anything but negative. The behaviors of the American soldiers were because of a lot factors. For instance, the domestic situation in the United States, the unfamiliarity of Vietnam (i.e.: culture, people, terrain) and the political climate in the Vietnam. In this paper, I will show that the relationship between the Vietnamese people and the American people in the context of O’Brien’s memoir could not have been anything but distrustful because of the realities of the war.
The Cold War effected everything in the international system from 1945-1991. Most of Asia and Africa were former colonies of western countries and there was a great battle to get those countries into the Soviet or US sphere. The Vietnamese people have a long tradition of resisting the western powers in their country. It is in this resistance that the American soldiers were forced to fight a war. The battle for hearts and minds dictates the way a foreign power will be received by the indigenous people. In the case of Vietnam, this quintessential battle was not won. As opposed World War 2 the indigenous people were happy to see the foreign powers of the Soviet Union, United States, and Great Britain. The situation created by not winning the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese people did not help the Vietnamese-American relationship. This situation added the anger that the American soldiers were filling resulting in the cruelty that that Tim O’Brien experienced in his memoir. (Insert O’Brien Quote and explain)(End with the human condition)
The human condition is extremely important. It is what makes us different from animals. The relationship between human beings can overcome anything, war, hunger…