Vietnam War Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Vietnam War - Research Paper Example in O’Brien’s â€Å"The Things They Carried†, but the author illustrates the base that Kiley used to be at in â€Å"The Sweetheart of Song Tra Bong†, which is comparable to the base at the Khe Sanh. O’Brien’s intention in the book is to portray on how the war changes people and even if we know the story, what happens inside their minds is still impossible to â€Å"truly† understand. O’Brien writes, â€Å"Fine with me. But you don’t know human nature. You don’t know Nam† (O’Brien 97). The author wants to emphasize that while people strive to understand each other, this attempt would only be limited to personal opinion, and there can be no truth in every individual understanding. O’Brien adds, â€Å"He couldn’t pin it down; her body seemed foreign somehow – too stiff in places, too firm where the softness should be† (99). It appears that the author is trying to evaluate the re sponses of people in the war against his personal views on how people should really behave during a war scene. But as aforementioned, the Battle of the Khe Sanh is one of the most controversial wars in history. Why? The war shows evidence of the fabrication of the American national identity. There are many misrepresentations of facts, particularly in the socio-cultural and political dimensions of the war. In order to obtain control over the infiltration routes south of the Demilitarized Zone and near the Ho Chi Minh Trail, the former French outpost along Khe Sanh was walled and nearly 6 thousand Americans and South Vietnamese were designated in order to secure the base (Browne, â€Å"Battlefields of the Khe Sanh†). In the succeeding passages, the display of horrific scenes including more than 150,000 projectiles and more than 100,000 pounds of explosive ordinance were released on the encompassing hillsides of once silent village of Khe Sanh (Clarke 185). The lush foliage will never go back to the valley that surrounded Khe Sanh and the pristine beauty that it used to have can no