The Vietnam War

A detailed Summary of The Vietnam War

Tim O'Brien's If I Die in a Combat Zone

There are so many events in history that it is impossible to know them all. Despite that fact, there are many different sources on events that happened in history. Each source has their unique style of illustrating an event and depending on what works best for the readers; sometimes a combination of sources will give the readers a better understanding of the event or there may be just one that better exemplify the event. An event that will be looked at is the Vietnam War. The occurrence of the Vietnam War will always be remembered as a time when America has to deal with many controversial issues. There are two books that can assist us in understanding the controversial. The first book is If I Die in a Combat Zone by Tim O'Brien; it's a searing, intensely personal account of O'Brien's experience as a Vietnam foot soldier that takes readers behind the infantryman's rifle from minefields of My Lai to the darkness of the ghostly tunnels. The second book is Lyndon Johnson's War by Michael Hunt. It's an attempt to explain how the United States came to be drawn into the conflict in Southeast Asia by using current American and Vietna

mese sources. After comparing and contrasting between the two books, I believe that Tim O'Brien If I Die in a Combat Zone is a better representation of the Vietnam War. I came to that conclusion after analyzing these comparisons: how does each book approach the Vietnam War; what each book tell us about the war; what each book did not address; and how does each book complement each other.

How the U.S. abandoned supports for the Diem regime was another aspect that Hunt present in Lyndon Johnson's War. Ngo Dinh Diem was chosen by Eisenhower to lead the south in becoming a new nation. He was an ideal candidate due to his background as the son of a prominent Catholic family with an anticommunist and autocratic political stance. Through the years, Diem's credibility diminished, "violating a pledge to Ambassador Nolting, Diem had army units raid Buddhist pagodas in Saigon and Hue on 21 August 1963, arresting over fourteen hundred dissidents under cover of martial law." The American government realized "Diem's flaws and the damage he was doing the war effort but they saw no one better to take his place." In an attempt to over throw Diem, the American government gave him an ultimatum before executing drastic measures. If he failed to reconcile with the Buddhist and end the crisis, he will lose support from the U.S. "Kennedy then authorized a dramatic aid cutoff, intended to make Diem reform but also serving as an unmistakable signal to Diem's generals of deep U.S. discontent."

O'Brien and Hunt's style of writing are totally different; O'Brien gave the reader the perspective of the soldier in the war whereas Hunt gave the reader the overall perspective of the war from the point of view of the administration. Due to their differences in presenting the perspective of the war, O'Brien didn't address the subject such as how the executive decision were made, and who were the people that made those executive decisions; for example, how the decision was made and who made the decision to abandoned support for Diem regime. On the other hand, Hunt didn't address such subjects like the personal experience of the soldier or the event that took place in the field; for example, the racial tension within the troop and the My Lai massacre.

The final aspect that helps illustrate what the war was about is who bears the primary responsibility for America's deep involvement in Vietnam, which Hunt believes President Johnson was the one. Hunt argues that Johnson's role in Vietnam began long before Kennedy's assassination on November 22, 1963. Hunt's reason for Johnson's deep involvement in Vietnam was due to Johnson's humble beginning, which consisted of not being rich or popular; as a result, he is more determined and in charge. Johnson took decisive action, first initiating a bombing campaign in North Vietnam, then sending in U.S. ground forces, and eventually committing large forces of U.S. troops. To be fair, Hunt notes that the war really was the product of a series of presidential decisions over several decades, "It was the product of a string of formal presidential decisions, of which Johnson's happened to be the last."

How O'Brien opposed the war is one of the example of internal conflict. This was illustrated in If I Die in the Combat Zone when O'Brien was ordered to meet with the chaplain to talk about his probl

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Approximate Word count = 2255
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History