The Things They Carried

Tim O’Brien’s

Presented by Dr. Judy Logan

Map #1

Map #2

Vietnam War

1964-1975

Who’s on first?

Good Guys = South

Bad Guys = North

History

CHINA FRANCE NATIONALIST

MOVEMENTS demanding MORE SELF-GOVERNANCE.

Strongest: COMMUNIST leader

HO CHI MINH and his VIET MINH.

History

During World War I,

JAPAN took over Vietnam, but HO CHI MINH’S army pushed them out.

After World War II, the FRENCH returned, and pushed HO CHI MINH into the NORTH of Vietnam.

History

In 1954, VIETNAM officially divided:NORTH and SOUTH.

US involvement:DOMINO THEORY.

US backsANTI-COMMUNIST DIEM in SOUTH: corrupt, oppressive, unpopular—but at least not Communist.

History

1962: John F. Kennedy sends MILITARY ADVISORS.

1963: US backs COUP against Diem. New leaders also corrupt.

1964: GULF OF TONKIN:

US troops sent.

History

1965: OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER: Johnson bombs North: ESCALATION of WAR.

North Vietnamese GUERILLA TACTICS; US uses NAPALM, AGENT ORANGE.

History

1968: TET OFFENSIVE

1968: MY LAI MASSACRE

History

ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT

KENT STATE

History

RICHARD NIXON: VIETNAMIZATION

PENTAGON PAPERS: Illegal Bombing in CAMBODIA and LAOS

History

CEASE FIRE inJANUARY 1973.

LAST AMERICANS out in MARCH 1973.

SAIGON falls to NORTH VIETNAMESE COMMUNISTS in SPRING of 1975.

The Draft

Story Telling

Story truth vs. Happening truth Falsify a story to make it more true.  A story tries to reveal EMOTIONAL truth. “Rainy River”—Change the setting to one that highlights the meaning.  “Absolute occurrence is irrelevant: A thing may happen and be a total lie; another thing may not happen and be truer than the truth” (79-80).

O’Brien: None of the stories are about Vietnam but about the fine line between Truth and fact and why we tell stories.  Story telling is about exploring the value of experience, the malleability of memory, and the difference between fiction and reality.

True War Story

The Platoon andWhat They Carried

What They Carried

1.Necessity

2.Rank & Field Specialty

3.Mission

4.Superstition

5.Miscellaneous: Literal &

Figurative

Things determined by:

Intangibles They Carried

Afraid of dying, but more afraid of showing fear.

Too frightened to be cowards.

Carried EMOTIONAL BAGGAGE of men who might die: GRIEF, TERROR, LOVE, LONGING—INTANGIBLES, but these had their own mass and specific gravity. They had tangible weight.

Carried shameful memories.

Heaviest of all: common secret of COWARDICE—never put it down.

Greatest fear: BLUSHING.

They died so they wouldn’t die of EMBARRASSMENT.

Checking a Tunnel Entrance

The Dustoff

When the dustoff arrived, they carried Lavender aboard.

The Burning of Than Khe

After Lavender’s death…

43 Years Later

The war occurred half a lifetime ago, and yet the remembering

makes it now, which makes it forever. That’s what stories are for.

Stories are for joining the past to the future.

Stories are for those late hours in the night when you can’t

remember how you got from where you were to where you are.

Stories are for eternity, when memory is erased, when there is

nothing to remember except the story. (O’Brien 38)

Pig Carcasses

Rainy RiverOntario, Canada

Worthington, Minnesota

What would you do?