Civilian Treatment
Tim O'Brien is If I Die in a Combat Zone is a realistic tale of day to day life in the Vietnam War. Tim is not only the author of the book, he is also a veteran of the war. Tim creates a detailed picture of what life was like for a United States soldier. Tim also shows how the soldiers were forced to treat all Vietnamese as the same person for the fear of the Viet Cong soldiers (VC). He tells how soldiers spent their days hour to hour, and minute by minute with enemies and civilians soldiers. They were torn between trusting civilians who could be the V.C. soldiers or shooting civilians in fear of them being the V.C. soldiers. If I Die in a Combat Zone is told through the eyes of Tim O'Brien. He paints a picture of the horror and the beauty that he saw living in a land of chaos. It was the late 60's and early 70's and the United States declared war against the Vietnamese. The V.C. soldiers were not a regular army. They did not wear uniforms and they looked like everyone else in Vietnam. This made trusting and working with civilians very difficult because, as a soldier, you should never let down your guard. So the only way to feel safe was to treat everyone, including the women and children, as part of
The following morning the three prisoners were beaten for information that they did not know. As the old man starts to wash one of the soldiers, another "blustery and stupid soldier"(O'Brien 100) found a carton of milk and threw it at the old man's face, cutting it and spraying milk everywhere. This causes the company to go into a panic, thinking that there are Vietnamese soldiers around. Homes of the villagers were burned to the ground and all civilians were herded to the town square. Any soldier that ever gave their services during the war probably witnessed unspeakable acts of war. Mad Mark their platoon leader for no reason decided to shoot at the Vietnamese farmers working in the fields. Alpha company were marching towards the villages of My Lai, this was considered the most dangerous area to be due to the mine fields. The Vietnamese were stuck in the middle of a war that most of them had no idea what it was about. Hear we see the worse example of how soldiers treated the Vietnamese people. Tim O'Brien depiction of life during the war, was something out of the movies.
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Acceptance Essays
