Civilians 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 V.C.
             It is safe to say that not all of the American soldiers treated the Vietnamese with respect. After being in the country for a while, the soldiers began to trust a small number of Vietnamese civilians. In the book, O'Brien tells the reader about an old blind man who owned a well. One day O'Brien's platoon sat down to get a little rest and relaxation at the old man's well. 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. The old man fell to the ground, licking his face clean of milk and bloo...