Transcript The Things They Carried

Tim O’Brien’s
Presented by Dr. Judy Logan
1964-1975
Who’s on first?


Good Guys = South
Bad Guys = North



CHINA
FRANCE
NATIONALIST
MOVEMENTS
demanding MORE
SELF-GOVERNANCE.
Strongest:
 COMMUNIST leader
HO CHI MINH and his
VIET MINH.

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.

In 1954, VIETNAM
officially divided:
NORTH and SOUTH.

US involvement:
DOMINO THEORY.

US backs
ANTI-COMMUNIST
DIEM in SOUTH:
corrupt, oppressive,
unpopular—but at least
not Communist.

1962: John F. Kennedy
sends MILITARY ADVISORS.

1963: US backs
COUP against Diem.
New leaders also corrupt.

1964: GULF OF TONKIN:
US troops sent.

1965: OPERATION
ROLLING THUNDER:
Johnson bombs North:
ESCALATION of WAR.

North Vietnamese
GUERILLA TACTICS;
US uses NAPALM,
AGENT ORANGE.

1968:
TET OFFENSIVE

1968:
MY LAI MASSACRE

ANTI-WAR
MOVEMENT

KENT STATE

RICHARD NIXON:
VIETNAMIZATION

PENTAGON PAPERS:
Illegal Bombing in
CAMBODIA and LAOS

CEASE FIRE in
JANUARY 1973.

LAST AMERICANS
out in MARCH 1973.

SAIGON falls to
NORTH VIETNAMESE
COMMUNISTS in
SPRING of 1975.
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
Things determined by:
1. Necessity
2. Rank & Field Specialty
3. Mission
4. Superstition
5. Miscellaneous: Literal & Figurative

Afraid of dying, but more
afraid of showing fear.

Carried shameful
memories.

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.
Heaviest of all: common
secret of COWARDICE—
never put it down.

Greatest fear: BLUSHING.

They died so they wouldn’t
die of EMBARRASSMENT.
When the dustoff arrived, they carried Lavender aboard.
After
Lavender’s
death…
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)
Ontario, Canada