If I Die In A Combat Zone By Tim O Brien

The North Vietnamese government along with Viet Cong fought to reunite Vietnam in the 1950s. This led up to the colonial war that initially started with France and America. America wanted to stop the expansion of communism to be worldwide this led up to start a 19 year old war in Vietnam. The occupation of the war in Vietnam was followed by American soldiers who were drafted and were forced to fighting the war. In If I Die in a Combat Zone by Tim O'Brien the author communicated to the reader the experience and struggle he went through while he was fighting in the Vietnam war. He does this by demonstrating his struggle experience while staying strong even with bad leadership.

O’Brien demonstrated his struggle in the war by emphasizing in the

One example is the Viet Cong rifle found in the village. Through Captain Johansen’s orders the soldiers are forced to search every inch of the village and take prisoners for the night ( Ch15) . The lieutenants bind the prisoners and attaches them to trees, while O’Brien is forced to be on radio watch ( Ch 15). O’Brien struggles to comprehend the leadership in theirs action, he does not understand why the lieutenants decided to imprison old men to trees when they have not done anything to harm them. Captain Smith takes Captain Johannsen's place as the commander for the Alpha Company ( Ch 17). Green officer, Smith takes back the soldiers to the village of My Lai, soon O’Brien comes to the realization that Smith is so inexperienced and is care free of the soldiers and their lives. As the Alpha Company marches through the village in search for more mines they are unlucky and are forced to imprisoned women and children for their safety. ( Ch

After only a hour of being in charge as the new commander of the Alpha Company, the new commander takes the soldiers to the minefields ( Ch 19). O’Brien realizing the frequent bad leadership displayed by the commanders he manages to get a three day pass to Chu Lai, where he looks for a job in the rear ( Ch 19). He realizes the job in the rear is better than going back home into the world after everything that he had to cope with while being in Vietnam. O’Brien along with his friend Bates have a easy time settling into their new jobs as a typist LZ Gator ( Ch 20) . They work together to get through the holidays with their dull but safe jobs. While this is happening, a Vietnamese scout is forced to make sacrifices as a soldier and hold on, on the idea of wanting to go home to help his wife with his ill child ( Ch 21) . This helps the reader have a deeper insight on the life of a soldier and how unfairly the scout was treated due to bad leadership. In addition to these previous examples of bad leadership, the most astonishing act of bad leadership was taken upon by Major Callicles. Major Callicles is the executive officer O’Brien worked with as a typist. Because of his thrive to display disciplinary actions towards his soldiers he takes over the battalion. This leads up to the massacre in My Lai, where about 347 to 504 southern Vietnam civilians died. This