My Lai Massacre Analysis

Therefore, he gathered numerous documents about the case into his documents. The atrocities committed against Vietnamese civilians was a political threat to Nixon’s strategy of Vietnamization. Nixon’s goal was to turn the war over to the South Vietnamese so that he is able to withdraw most of the U.S. troops. The massacre in My Lai would further justify the resistance of the enemy and it was the complete opposite of what Nixon wanted to accomplish.

Hugh was part of the group of soldiers who were present, but he did not participate in the killing. He saw the scene from above in his helicopter. Thompson was not sure what had exactly been occurring below him, but he knew he must intervene. He flew down into the hamlet and turned his guns on his fellow soldiers to save a group of Vietnamese civilians. He recued eleven Vietnamese soldiers with two helicopters before heading back to his base to report and end the killing ("The My Lai

Mr. Nance has played a part in the attacks of al Qaeda since the early 1990s and Hitchens states the many points that Mr. Nance makes to persuade anyone to believe waterboarding is torture. The author brings in special forces to argue that waterboarding is a punishment used for special forces not U.S. citizens. Accordingly, Hitchens demonstrates imagery, metaphors, and tone to persuade the audience waterboarding is indeed

American Novelist, Tim O’brien, in his book, Going After Cacciato, illuminates the daunting effects of the Vietnam War by delving into the mind of a young soldier, Paul Berlin. The theme of discontinuity and trauma is revealed as the novel jumps back and forth from reality and fantasy. The book focuses on Berlin, on guard at the observational post as he recounts the tragic deaths of members in his squad and imagines a story of him and his squad chasing after Cacciato. The sudden change of scenes in each chapter creates discontinuities, contributing to a feeling of confusion. This is the author’s attempt to emulate the influence of war onto a soldier — disorientation.

In 'The Memorial Tablet ', Sassoon is representing his views as a soldier who died in World War 1. The soldier is forced to fight for something he doesn 't believe in. It says "Squire nagged and bullied until I went to fight". Sassoon 's choice of verbs 'nagged ' and 'bullied ' emphasizes how much the squire wants the soldier to join and how much the soldier doest want to join. The soldier hates the war, he says “I died in hell”, this implies that the honorable death that the young men believed in, was actually an inglorious death for an empty cause.

By 1975 the Vietnam war had claimed over 5 million lives, many of which were civilians. This has made it a war that Americans have been ashamed of and tried to forget. W. S. Merwin was outspoken on how he felt about war, which he shows in “The Asians Dying.” He makes a statement on the inhumane way the Vietnam war took human lives. ”The Asians Dying” will shock readers with its gruesome imagery and force them to look at what war does. Merwin uses the archetype of death to show the reader what the Vietnam war did to people, and how inhumane the Vietnam war was.

When comparing the two one has to look at the fact that individuals were upset about what happened to the United States soldiers during the Bataan Death March even though years prior the United States put the Native Americans in an identical situation during the Trail of Tears of 1838. The United State caused the death of Several Native Americans with no sympathy but willingly executed a man for doing the exact thing that their government allowed. When comparing these two major events, the Trail of Tears and the Bataan Death March, one

I do think that the eye symbolize the issue that the has narrator has with his inner vision. Which he refuses to accept that he is sick and mentally unstable. Because the narrator did describe the eye as “evil” and the eye of “vulture”, and these words does summarize the narrator 's identity pretty much. Since he did kill the old man without any real reason and dismembers his body and even courageously let the police sit and have a conversation over the old man’s corpse. Furthermore he did stalk the old man before he killed him and showed no sympathy nor any human emotion.

As politicians continued to send more and more troops to Vietnam, Americans began to question the involvement of the US and voiced their disapproval openly. In 1963, Bob Dylan recorded, “Masters of War,” as an angry protest song that voiced the opinions of the young people who were protesting against the war. He describes the brutality of war throughout the song. He explained how the government builds death planes, big bombs, and guns to aid in the brutality. Pointing fingers at the government, Dylan claims that they only build in order to destroy.

In the chapter “The man I Killed,” O’Brien narrates an incidence which had permanently destroyed his life, murdering an innocent man. He had a lot of difficulties describing the man he killed, and that is why he avoided using the first person in his narrative. The reason for doing this was to relieve some of his guilt which had possessed him. Nevertheless, O’Brien could not hinder himself from picturing a complete imaginary life for the Vietnamese soldier. He outlined the similarities that he possessed and those of the dead man.