Vietnam War

The war occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from September 26, 1959 to April 30, 1975

The United States entered the war to prevent a communist takeover of South Vietnam.

Military advisors arrived beginning in U.S. involvement escalated in the early 1960s, with U.S. troop levels tripling in 1961 and tripling again in 1962.

U.S. combat units were deployed beginning in Involvement peaked in 1968.

The Things They Carried Tim O'Brien is from small town Minnesota. He was born on October 1, 1946, a birth date he shares with several of his characters.

He graduated from Macalester College in 1968 with a BA in political science and a draft notice.

O'Brien was against the war, but he reported for service and was sent to Vietnam with what has been called the "unlucky" American division due to its involvement in the My Lai massacre in 1968.

The My Lai Massacre was the Vietnam War mass murder of between 347 and 504 unarmed civilians in South Vietnam on March 16, 1968 by United States Army soldiers.

Most of the victims were women, children, infants, and elderly people. Some of the bodies were later found to have been mutilated, and many women allegedly were raped prior to being killed.

While 26 US soldiers were initially charged with criminal offenses for their actions at Mỹ Lai, only Second Lieutenant William Calley, a platoon leader in Charlie Company, was convicted. Found guilty of killing 22 villagers, he was originally given a life sentence, but only served three and a half years under house arrest.

When the incident became public knowledge in 1969, it prompted global outrage. The massacre also increased domestic opposition to the US involvement in the Vietnam War.

O'Brien's tour of duty was After Vietnam he became a graduate student at Harvard. He eventually left Harvard to become a newspaper reporter.

O'Brien's career as a reporter gave way to his writing of fiction

The Things They Carried O’Brien’s novel is representative of Post- Modernism’s in its ability to mix fiction with nonfiction.

Vignette: a short, descriptive literary sketch