During the 1950’s and on through the 1970’s, America was in a “conflict” with the North Vietnamese communists and southern Viet Cong. To the American public this war was unnecessary and meant having to ship their sons off to risk losing their lives. In response, many song writers wrote songs about the worthlessness and repercussions of warfare; for example, Edwin Starr and his song “War”. In his song, Starr’s lyrics often coincide with themes from Tim O’Brien’s book, The Things They Carried. Throughout the book the motif of mortality and death are constantly suggested. When Starr sings the lines, “War can't give life it can only take it away”, it is representative of the threat and expectation of death hanging over the soldiers in O’Brien’s
