Johnnie Get Your Gun and Shoot Me in the Foot: Why American Patriotism Was Not Enough to Save the Vietnam Soldier Prior to the Vietnam War, American soldiers’ had a devout belief in the United States’ government and its direction for the American people. Their unwavering trust in the United States’ intentions encapsulated a defining aspect of patriotism: national faith. Even if they had been drafted, soldiers had enough faith in their country to trust they were entering a war worth fighting. However, as emphasized in Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, this faith was lost in the Vietnam War: where men shot their feet to escape the battleground, where soldiers were ignored, insulted, and ultimately forgotten upon coming home, where jumping
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Prior to the Vietnam War, patriotic duty was instilled in American men to fight for their country if asked upon. In “Over There” Cohan wrote “hear them calling you and me / every son of liberty” to remind listeners that, if called upon, Americans should, and did, feel proud to fulfill their duty and fight in World War One. During the Vietnam War the sentiment had a major shift: not only was patriotic duty not enough of a reason for men to fight, and in cases like O’Brien himself, not even the draft was reason enough to justify his role as a soldier. In “On the Rainy River” O’Brien not only did not believe in the war in Vietnam, but he was willing to run to the Canadian border to escape it. The only thing that makes O’Brien go back and fulfill his draft notice is fear of embarrassment, patriotic sentiment had nothing to do with it. In earlier wars, where there was clear purpose for the war and an ideal worth fighting for, men like O’Brien would not have run from the draft in as large as numbers as they had; the war being as purposeless as it was not only diminished American men’s want to be in the war, but their patriotic sentiments to protect their …show more content…
In Cohan’s “Over There” he discussed how fulfilling a war duty in previous wars could “make your daddy glad/ to have had such a lad,” and by doing so emphasized how patriotic duty correlates to pride. If a soldier in a war preceding Vietnam had done what he was told to do, he could take pride in his patriotism and use it as a form of comfort upon his return. However in The Things They Carried, when Norman Bowker returns home from Vietnam he struggles to overcome his guilt and overwhelming sense of purposelessness. He does not feel like he is entitled to be named a hero, in fact by not saving Kiowa from drowning, he feels like he does not deserve to discuss his guilt at all. Bowker feels aimless, he repeatedly drives around his town and lap, by lap, by lap, he fills his head with the guilt of not saving Kiowa, and feels undeserving to discuss it with his own father because “he had been braver than he ever thought possible, but ... he had not been so brave as he [had] wanted to [be].” Norman Bowker’s guilt intertwines with the American expectations of bravery, and because he could not meet this expectation, the purposelessness instilled in him from Vietnam would not have been fulfilled even if he had somehow managed to save Kiowa. Bowker goes on to suffocate in his own guilt from not being brave enough in war where no amount of bravery would have given any
Prior to the Vietnam War, patriotic duty was instilled in American men to fight for their country if asked upon. In “Over There” Cohan wrote “hear them calling you and me / every son of liberty” to remind listeners that, if called upon, Americans should, and did, feel proud to fulfill their duty and fight in World War One. During the Vietnam War the sentiment had a major shift: not only was patriotic duty not enough of a reason for men to fight, and in cases like O’Brien himself, not even the draft was reason enough to justify his role as a soldier. In “On the Rainy River” O’Brien not only did not believe in the war in Vietnam, but he was willing to run to the Canadian border to escape it. The only thing that makes O’Brien go back and fulfill his draft notice is fear of embarrassment, patriotic sentiment had nothing to do with it. In earlier wars, where there was clear purpose for the war and an ideal worth fighting for, men like O’Brien would not have run from the draft in as large as numbers as they had; the war being as purposeless as it was not only diminished American men’s want to be in the war, but their patriotic sentiments to protect their …show more content…
In Cohan’s “Over There” he discussed how fulfilling a war duty in previous wars could “make your daddy glad/ to have had such a lad,” and by doing so emphasized how patriotic duty correlates to pride. If a soldier in a war preceding Vietnam had done what he was told to do, he could take pride in his patriotism and use it as a form of comfort upon his return. However in The Things They Carried, when Norman Bowker returns home from Vietnam he struggles to overcome his guilt and overwhelming sense of purposelessness. He does not feel like he is entitled to be named a hero, in fact by not saving Kiowa from drowning, he feels like he does not deserve to discuss his guilt at all. Bowker feels aimless, he repeatedly drives around his town and lap, by lap, by lap, he fills his head with the guilt of not saving Kiowa, and feels undeserving to discuss it with his own father because “he had been braver than he ever thought possible, but ... he had not been so brave as he [had] wanted to [be].” Norman Bowker’s guilt intertwines with the American expectations of bravery, and because he could not meet this expectation, the purposelessness instilled in him from Vietnam would not have been fulfilled even if he had somehow managed to save Kiowa. Bowker goes on to suffocate in his own guilt from not being brave enough in war where no amount of bravery would have given any