"Steel My Soldiers" Hearts" Col. ... Soldiers had difficulty telling the "good guys from the bad guys" (p. 16). ... The soldiers also distrusted the ARVN soldiers, not sure who was truly a soldier and who may be a Viet Cong. ... The battle resulted with forty enemy dead and fifty American soldiers were wounded or killed (p. 170). ... The book would make a good learning tool for someone going into military leadership. ...

• Word Count: 1645
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

I felt the American's were portrayed as both good and evil. ... Although, we as the audience did not get a good sense of how the Vietnamese Soldiers communicated, Stone, demonstrated how ingenious they really were and how they moved throughout the jungle of Cambodia. 5. ... The line between good and evil was blurred or non-existent in this film. ... It showed both the good and evil of the US soldiers, which gave a more realistic account of what took place. 9. Oliver Stone has demonstrated an account, which does show both the good and evil of the American Soldiers. ...

• Word Count: 2144
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: High School

In the short story, "The Things They Carried," Tim O"Brien writes about the soldiers of Vietnam and the self versus war or nature that all of them had to carry with them. ... When the soldiers are in the jungle, every one of them is able to relate to each other and understand what they are all going through. The fear of death and dying that all of the soldiers have to carry is a piece of baggage that is constantly running through the minds of all of them. ... The soldiers all want to escape the reality of what is going on around them and the protagonist in the story, Lt. Jimmy Cross, is ...

• Word Count: 459
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

In the scenes concerning the paper there is much discussion about what the journalists have to set their goals for, that is providing stories that make the Americans look good. ... So Kubrick does a good job of attempting to explain the decrease in basic moral values caused by war through situations like prostitution. Kubrick attempts to analyze soldier behaviour and psychology further by depicting realistic occurrences of savagery and cruelty towards enemy soldiers. ... One of the soldiers requests a picture of him and his friend to be put in the paper. ... He was widely known for strippi...

• Word Count: 1652
• Approx Pages: 7

Regardless, soldiers are trained to battle, and that is what they do. ... Cross also plans to make his men "get their shit together, and keep it together, and maintain it neatly and in good working order. ... The soldiers lose purpose and motivation. ... Although good intentions existed at the beginning, the war is continued because of American pride. American citizens do not want the war and neither do the soldiers. ...

• Word Count: 689
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

The emotions they must experience killing someone, and trying to find justice in doing so; reminding themselves it is for the good of their country. ... I did not think the actual murder was as significant as the way the soldiers were reacting to it. ... I realized that in being a soldier you cannot get around the fact that maybe a few innocent people might die. ... Although many parts of this book were gruesome, at the end I felt good. It was a good ending to a real story. ...

• Word Count: 736
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

War is not like Looney Tunes and other cartoons where the good guys cheerfully chase after the bad guys and destroy them, only to meet them again the next episode. ... The war victimized the soldiers. The terror war put in the soldiers" eyes can not be described. ... The good guys do die, and they don't return for the next episode. ... However, those brave soldiers didn't die in vain. ...

• Word Count: 885
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

The first types of items that the soldiers carry are those of a physical nature. ... Because he carries his girlfriend's pantyhose to bring good fortune, the reader is clued into his superstitious nature. ... The blunt descriptions by O"Brien of the physical burdens of the soldiers not only give the reader a true feeling of the experience, but also help characterize the main soldiers. ... Death has to lurk in a soldier's brain at all times of the night and day. ... In "The Things They Carried", the soldiers have to endure many difficulties. ...

• Word Count: 1097
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

Ted Lavender's death and how the men react to it show its impact on the soldiers. ... The soldiers also carry "the soldier's greatest fear, which [is] the fear of blushing" (258). ... It is almost as if the soldiers fight and even die because they are ashamed not to. ... Unfortunately, Cross's fantasy ends up causing more bad than good.             ... Cross serves as the best example of a soldier burdened by responsibility. ...

• Word Count: 1146
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

All the items helped the respective soldier to survive from day to day and to continue fighting the war. One of the most important things that helped the soldiers is their friendship with each other. ... Dave Jensen and Lee Strunk are a good example of this trust, "In late August they made a pact that if one of them should ever get totally fucked up - a wheelchair wound - the other guy would automatically find a way to end it- (O'Brien, 71). ... They were soldiers, I wasn't. ... By talking to each other, the soldiers help to sort out the incidents that happened in the War and to put ...

• Word Count: 1324
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

All the items helped the respective soldier to survive from day to day and to continue fighting the war. One of the most important things that helped the soldiers is their friendship with each other. ... Dave Jensen and Lee Strunk are a good example of this trust, "In late August they made a pact that if one of them should ever get totally fucked up - a wheelchair wound - the other guy would automatically find a way to end it- (O'Brien, 71). ... They were soldiers, I wasn't. ... By talking to each other, the soldiers help to sort out the incidents that happened in the War and to put ...

• Word Count: 1324
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

In all probability, he saw a good bit of combat while overseas and saw some of his comrades die in battle also. ... He would just make statements about what the soldiers carried and then tell the reader how much each weighed. ... Much like this, the intangible burdens of the other soldiers could not be lifted either. ... The soldiers would try to act tough about the subject of death and would try not to reveal their dread of ending up the same way as Ted. Many times the soldiers would simply avoid such a subject when speaking between each other. ...

• Word Count: 1072
• Approx Pages: 4

O"Brien is a reluctant soldier and morally opposed to the war. ... I did not want to be a soldier, not even observer of the war. ... O"Brien narrates his experience of being a foot soldier. ... Mitchell Sanders was a friend and a good storyteller. ... The soldiers had many thought's the plagued them. ...

• Word Count: 1543
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

Memories from the past were often hiding in the bushes waiting still until the soldiers came to slash and reveal them with a machete. ... The darkness didn't just lay in the tunnel, it was all around the soldiers. ... Of all the uncertainty, the only thing real to the soldiers was imagination; imagination became reality. ... The power of salvation from stories is derived from forgiveness, and to tell a story of someone that is to employ good feelings and thoughts of them. One of the objects carried by the soldiers that is infinite in abundance is the amount of stories to be told and the a...

• Word Count: 1571
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

Here they not only had physical training but were brainwashed to thinking that killing was good. ... All war really amounted to was people getting shot and soldiers losing their friends. ... These soldiers that he had once worked beside were now being sent out on death missions and he was playing a roll in it. ... When Caputo returned home he felt like many soldiers had died in vain. ... When he gave lectures he was surprised to find that he got good feedback from people. ...

• Word Count: 1407
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

He also made some good friends, like Erik. ... Tim's pass was put in good use although he was extremely sick. ... He saw many soldiers get injured, and some even died. Those images would make him think that those soldiers did not need to die. ... That certain compassion and courage was only seen in some American soldiers. ...

• Word Count: 1388
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

Not only did O"Brien describe the carnage of the war physically, but he also did an excellent job of displaying the mental and emotional suffering that the soldiers went through. ... A separation is formed in this film, between the soldiers and society and likewise morality and confusion. ... Although we see definite discrepancies to the degree of this change, it is apparent in all of the soldiers. ... The main theme in Apocalypse Now is the concept that in order to survive and function as a "good" soldier one must disconnect themselves from their rational views and all of their morals must b...

• Word Count: 1176
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

America at this time saw it's-self as the "good guys" in the war, the ones who were there to defend the Vietnamese from the evils of communism. ... Wounded soldiers and veterans came home with stories of how they were encouraged to kill anything that moved. Returning soldiers were not given the hero's welcome, far from it, in fact, especially towards the end of the war they were generally shunned by the American Public. ... Top advisors were warning that there was little hope of winning the war, and this understandably undermined the morale of the soldiers and public. ... Their ri...

• Word Count: 1620
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

Just over 60,000 Australia soldiers fought in the war with 521 Australian's killed and approximately 3,000 wounded. ... In 1954 the French was eliminated for good in Vietnam. ... Vietnam also has a jungle terrain which Australian soldiers would have never experienced causing a disadvantage for us. The war slowly progressed and support for Australian soldiers fighting was diminishing. ...

• Word Count: 701
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

He served in combat and also received a number of awards and medals due to his good service. ... Caputo also describes soldiers showing off the dead bodies of their enemies that they defeated and were almost seen as trophies. ... He admits that he views the North Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong as fierce and skilled fighters and that they have earned his and other American soldiers' respect.   ... Americans were blinded to the truth of war and had no clue what was going on with the soldiers fighting in battle and representing their country during the Vietnam War until "A Rumor of Wa...

• Word Count: 806
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

American soldiers who were disciplined by their commanders retaliated against them. ... Lots of soldiers became very depressed and feared that they would never be able to leave Vietnam. ... Drug use was very common as the soldiers refused to go on patrols. ... This showed that the soldiers would need much more training. ... Soldiers were growing very afraid of all Vietnamese and thinking that even civilians were the enemy. ...

• Word Count: 2611
• Approx Pages: 10
• Grade Level: High School

By the end of the year, 190,000 American soldiers were in Vietnam to fight the war. My father was also one of these soldiers over in Vietnam. ... Although, some of the news is not good like the potential was with Iraq , its still refreshing to know that we still have maintained many of the traditions all of these years such as the World Series, the Grammy awards, the Oscars and the Miss America Pageant. ...

• Word Count: 687
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

This was Eisenhower's reason for sending soldiers and aid to South Vietnam. ... Even though there was a lot of violence and craziness that came out of the protests there was good that came from it, too. ... When American troops returned home, some of them sued the government for damage caused by the chemicals they used during the war, causing our government to find better ways to protect our soldiers from chemicals. ...

• Word Count: 524
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

He was born in Chicago and seemed to have a good life. ... Caputo's story of Vietnam tells us a lot about the confusion and turmoil our soldiers experienced in the war. ... The American experience in Vietnam was not a good one at all. ... One thing is for sure : the war will never be forgotten especially for the soldiers who were there....

• Word Count: 880
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

At first there were plenty of men who volunteered to go fight what they thought was a good war. ... This contributed to very poor moral for the soldiers once in Vietnam. ... To them being trapped in prison was better than being trapped in Vietnam, and slowly the whole point of the draft, to recruit soldiers, was obsolete. ... American soldiers marching in platoons and driving in convoys were easy for Viet Cong snipers to pick off. Even being dressed as an American soldier made one a target. ...

• Word Count: 2109
• Approx Pages: 8