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Argumentative Essay on the Vietnam War

In the book Memories of a lost war: American poetic responses to the Vietnam War, the author recounts the deaths of at least fifty-five thousand American soldiers during the Vietnam War. One of the soldiers in the war was Joseph Gregory Artavia, from San Francisco, who was at the rank of Sergeant at the time of his death at the age of nineteen on 24th March 1968 (vvmf.org). Reading the book presents saddening pictures to the reader, which may, to an extent, prove the words of the book’s author on how futile it is to engage in war instead of seeking peace. In O’Brien’s novel, The things They Carried, O’Brien recounts carefully the various things that the soldiers carried to the Vietnam war, reminding the reader about the purpose for which the soldiers carried each of the things. While the author recounts the various things carried to the war, a closer reading presents the reader with the fact that the letters and photographs First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carried present the more significant metaphor of what engaging in combat and war truly means to the soldiers.