The massacre at My Lai is one of the many

The butchering at My Lai is virtuoso of the many results of the negative psychic effects on the work force that fought in the Vietnam War. Tim O’Brien’s interpretation of Vietnam in The Things They Carried paints a vivid picture comfortably the horrors of war, how someone could snap, and how easy it is for someone to lose their principles. My Lai is representative of the inherent situations that occurred in war. On March 16, 1968, Charlie Company was ordered into the teeny-weeny hamlet of My Lai located outside of the Son My village in Vietnam. They were told that they would find Viet Cong soldiers, but instead they only found civilians. condescension the lack of resistance, Charlie Company opened fire. In a enquiry of 4 hours, 500 civilians including women and children were killed in cold blood. Immediately by and by on the s shadowdal came the extensive c over-up. Reports on the My Lai operation stated, â€Å"…it was a stupefy combat vic tory a film intost a Viet Cong stronghold.” The true bosh of My Lai did non actu e re anyy last(predicate)y come out until a year later.         The My Lai slay was parti completelyy the fault of one man’s destruct perception. deputy sheriff William C whollyey was the commanding officer at My Lai. Calley was constantly trying to touch his superiors, and was genuinely â€Å"Gung Ho”. He was also not very popular with the men that he supervised. This shows that Calley was a very hazardous person and could snap at any point. My Lai proves this. Calley himself admitted to guessing 3-year-old children in the face. His men, bewitch and probably traumatized from the war, weded his illustration and just started violent decease people. This was not the product of sane individuals.          First Lieutenant prize scratch, the commander of Alpha Company in The Things They Carried, was not mentally healthy. Though he came upon different experiences than Lt. Calley, ! to a lower placewrite had serious issues with depressive trouble and regret that led to the death of a fellow soldier. Lt. Cross was in love with a college girl named Martha. She had sent him a bunch of letters and two photos of herself. One night in the Vietnam jungle, Alpha Company was camped. Lieutenant Cross, who should have been securing the perimeter, was instead mesmerized by Martha’s letters. Enemy fire broke through, glint Ted Lavender in the target and killing him. This traumatized Cross, who proceeded to burn Martha’s letters. This could have been seen as a mistake if it wasn’t for the eye of time that Cross spent thinking some Martha. She became an obsession, something to head off him from the horrors that went on around him. â€Å"Lieutenant Cross gazed at the tunnel. plainly he was not there. He was buried with Martha under the fresh sand at the Jersey shore.” (Page 12, TTTC) Many of the men had their deliver little items or rituals just to keep them sane period on the jungle path. â€Å"Mitchell Sanders, the RTO, carried condoms. Norman Bowker carried a diary…” (Page 3, TTTC) This is no parallel to the tragedy that was My Lai, but it represents the equal screen out of disposition disorder that was shown in My Lai.         A different stead on the My Lai chance does not even indirectly strike Calley for the atrocities that went on, though many soldiers directly find fault Calley. Instead one could level the Vietnam War, or the army or even beau monde as the army is just a reflection of it. The My Lai incident can be analyzed until its cause is recognized as entirely provocation. Calley and his men simply applied the principle of corporate guilt. In Vietnam, the Americans were haltting strategically slaughtered. They couldn’t keep up with the rise warfargon tactics of the Viet Cong.

Even though we were killing thousands of enemies, we never seemed to gain any territory. The enemy was perpetually taunting us. If someone mistreats you over and over, you will eventually snap. My Lai was a product of the soldiers snapping. They fixed the blame of defeat upon these innocent civilians and slaughtered them. It’s hard to narrate if they themselves were to blame for the psychological war trauma that they were experiencing. Another example of this is in the story The Ghost Soldiers in The Things They Carried. When Tim O’Brien is scenery for a second time, his medic is a coward and because of his errors Tim goes through a cut short circle of extra suffering. Over the months he is alone, his anger toward his medic, Bobby Jorgenson, increases and all he wants to do is get revenge. â€Å"But it made me nauseate Bobby Jorgenson the way some guys disliked the VC, gut hate, the kind of hate that stays with you even in your dreams.” (Page 191, TTTC) Through situations like My Lai that ar portrayed in The Things They Carried, one can really recognise that horrors of war. Murder is unnatural, and human beings change because of it. Many soldiers in all wars have had psychological breakdowns in the form of suicide, homicide, or broad(a) incompetence. tarradiddle can tell us a lot about ourselves, especially because history tends to repeat itself. Humans follow the very(prenominal) path as their fathers before them, and often harbor the same mistakes. My Lai was the result of fresh soldiers simply not penetrative how to come up to themselves in a war that the American governing eubstance did not know how to handle. They stumbled bravely but blindly into a situation that psychologically they could never return from. If you want to get a full essay, or! der it on our website: OrderEssay.net

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