Tim O'Brien in his book If I Die in a Combat Zone offers a personal account of his time in Vietnam during the war. The view taken in this book is from the ground up, from the point of view of the soldier in the field. Critics offered an analysis of the war that tried to be more objective and to view the war from some distance as a national policy issue. The film documentary Hearts and Minds suggested that the war was unwinnable, that the U.S. leadership knew this, and that the leadership was hiding the fact from the American people. Some at the time considered the war unwinnable but were little more than voices in the wilderness, while since the end of the war, this has become the prevailing view. The loss of the war by the United States was not inevitable if the United States were willing to go much further in fighting the war than it did, but given the reduced level of support the military was able to generate at home, the loss could be foreseen long before it actually occurred.
O'Brien's book is very much from the point of view of the average American and sees war as something that recurs from time to time. He notes this when he says, "I grew out of one war and into another" (O'Brien 20). The stories told to him about World War II were one thing, but the reality of the war in Vietnam was very different. He considered avoiding the war as so many did, and he entered the war in part to avoid upsetting the balance between himself and his family and friends. He says he wishes his book could be a plea for everlasting peace: "That would be good. It would be fine to integrate it all to persuade my younger brother and perhaps some others to say no to wrong wars" (O'Brien 31). Major Callicles becomes the example of the leader bent on justifying everything about the war, including the My Lai massacre that Callicles was charged with investigating. By the end of his time, O'Brien returns home with a certain shame at being in uni...