Tim O’Brien’s Presented by Dr. Judy Logan

Who’s on first?  Good Guys = South  Bad Guys = North

 CHINA  FRANCE  NATIONALIST MOVEMENTS demanding MORE SELF-GOVERNANCE. Strongest:  COMMUNIST leader HO CHI MINH and his VIET MINH.

 During World War I, JAPAN took over Vietnam, but HO CHI MINH’S army pushed them out.  After World War II, the FRENCH returned, and pushed HO CHI MINH into the NORTH of Vietnam.

 In 1954, VIETNAM officially divided: NORTH and SOUTH.  US involvement: DOMINO THEORY.  US backs ANTI-COMMUNIST DIEM in SOUTH: corrupt, oppressive, unpopular—but at least not Communist.

 1962: John F. Kennedy sends MILITARY ADVISORS.  1963: US backs COUP against Diem. New leaders also corrupt.  1964: GULF OF TONKIN: US troops sent.

 1965: OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER: Johnson bombs North: ESCALATION of WAR.  North Vietnamese GUERILLA TACTICS; US uses NAPALM, AGENT ORANGE.

 1968: TET OFFENSIVE  1968: MY LAI MASSACRE

 ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT  KENT STATE

 RICHARD NIXON: VIETNAMIZATION  PENTAGON PAPERS: Illegal Bombing in CAMBODIA and LAOS

 CEASE FIRE in JANUARY  LAST AMERICANS out in MARCH  SAIGON falls to NORTH VIETNAMESE COMMUNISTS in SPRING of 1975.

Story truth vs. Happening truth Falsify a story to make it more true. A story tries to reveal EMOTIONAL truth. “Rainy River”—Change the setting to one that highlights the meaning. “Absolute occurrence is irrelevant: A thing may happen and be a total lie; another thing may not happen and be truer than the truth” (79-80). O’Brien: None of the stories are about Vietnam but about the fine line between Truth and fact and why we tell stories. Story telling is about exploring the value of experience, the malleability of memory, and the difference between fiction and reality. True War Story

1.Necessity 2.Rank & Field Specialty 3.Mission 4.Superstition 5.Miscellaneous: Literal & Figurative Things determined by:

 Afraid of dying, but more afraid of showing fear.  Too frightened to be cowards.  Carried EMOTIONAL BAGGAGE of men who might die: GRIEF, TERROR, LOVE, LONGING— INTANGIBLES, but these had their own mass and specific gravity. They had tangible weight.  Carried shameful memories.  Heaviest of all: common secret of COWARDICE— never put it down.  Greatest fear: BLUSHING.  They died so they wouldn’t die of EMBARRASSMENT.

When the dustoff arrived, they carried Lavender aboard.

After Lavender’s death…

The war occurred half a lifetime ago, and yet the remembering makes it now, which makes it forever. That’s what stories are for. Stories are for joining the past to the future. Stories are for those late hours in the night when you can’t remember how you got from where you were to where you are. Stories are for eternity, when memory is erased, when there is nothing to remember except the story. (O’Brien 38)

Ontario, Canada