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The Vietnam War was a place of death, destruction, and confusion. Not only was the war a failure, but many soldiers were forced to fight. This lead to many negative effects that I must bring to your attention in this paper. The negative effects on soldiers during and after the war were depression, regret, desensitizing, insanity, and the loss of friends. One of the major and most common effects of the war was depression. It can lead to many things. Most of the time It leads to an unhappy lifestyle. For example, In the book the Things They Carried, Norman Booker was very depressed after the war.
He drove around all day on the 4th of July, just looking to tell his story. All he wanted was someone to listen to what he had to say and listen to his stories. He believe that no one was even able to listen. Tim also suffered from depression after the war. The causes of his depression were he went through the war, saw many people die, and saw the true brutality of the war. Many others lived a life of regret after the war. The most common reasons are seeing people die or killing people. Although, for Norman it was different. His regret was for the fact that he win the Silver Star.
He Just wanted to prove himself to his father. For example, Tim also had some regrets. He saw many people die and even killed someone. He said it happened so fast he din?? even realize it. It was Just an automatic response. Then his daughter asked him If he had ever killed someone. He wanted to tell her, but he knew she was Just too young. He regretted not telling her because he want her to think he was a coward, and now he hopes she will ask again someday when she is older. A lot of soldiers were also desensitizing. For example, Norman carried a boy?? thumb. Czar even blew up puppy with a claymore.
He had no regret and he thought it was even funny. Tim saw many people and friends die, the dead bodies, and even the destruction of villagers by their own airstrip’s. Most of all, Mary Anne Bell was probably the best example of desensitizing from the war. She came to Vietnam and changed Into a cold-blooded killer. She even had a necklace of tongues from all the people she killed. She went from the sweet little girl too killing machine. Another thing that happens to the soldiers in Vietnam was they were driven insane. Some handle the tension and pressure of Vietnam. Like Dave Jensen for example.
He got In an argument with Lee Strung and got really paranoid. He ended up breaking his own nose. You would have to be Insane to smack yourself with your own pistol butt. Norman even lost it. He became so overwhelmed and consumed with depression that he killed himself. He hung himself in the YMCA locker room with a Jump rope after a game of basketball. The worst thing that could have happened to you in Vietnam would be losing a friend. Whether they were a life long friend, or someone you Just met It sucks. Kiowa witnessed Ted Lavender get shot. He believe how quick It was. The noel squad saw when curt Lemon was Dillon to places.
IOW memoirs even Ana to pick up the body parts in the trees. Norman watched Kiowa slowly drown in the field of excrement after being hit by a mortar round. Every member of the squad had to faces these losses. It will stay with them forever. All the soldiers were in some way affected negatively by the war. Some worse than others. If all the soldiers went through what these men did it would be unbelievably sad. No one should see what some of them did. Why I believe that the negative effects of the war were depression, regret, desensitizing, insanity, and the loss of friends.