Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, Daniel Ellsberg, and the Vietnam

Tim OBriens The Things They Carried, Daniel Ellsberg, and the Vietnam WarDaniel Ellsberg once believed in the need to contain Communism, in the Statess military supremacy, and in the sanctity of those who governed Americas democratic institutions, yet decades of American involvement in Vietnam changed these beliefs for him. The nature of the Vietnam War forced Ellsberg to revise his prior faith in Americas ability to win any war and his faith in the trustworthiness of Americas leaders. By 1971, this origin Defense Department official had so completely altered his thinking that he leaked classified documents to the press in order to encourage public interrogatory of American foreign policy decisions in Vietnam and of the integrity of those who made such decisions. Although Ellsberg is an extreme example, he illustrates the way the Vietnam War called into question many widely reliable beliefs that were shaped by American experience in World War II and in the refrigerated War. The reassessment of these World War II and Cold War assumptions, however, was not universal within the nation nor within the government elite. As some leaders revised their thinking because of Vietnam, and others held tightly to their initial assumptions scorn contradictory evidence, dissent and confusion increased in the higher echelons of government. This high-level dissension mirrored the differences of opinion in the nation and was often responsible for ambiguous, discrepant policies in Vietnam. Tim OBriens The Things They Carried reveals how the lack of government consensus and clear purpose in policy, as indicated by an analysis of Ellsbergs intellectual conversion, translated into confusion, purposelessness, and futility for those who a... ...for reconsideration. It seems that if any consensus was left hand intact after the Vietnam War, it was one of cynical distrust, critical questioning, and ideological confusion. Works Cited Chafe, William H. The Unfinished Journey 3rd edition. unused York Oxford University Press, 1995. Ellsberg, Daniel. Papers on the War. New York Simon and Schuster, 1972. Herring, George C. Americas Longest War the United States and Vietnam, 1950-1975 4th ed. New York McGraw-Hill, 1996. Hodgson, Godfrey. The Ideology of the Liberal Consensus in History of Our Time. Ed. William H. Chafe and Harvard Sitkoff. 4th edition. New York Oxford University Press, 1995. OBrien, Tim. The Things They Carried. New York Houghton Mifflin, 1990. Schrag, Peter. Test of Loyalty Daniel Ellsberg and the Rituals of the Secret Government. New York Simon and Schuster, 1974.