Did Tim O'Brien, author of The Things They Carried, have any actual combat experience?

No idea, but I’d guess that he did see some combat but probably not the heavy, sustained stuff that you often see in ‘nam movies. By ‘69 the war was on it’s last legs. Nixon was pulling out troops. American troops were being pulled back from the border where most of the action was. Having said that he was deployed in the area around My Lai where US troops were busy not winning hearts and minds, so there was probably no shortage of locals who wanted to take shots at him. As any trooper in Iraq will tell you it is pretty stressful when the enemy is hidden in the civilian population.

He went to serve his country overseas in a time of war. That gives him a perspective that we civilians don’t see. He can speak to that experience.
The same goes for Oliver Stone.

No one who went to Vietnam got off easy.

For those of us who haven’t read the book in question, is there some point of contention there?

According to the redoubtable Wikipedia(author)

”...he was drafted into the Army and was sent to Vietnam, where he served from 1968 to 1970 in 3rd Platoon, A Co., 5th Batt. 46th Inf., as an infantry foot soldier. O’Brien’s tour of duty was 1969–70. He served in the Americal Division, a platoon of which participated in the infamous My Lai Massacre. O’Brien has said that when his unit got to the area around My Lai (referred to as “Pinkville” by the U.S. forces), “we all wondered why the place was so hostile. We did not know there had been a massacre there a year earlier. The news about that only came out later, while we were there, and then we knew.””

You might read his first book, If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home, which was about his experiences in Vietnam. Like many young people of the time he was against the war. However, he did what his government asked of him as a citizen and reported for duty. He learned useful skills such as grenade throwing and mine sweeping, and served incountry at Landing Zone Gator at least for a while. He kept his belief in the wrongness of the war, however, as many of my friends have (those who survived it).

My husband also served.

“Left wing”? Is it left wing to describe what you’ve seen and experienced without making it pretty? I wonder how many folks who serve on combat duty come home as big fans of war.

I don’t know any, although as the wife of a disabled vet I know a lot of them.

@Jeruba to answer your rhetorical question, no
In Tim O’Brien’s fictional story though, he makes up some pretty bold situations. For example, within five minutes of reading the book, the main character and his buddies burn down an entire village in retaliation of a fallen comrade.
That would be bigger than the My Lai massacre. They would have so many MPs crawling up their ass it wouldn’t be funny.
@Jeruba Have you even read the book?
My Step-Father is a big vietnam war hero, although he never talks about it. But one thing he did make clear- him and his fellow soldiers didn’t kill anyone that didn’t threaten their lives first. It sickens me that some people take atrocities of a few soldiers and apply it to the whole damn military.
He also said that the Vietnam war was lost because of a political defeat, not the soldiers.
@Jeruba how many folks do you know who served on combat duty period?
And the reason this question was brought up in the first place is because a teacher is currently indoctrinating a poor, helpless, open-to-suggestion Special Ed class. She’s only providing the students the left side.
Oh and she disagrees with the war in Afghanistan! Is there any reason why we shouldn’t be in Afghanistan?
I’ll comment later with more details as soon as I’ve had a chance to catch my breath.

Yes, I read the book within the past year. And I’ve been around long enough to have seen classmates get drafted for Vietnam. But I have not been close to anyone who has served on combat duty and talks about it. My brother-in-law served in Vietnam but doesn’t talk about it. Same with a college friend. Another brother-in-law served in the Gulf War but doesn’t talk about it. When I was a youngster I had many friends whose fathers served in World War II.

No one I know who served or is serving on combat duty talks about it. It’s nasty stuff and they do not want to relive it.

Well, maybe for the Vietnam war nobody wants to talk about it. But I hear guys who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan talk about it all the time.
But I digress.

The people I know who have served or are serving in the Middle East are also not talking about it, even though they email and post on Facebook daily, even from Iraq.

Does it really matter if he had combat experience? How would you know if combat in a story is depicted realistically? Maybe it is just a book.

Read his autobiography. Then you will know if he had combat experience or not.

@w2pow2, if your real objecttion is to the way a particular teacher is teaching her class, why are you going after the author of the book? Writers are entitled to depict the truth as they know it and do not claim to be impartial. A teacher who is teaching a lesson ought to try to represent both sides fairly. Are you of the opinion that there ought to be no sides and everyone should hew to the middle?

I’m not sure what the point of contention is here.
It’s a work of fiction. That much is obvious.
If the argument is that “it’s not a realistic view of vietnam”, you have to go back to the book being fictitious.

@Jeruba I’m of the opinion that both sides ought to be presented.
Which is exactly what she is not doing.
Why am I going after the author of the book?
Well if someone’s going to write a fictional book on the Vietnam war where all the U.S. soldiers are portrayed as heartless monsters, don’t you think that it’s important to know how much experience the author had?
I’ve known many non-fiction books about the Vietnam from soldiers who were Right-wing. This is the first book I’ve encountered that’s in the view of a Left-winger who was actually there.
That’s why I’m going after the author of the book.

And I must confess something. I’m in her class.
I was kicked out of a private school in 7th grade and missed an entire year of school. It landed me in Special Ed. I’m in my senior year now.
Most of the other people in my class don’t know how to think for themselves- They are very open to suggestion.
When I asked her if the burning of the village was actually true, she replied: “I don’t know… Probably.”
I looked it up. No such thing happened.
It shows what she thinks about the troops in Vietnam. Again, the actions of a few bad eggs shouldn’t condemn the whole military.

Tim O’Brien makes it clear that the book is a piece of fiction derived in part from characters he became close to in Vietnam. I think the book is a touching tribute.

I’m sorry, @w2pow2, I still don’t see what you’re getting at. A person with real Vietnam experience can’t take a view from the left? Only a right-leaning attitude is allowed? I can tell you that my brother-in-law, for one, constitutes evidence to the contrary.

Never mind, I honestly don’t want to argue with you. I was just trying to understand what you were really saying, which seems to be that a left-leaning take on the war can’t be authentic, and that it is somehow O’Brien’s fault if this teacher can’t present a balanced view. Those points do not make sense to me, but you are entitled to hold them.

Another question is what other books is this teacher having the class read? Perhaps there is more balance than the OP represents.

@Jeruba I never said a left-leaning take on the war can’t be accurate.
I said that if O’Brien is going to write a fictional book on the Vietnam war and portray the U.S. soldiers as heartless monsters then I want to know how much he actually saw. Is that a crime? Am I being politically incorrect?
I couldn’t care less what O’Brien is- Right wing, Left Wing, Communist. If anyone is going to portray U.S. soldiers in such a light then I want to know about them.
And for the record let’s get one thing straight:
Tim O’Brien is a good author. I really like his style.
“Perhaps there is more balance than the OP represents.”
That’s what my step father said, but I highly doubt it.

<sigh> I didn’t say you said that. I said it sounded like that to me, and so I asked you if that was what you were saying, since your message was not coming across all that clearly to me. You said no. Okay. Bye for now.

Jesus Christ Mary mother of God, this is way worse than I thought. The author is so far left it isn’t even funny. We’ve gotten further into the book and I can’t believe the amount of shite that the class is being indoctrinated with!
I can understand if O’Brien wants to be a moron- everybody is entitled to their own opinion as well as freedom of expression. But its so immoral the way that the class is being indoctrinated with this far left anti-American shite.
@Darwin If you haven’t already done it, read the book. If you do indeed have a husband that served in Vietnam than the book should make your blood boil. As I said before, I have a step-father that served in Vietnam and this book sure as hell infuriates me.
@Jeruba How much did your step-brother say? What did he say?

So lets clear up a few things about ‘Nam:
The North Vietnamese commit genocide that is similar to the genocide committed by the Janjaweed under African President Omar Hassan Ahmad Al-Bashir (May have gotten the name wrong) in Darfur. It was pretty much this:
Hey you there! Do you believe in communism?
No I’m a strong supporter of democracy
(Gunshot)
NEXT!
Now let’s define a few words
Genocide- “the deliberate and systematic extermination of a national, racial, political, or cultural group.”
In this case, it was a political group that was being slaughtered by the thousands.

I’m sorry- I just did a little research and found that it was closer to a million!
It’s documented that the Khmer Rouge slaughtered entire villages in South Vietnam. And casualty estimates run into the millions!
Poor South Vietnamese… Getting picked on by Cambodia, too…
If it were my decision, would I send U.S. troops into Vietnam?
You bet your ass I would!
Geez the N. Vietnamese atrocities make the U.S. atrocities look like a birthday party!
Hmm what else…
Oh yeah they also weren’t very nice to the U.S. troops- They tied survivors to trees and tortured them before killing them.

So I’ve heard a lot of far-left liberals say that they would be willing to support military intervention in Africa. Then the same people turn around and say that military intervention in Vietnam was unjustified? There must be something that I’m missing.

Back to my previous comment:
“He also said that the Vietnam war was lost because of a political defeat, not the soldiers.”
U.S. soldiers were getting hit hard in some places, but history accounts for them kicking butt in most places.
If only the hippie movement never existed… Maybe the troops would have stayed and won the war. (And Make no mistake- America lost the war because they lost momentum. Encouragement.)
Maybe the genocide would have been stopped.
Maybe we could have encouraged democracy and free speech.
If only, if only…
But hey, who cares about those damned South Vietnamese!? I mean, God must have not liked them anyways!

I’m off to read If I Die in a Combat Zone. Let’s see how much experience this bastard got.

I don’t think we’ll ever know.