A comparison of American and Vietnamese soldiers in the Vietnam conflict : an honors thesis (HONRS 499)

This comparison of the experience of communist Vietnamese and American soldiers will use factual references to one American Marine's interview, which will be paralleled with various material from Vietnamese soldiers. This material ranges from poetic memoirs, novels written by Vietnamese people who experienced the war first hand, and nonfiction compilations of experiences of the Vietnamese. This discussion focuses on the entire process of war for both sides. It begins with the reasons that the soldiers felt moved to go to war and follows them through the war and those experiences and concludes with the process of coming home and readjusting to civilian lives. This comparison attempts to demonstrate the vast differences and many significant similarities between the American soldiers and the Vietnamese soldiers.