Nico Hidrogo English 4b Multi-genre Research Project Ms.

Cadag 7-12-12

Intro: Why did the United States institute a draft for the Vietnam War? Well its not that complex if you really think about it. America did have enough people (men mainly) to accomplish their war goals against vietnam so they needed to create a draft. This meant that all men from ages 18 through 35 had to enlist, technically no one was exempt from the draft. This brought all types of men together from all over the country, farmers, financiers, city workers, even movie stars, to fight for one cause. I chose to represent this topic as my main topic because there hasn't been many drafts in our war history. Sure we can list drafts back to president Lincoln's time but the number of people that were forced to enlist was smaller compared to maybe WWI or WWII or the Vietnam War. Short Essay; The things They Carried- On the Rainy River: Who wants to go to war? I don't think anyone does. I know for sure a young Tim OBrien didn't want to go in 1968. Around that time the United States had to institute a draft. The first draft since 1942 was held on December 1, 1969. The event was held at Selective Service National Headquarters in Washington, D.C. where they determined the people that needed to be enlisted. There was 366 little plastic containers in large glass container. And in each of the little containers was a random birthdate. Whatever date it was, all men from the ages 18-26 with that birthdate, were sent a letter saying that they needed to enlist to fight in the war against Vietnam. The first capsule contained September 14th. Since it was first it got paired with the number 1. And they continued this process until all the days in the year were picked out. Now I can understand where OBrien is coming from, i mean he is against the war. Why would anybody want to risk their life and freedom, because you aren't free when you enlist in the military, for a country that hardly shows the people that they care. That just wants to use its men to win this fight, to say We won again? At the time he didn't even know a lot about the war, didn't know what we were fighting for, don't know a lot about the enemies or terrain, didn't know who caused it or how the whole thing started. All he knew is that he had to be a soldier, he was drafted. All of the pressure got to him, which made him take off for Canada. To start a new life, without having to go to war. But he didn't want to leave his old life, his old friends, his family. So after almost a week staying at an old lodge on the border of minnesota and canada he chose to return home and head to Vietnam. In his book, OBrien writes in many different genres. Grief, sadness, love, scared, he puts all of his emotions he felt about the war, and how he felt going into it, inside it, and after it, into this book. He gives the reader his exact feelings and thoughts down to every last detail. I'm sure that going to war was the hardest decision he had ever had to make in his life. It's natural to be afraid of death. All we know is how to live our lives. What would we do without them? In my opinion there could be a different theme for each chapter in this book. In this chapter, On the Rainy River, his theme could be, Fear of death, or Fear of the war, or The Vietnam draft and my reaction. No one really knows why writers write their stories. The reader just reads and gets a first hand look at the things that happened to the author. To me it seems like Obrien has a lot of feelings and emotions, secrets and heartaches about the war that he needs to just let out. Maybe thats why he wrote this book. To finally be at ease 20 years later.

Visual with Words; Advertisement:

Print Media; Newspaper Article: The Draft has Started! Yes everybody, another draft is going on and i'm not talking about football or basketball. As you all might already know we had just declared war against Vietnam. Our military forces are low on people so once again we need to turn to a draft to fill the empty spaces. All men from the ages 18 to 26 will be required to enlist or else be incarcerated. The draft works like a lottery pick. all men that are old enough to be in the army will get a number 1-365, don't worry normally only 100 and lower will have to go. If you are in college you will have the opportunity to finish school before having to get deployed, if you got picked to go to war. There is a lot of talk about people leaving the country to get out of going to war. Even though that is unpatriotic i can see why. No one wants to die or come back with something seriously wrong with them. But we are in a state of emergency people! If our government could have solved this without the help of the people that are not in the military then they would have solved it. Lets just get through this harsh time and pull together, let's show them why we are America, the land of the free. Annotated bibliographies: O'Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. Northampton, MA: Collins, 1990. Print. This book is different stories all written by OBrien about his platoon of soldiers in the Vietnam war. Though all his stories have different feels, plots, and genres to them i used the book mainly for one chapter; On the Rainy River. I used this chapter because my project and research was mainly about the Vietnam draft and in this chapter he talks

about how he felt about the draft and what he did before he finally gave in and went to war. N.p., n.d. Web. <http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080113114653AAxQ0ut>. I used the yahoo answers website because i feel like its a reliable source to use and i liked the questions and answers i saw. Now even though the question and answer were posted 5 years ago, it doesn't mean they are irrelevant. Because real names aren't used too much on websites the person asking the question goes by, or his screen name is, Billy and the one answering is Fred F. The question asked was How did the vietnam draft work?. Thanks to Fred F i got a good long descriptive answer on how the draft works cause back in the time during the war he was drafted so he has first hand experience. N.p., n.d. Web. <http://www.sss.gov/lotter1.htm>. Website. Last updated June 18th, 2009. This website gave a brief description on how the draft worked, where it took place, how you get picked or put in the draft. It gave charts to easier understand how the whole draft process works and what the numbers mean that are inside the capsules.