Questions for The Things They Carried

Historical Focus: The Vietnam War & America in the 1960s

Answer the questions on a separate sheet of paper using complete sentences.
Due Dec. 1
1. What makes Tim O’Brien a unique novelist as an author about the Vietnam
War?
Tim O’Brien is a unique author about the Vietnam War because he was both a war veteran and
a war protester. This gives him a multifaceted view of the war from his perspective.
2. Why was Ho Chi Minh an influential leader?
Ho Chi Minh established communism in North Vietnam and claimed leadership of the
government.
3. What is communism? Why might communism be a form of government
that Americans opposed?
Communism is the belief that social classes should be destroyed, private property should be
publicly owned, and individuals should work and be paid based on their talents and needs.
Americans may be opposed because a lot of them believe that communism threatens their own
society and to take away their own freedoms in their society, with private property being a big
one. For a society that is based on capitalism, communism always tried to undermine it.
4. What was the “puppet government” in South Vietnam? Why was it
criticized?
The French allowed Vietnamese representatives to be the head of government, however it was
criticized as being a puppet government since the representatives were doing as the French
wished.
5. Why did the American government support South Vietnam and not North
Vietnam?
South Vietnam was owned by the French who were their allies, and in addition to this North
Vietnam was communist and the Cold War was very prevalent at the time so they didn’t want to
support communism in any way.
6. What was the domino theory?
The domino theory was based on the thought that North Vietnam communism would spread
throughout the whole of Asia
7. Why was Ngo Diem’s regime overthrown?
Diem’s leadership was harsh and unpopular, and only fed into South Vietnam’s growing
popularity of communism.
8. Why was the Tonkin Gulf Resolution passed in 1964?
The Tonkin Gulf Resolution was passed after North Vietnamese forces attacked U.S. Navy ships
in the Gulf of Tonkin.
9. In what situation could a young man defer the draft into the U.S. Military?
If he was a student or if his induction would put his dependents in a state of extreme hardship.
10.How were the antiwar protests at Chicago National Convention and at Kent
State University similar?
During both of the protests, violence was used on the protesters by the police who had been
brought in to stop them. This violence was unwarranted since almost all of them were unarmed.
11.What did John Kerry reveal in his testimony to the Senate Committee on
Foreign relations in 1971?
John Kerry revealed that the American soldiers that were in Vietnam had committed multiple
atrocities among the common people of South Vietnam outside of the war areas. They are also
disappointed in what they were forced to do and do not believe themselves to be “America’s
best men.”