The War Of The Vietnam War - 1686 Words

The Vietnam War, or also known as the American War to the Vietnamese people, is a catastrophic battle that has left both nations reeling with the casualties and the irreversible emotional, physical, and mental destruction for civilians and soldiers alike. Spanning over two decades, the war has taken away not only the lives of its soldiers, but also the souls of its survivors. Aware of its impact, artists, writers, and filmmakers from both sides have attempted to capture the post-war memories and sentiments through the perspectives of the few surviving soldiers and their loved ones, hoping to bring to light the unfiltered descriptions of the war and the raw emotions that it has left on its brave victims. Originally written by a veteran of†¦show more content†¦Due to the indoctrination of the war by the U.S government, many veterans returned believing that they have accomplished a patriotic deed, while others returned shell-shocked and stripped of its illusions. The destructive legacy of the war is shared by both the American and the North Vietnamese veterans and both sides responded to troubling memories in similar ways. To many, the most devastating effects of the war didn’t begin until its ending, mainly through the form of PTSD, Agent Orange, and other excruciating traumas. In The Sorrow of War, Kien recalls the daylight hours where he had smelled the rotten meat in the midst of the busy street, and how the scent had triggered the vividly unsettling memories of crossing Hamburger Hill and walking over strewn corpses. He also remembers startled onlookers who stared at him as he froze, held his nose, and struggled to fight his own consciousness as he cope with his own memory of the war (Ninh 46). At night, the sound of his ceiling fan brings back memories of the sound of helicopters attack overhead. It reminded him of the dreaded â€Å"whump-whump-whump of the rotor blades, the vapor-streak, and the howling of their rockets† (Ninh 46). Kien also exhibits obvious signs of survivor guilt, an extremely common psychological affliction that plague millions of veterans in the postwar