In many circles today, the American-Vietnam war is remembered as a quintessential example of American Imperialism and belligerence; an overstepping of boundaries in a misguided attempt to protect the ideals of domestic and international democracy. This colossal failure of policy, it is thought, brought about the deaths of thousands of Vietnamese civilians and soldiers in a wholly "unnecessary" war. Many members of American society discount the experience of the American soldier in Vietnam, due to the seeming political folly that demanded their services- they see the average soldier as an agent of the American government.
In actuality, of course, this idea is a tremendous and foolhardy simplification, and one that does not explore the extraordinary social and emotional burden that was placed on the average soldier. Indeed, even the war itself was an incredibly complex political and social conflagration- and the average American soldier was as much of an unwitting victim as (often) unwilling participant. What, then, was the environment in which American soldiers fought? What conditions existed among the American soldiers in Vietnam?
