| This thesis is an interdisciplinary study of the two and a half million enlisted men who served in the Vietnam War. Drawing on oral histories, personal narratives, fiction, and traditional historical sources, I examine the experiences and consciousness of these young men from the time of their induction into the military until their return from the war.;Subsequent chapters analyse the experience of basic training and the crucial first experiences in Vietnam--initial moments that presaged many of the war's most significant confusions and contradictions.;Chapter V establishes the "terms of battle," focusing on the crucial fact that in spite of (and, in part, because of) the enormous firepower unleashed by the American military, the Revolutionary Forces maintained both tactical and strategic control of the war. The common experiences of American soldiers are explored in that light.;Chapter VI examines the contradictions between official justifications of American intervention and the war as it was actually experienced by U.S. soldiers. In the face of those contradictions, most soldiers came to perceive their experience as meaningless--"a war for nothing.".;Central to the investigaton are questions of class. Early chapters seek to measure the extent of social inequality in war service, explain the sources of that inequality, and examine the motivations and pressures that moved men into the military.;A final chapter--"What Are We Becoming?"--surveys the variety of ways soldiers were changed by the war. |
