Why Tim O’Brien Agreed to Write for ‘This Is Us’

You might be surprised at how many modern day volunteers find themselves in the U.S. Army, Navy and Marine Corps because they do not have much of a choice. It isn't that they wanted to be war heroes, or patriotic citizens (though many did), or adventurers. It was that they did not have many career options. High school dropouts, lawbreakers, illiterate and unemployable teenagers, thousands of them joined up because it was a better option than being stuck in the States without a job and being broke and probably lonely all the time. Recruiting officers accentuate the benefits of a four year commitment, not the idea that they might come home scarred for life by the experience of combat and guerrilla warfare in the Middle East. These days, we could call it a kind of social draft, just as it was for those thousands of poor kids who were not in a position to avoid going to Vietnam.

The Things They Carried is a stunning work that delves into the heart of the naive warrior. Bless Tim O'Brien for bringing the horrifying reality of the Vietnam War to light. My partner & co-author of the nonfiction (soon to be self-published) Ghost Warrior enlisted in the US Army when he was a cocky but lost young man; a Canadian citizen & legal resident of the US. He lived through 20 years as a Green Beret, including a nearly fatal mission in North Vietnam (at age 22) & a later, devastating mission as C.O. behind enemy lines in Cambodia where 9 fellow soldiers died & he was captured & tortured by the Khmer Rouge. He enlisted, by choice. Yet the things he did, the weight he carried, stay with him now & forever. Draftee or enlisted soldier, young men (as almost all were in the '60s) never escape the toll.

"On the Rainy River" is, perhaps, my favorite O'Brien story in that it captures the painful dilemma of so many draftees as they struggled with their opposition to the war and the prospect of rejection by, as O'Brien put it, "my family, my country, my friends, my hometown". I enlisted in the Army in 1968 and went to Vietnam because I fully embraced the patriotic tripe of the day - not so much from my family, but from the movies I watched growing up and the majority of citizens in the small town where I lived. I only understood the gravity, complexity, sadness, and futility of the situation when I arrived in Vietnam and witnessed it firsthand. War does change a person, and I came home with the deeply-held conviction that veterans not only should, but are obligated to share what they learned at war as best they can, and to speak in loud opposition when politicians (especially those without combat experience) proclaim that war is the only solution to a dubious or ill-defined problem. Some, like O'Brien, accomplish that better than others.

If you haven’t read “The Things They Carried”, stop reading my comment and read it!

"The Things They Carried" broke my heart.

Lyndon Johnson knew the war was a lost cause and he continued to throw away the lives of countless human beings of all ages. For what?

"...A volunteer has to understand that they did this to themselves. I’ve got two students of mine who are veterans, and this is what they’re mostly writing about: the former boy who chose to do this and now lives with the consequences...." Which is why the most urgent task for us all is to counsel susceptible young men--and women--about the lies of the recruiters and about "glory for country..." "Money for college" is meaningless if you do not survive, and are not whole--physically and mentally. "Glory" exists only for those who profit from wars.

Hollywood, television, press, Ivory Tower professors, politicians, etc., never get it right and they don't care if they do. After all, there is money to be made, awards and pats on the back, etc. to be have. When 91% of us say we were glad to have served in Vietnam, you know that TV and the movies don't care if things are accurate when they repeat the same old clap-trap because they say so and everyone they know as experts are sycophants' of the same old litany.

I couldn't suspend my disbelief enough to accept the concept that Jack could go from civilian to SSG in a matter of just a few months. (Yes, I realize it was necessary for the storyline, so that's where the actual problem lies.)

Another great read about Vietnam is "The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam" by Barbara Tuchman. There are four stories: the Trojan War, the breakup of the Holy See, the loss of the American colonies by Britain's George III (Revolutionary War), and the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam. Tuchman defines folly as the pursuit by government of policies contrary to their own interests, despite the availability of feasible alternatives. I was able to avoid the war, due to a college deferment then high draft lottery number, but I wept the first time I stood in front of the DC memorial, and still weep today whenever I read or think about those days and all the people affected.

n 1962, shortly after my 18th birthday, I enlisted in the Marine Corps for 2 reasons -I wanted to get away from my parents, out of Baltimore, and I thought it would be cool to be a Marine (when I get the cliché' “thank for your service “, I politely inform this person of my less than patriotic motivation for enlisting.) Plus when I enlisted the slogan being batted around for recruitment purposes was something like , “Power for Peace.” I sweated out the next 4 years and because of a very cushy 2 ½ year assignment I skated being deployed to Nam, unlike my younger brother, who was drafted and deployed. I was sure I would be extended when major troop deployments to Nam were initiated , but no such thing happened. I remember thinking that if I got reassigned and sent back into a Weapons Platoon and found myself in 1966 in Nam with my brother I would have quietly gone to war as a volunteer , but I would have been there with other mindless volunteers like myself, but in the company of draftees. It didn't matter how you got to Nam then- we would all be in the same boat. Plus, like Mr. O'Brien so aptly put it, I had nobody to blame but myself and fortunately for me I escaped “war” up close and personal. Not like that today, and the Country is the worse for it. But that is another story. A story best told by Major General (Ret.) Dennis Laich in his book, “Skin in the Game, Poor Kids and Patriots.”

The military is a contradiction of democratic values, yet a universal draft is the ultimate form of democracy and the essence of democracy’s roots. As such, a universal draft is to be feared by those who would prefer a form of authoritarian government (oligarchy, plutocracy, theocracy, etc.). In a diverse/divided society a homogeneous military is crucial to maintaining a divisive or unpopular central authority and instilling a sense of entitlement, superiority and loyalty are the most important factors in recruitment. I find it no surprise that the end of the draft and institution of a recruited military came at the end of the last liberal US presidency and the beginning of the neoconservative rightward political movement. USN 1967 - 71 Vietnam 1968 (medevac)

With a three month physical deferment in 1968 and a high lottery number in early 1969, I was not drafted, a fortunate sequence since I did not believe in the war either. Tim O'Brien's war experience is a gift to us all, if we listen, and it was great to read his comments here.

Among the couple dozen "best" books about the Vietnam War, non-fiction and fiction, Max Hastings' "Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy, 1945-1975", offers, in my view, perhaps the most balanced (for lack of a better word) historical in-depth perspective of all combatants actions, motives and consequences over a protracted period of time. At 895 pages, it is not a short read, but in my view well worth the time. In his October 2018 NPR review, Tom Bowman describes the book as "sort of a blend of David Halberstam's The Best and the Brightest, Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried and Truong Nhu Tang's A Vietcong Memoir." What the book doesn't capture is the decades and variety of individual and collective post-conflict lives of those directly and indirectly affected by the war. No book or movie can capture those tens of millions of experiences, or more, and about the most any attempt to revisit any war and its aftermath can do is provide a sampling of what they were, and are.

One of the worst shows on television.

For me, the most haunting memories of Vietnam are the stories left unsaid. I wonder how many people would be so quick to send American soldiers into battle if there was a draft like there was for Vietnam?

Mr. O'Brien is right to say that America never confronted the costs of the Vietnam war to the Vietnamese. I know it's a cliché, but our generals and pro-war politicians were quite willing to destroy Vietnam in order to "save" it. The only things we saved were the political careers of politicians afraid of being accused of being insufficiently anti-communist.

Thanks to Mr. O'Brien for writing so eloquently about the war that ruined so many lives - as all wars do. Nobody wins in war. Nobody. Mr. O'Brien calls it "warsick". That is the best description I have ever heard. It's a terminal illness. One neve escapes it. I love "This Is Us" and hope they will move on to show new ways of dealing with life. For instance, last night's episode had Randall and Beth fighting over whose career is most important. I think in real life, based on the back story of their lives, they would come up with a better solution - like having their daughters take on some household responsibilities like doing dishes. The show is starting to feel like a story about "entitled" people and that is not 90% of us. I hope the show will evolve to talk more about things like how Mrs. Pearson coped as a single mother of three who lost their home and husband/father to a fire. Right now it, like most other shows today, are male-centered. That is not "Us".

I was drafted in 1970 but refused to cooperate and went underground for over a year after a warrant was issued for my arrest (10 years in Federal prison was the max sentence if I recall correctly). So thankfully, I have no direct personal experience with death in Vietnam. Having said that, I can count. Numerous statistics indicate that American actions directly killed _millions_, let me repeat that, _millions_ of people in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia during the war. And something tells me very few of those deaths were unintential accidents while some GI was trying to play with a kid. So I think focusing on the "accident with a grenade" scenario is a pathetic copout (I could use stronger word but I won't here) designed to create empathy for the americans and comfort the TV audience, as opposed to the writers having the courage to accurately portray the 99.9% sceneario of the killing activities, which would certainly also cut off all advertising revenues for the show.

We've become a whole country that barely considers the devastating emotional fallout from the decisions made by our leaders in Washington. Tim O’Brien moves us from our sofas, right up to the lens we can look through - in TV drama-sized snapshots - to feel the empathy that's been in short supply for too many of us. Because that pain - is Us.

As an infantry combat (2-504 PIR) veteran who served during that period, I luckily encountered Going After Cacciato by chance and since that time, I’ve very much enjoyed most all of Mr O’Brien’s work. I’ve owned his work in first editions and have a number of signed copies. The authenticity recounted, especially his depictions of infantry life, the camaraderie and retelling of combat is unparalleled. I’d also like to note I’ve also attempted to listen to an audio version of The Things They Carried and broke down in tears after just a short excursion into that novel. I do have some observations about the story herein, especially the photo depicting the two actors on the set: The weapon appears to be a recent version of the M60, not the weapon that was issued to infantry squads; also looks to be recently issued. The principal character appears to be wearing a fatigue jacket that looks much too clean and not soaked in sweat given the nature of the environment and from the looks of the time of day, would be something he’d worn or carried; and the set (especially the ground and the bush) appears much too well manicured by the set designer. Ive never watched the show although I very much enjoy scripted entertainment but will continue, unfortunately to avoid it despite Mr O’Brien’s participation.

Thanks to Mr. O'Brien for sharing his experience in such a profound way on "This Is Us." He calls the aftermath of Vietnam "warfare". Yes, the never-ending horrors of what men and women see while supposedly "serving" their country. People in the 60s and 70s realized it was simply a war to enrich the already global rich and fought against it. Nobody wins in war. Nobody. I love "This is Us" and hope the writing will evolve to something other than people's problems to real ways to overcome them without angst and/or anger. For instance, last night's episode had Randall and Beth fighting over whose career is most important. They seem to be headed for divorce. Their back story suggests that they know how to deal with things without destructive fighting. For instance, they should enlist their children's help with dishes and other household chores and ask them how else they can help. Stop making the "parents" responsible for everything.

Simply gorgeous. I've read some of his work, and will look for more. This is, and has been, my favorite TV show, from its start. Best wishes.