Home Letters from Vietnam

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‘In war there are no unwounded soldiers’ Hurt and pain is a constant factor and result of the war. American soldiers battling against communism were often exposed to countless injuries. As war consequently brings hurt, soldiers’ experienced physical, emotional and psychological wounds. Bernard Edelman’s ‘Dear America’ unravels the stories of these soldiers and reveals the pain they endured and the scars they were left with. Many of the results of physical pain were due to the oppressed environment and the very nature of war. The emotional injuries were encountered through the soldier’s constant struggle for survival. Soldiers were sent home after their tour of duty but many experienced post traumatic war syndrome; mentally and psychologically scarring these soldiers. In a war it is evident that wounds always remain for those who have experienced it. Physical pain is a primary ‘stereotypical’ effect of war which most people understand of being the broad result of war. The contributed factors which build-up these assumptions of physical pain of the soldiers in Vietnam is the environment. Due to their long services endured in the humid tropical monsoon jungles the soldiers were prone to diseases. Many of which were transmittable to others. If the diseases from the filthy jungle floor did get them it would be the communist’s fired shots from one end to the other. These soldiers were on constant alert “one minute your picnicking and the next preparing for a possible attack” but when in combat ultimately the results were that m ost soldiers became
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