Perspective

The Vietnam War permeated the years of Tim O'Brien's youth. "If I Die in a Combat Zone" is the first of several works written by Tim O'Brien that focus on that tumultuous period of American history. The son of WWII veterans, O'Brien grew up on the prairies of southern Minnesota, steeped in the mythology of the virtues of war. War stories and the notions that manhood means honor, duty, and courage in wartime were foundations of his upbringing, often the basis of his childhood games. O'Brien writes of playing with school friends as "taking on the Japs and Krauts along the shores of Lake Okabena, on the flat fairways of the golf course". As a college educated young man, he debates the moral conundrum of Vietnam with his friends, yet these debates are polite because they want to remain friends. This desire to maintain the status quo he...