Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam - Book Report/Review Example

Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam is edited by Bernard Edelman about the Vietnam War. The book is a compilation of more than 200 letters which were sent by the US soldiers in the war to their homes. These letters describe the war as their first impression of it and make the war a personal account of these soldiers rather than what we have been seeing it. Bernard Edelman has served as a correspondent in Vietnam and is the author of many books. Edelman combined the firsthand information and details from the war and bought them together in a book for readers to learn the truth of the war. This book manages to highlight the true scenarios of the war through the eyes of men and women who were directly included in the war. It is a true picture of the war which couldn’t be recorded before this by any correspondent or historian. It isn’t a book of history or war; it is rather a book depicting the truth in its simplest form. People in the society don’t realise how a war would be for a soldier but this book gives an account of the soldiers’ views and experiences of war which brings a new turn to the understanding of war. It allows a layperson to understand the horrors and brutality of wars and what the soldiers actually feel. The book consists of letters in which soldiers describe their longing for home, their sufferings, their feelings, their surroundings, and how they are seeing the war. These soldiers write to their homes explaining what it’s like to be away from home, to be in war, to see a friend die, and to control their emotions during the war. The letters provide a detailed story of each soldier and his feelings about the war he’s fighting. This reveals the complex emotions of powerful and brave soldiers fighting the war but inside dying and longing to be home back to their families. They reveal how dangerous and horrible the war is and how they are struggling every day with their lives. These letters are firsthand information collected by the editor in order to convey the truth of the war to the readers. These letters describe the honest feelings of the soldiers in the simplest of words. There are no complex words, philosophical meanings, or technical sentences. The best part of the book is its ordinariness which shows through these letters written originally by the soldiers for their homes. They describe the war in the easiest of words and lines making it easy for the readers to understand how the war is and what its affect on the soldiers can be. These letters also give a deep insight to the readers about realities of wars and make them experience the feeling of a war more closely. Every soldier has a personal account which the readers can relate to and it is as if they are themselves involved in the war and experiencing it firsthand. The book first gives the letters of the first impressions of the war when the soldiers perceived it. It describes the account of how the soldiers reached and they knew they were about to fight America’s longest war. It explains how they settled, explored, and were assigned to their duties. They write to their families about what their Lieutenant has told them is coming up and gives them hope to be strong while they handle the war. The book then opens to the letters that were written between the wars. The soldiers write how there are thousands of soldiers dying and the war isn’t turning out as they hoped. They explain how they see their friends die and number of bodies is beyond count. The letters contain advises, words of hopes, and a series of emotions where soldiers cannot find words to tell their families how dangerous the war is going to be and it might be difficult to return back home. They write to their mothers, wives, and friends and tell them to stay strong and never lose hope (Edelman 34). The letters also write about how the see bones, blood, and pieces of bodies lying around, and how every breath is a struggle. The next part of the book consists of letters explaining the life at camp and the daily routines of surviving and fighting the war (Edelman 141). Their base camp stories and the hurtful surroundings that make them want to return home to their families. They write to their families how the war is getting dangerous and ugly and how they wish they could end it soon and return home. They also give hope and talk about bravery for their families. The letters are filled with several emotions that are very difficult to interpret as they are letters of brave soldiers fighting the war but it shows their emotional side. Further letters are written as the war gets uglier and soldiers describe it as the world of hurt (Edelman 169). They are unhopeful now and their sorrows increase as they only see death and tragedy around them. They write how they won’t survive in this place and they are surrounded by the horrors of the war. These intense set of letters consists of emotions, fear, bravery, hope, and the urge to return home. They are heartbreaking and emotional to read. It gives viewers the insight into the events of the war that might have been otherwise untold. This book has been a rollercoaster ride of emotions. The readers cannot understand whether to be proud or depressed for the soldiers who suffered at the war. The book gives their personal accounts in a chronological order with the first ones of when they reached Vietnam to the last ones until the war was over. The book is a must read but not for those who are light-hearted people. The book contains letters that explain death, horror, fear, and the truth of the war which may leave readers thinking about how a war actually looks like. The simplicity of the book has managed to give the readers the feeling of the war and how soldiers experience the ugly reality. This has been very powerful to affect the readers and to make them realise how the soldiers actually feel while fighting a war. This can greatly influence the effects of war on society as rarely do laypersons understand the actual brutality and feelings during a war. After this book and after reading the letters of the soldiers, the truth was explored and it gave readers a highly emotional set back. However, Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam is a beautiful set of compiled letters which present the truth of the Vietnam War right from the eyes of the men and women who were a part of it. The letters are arranged in a chronological order where they explain the series of events and the changing emotions of soldiers from being proud and hopeful to being fearful and longing to return home. This emotional set of letters has the tendency to change the way a person thinks about a war and create an entirely different perception. It consists of details from the beginning, to the fields, to the base camps, and till the end. This book leaves the readers with tears knowing how the soldiers are writing to their mothers, wives, and families who might never even come back. The letters express the love, care, emotions, fear, and struggles of the great soldiers who fought the war for the whole nation. Work Cited Edelman Bernard. Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam. USA: W. W. Norton, 2002 Read More