Philip Caputo Rumor Of War Summary

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(“Caputo, Philip. A Rumor of War. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1977. Print”). Award winning Philip Caputo was born on June 10, 1941, in Chicago, Illinois. He is an American writer, journalist, husband and dad, but most importantly a war veteran who has written fifteen books, on top of dozens of magazine articles that have been published in popular news-readings such as The New York Times, and The Boston Globe. Caputo’s most popular-and best selling book being The Rumor of War which has sold two-million copies since the year of (1977) when it was published. Throughout his life, Philip Caputo has won many awards and achievements one being the Sidney Hillman Foundation Award for his book A Rumor of War in (1977). Caputo’s purpose…show more content…
Claiming that he didn’t experience all the known aspects and parts of war. I strongly disagree with that opinion. I believe that Philip Caputo portrays the ideal feelings that most soldiers underwent, in a unique and honest manner. Unraveling his inner thoughts and sharing with us his personal experience of developing from a youth, to an overly mature man. He shares with his readers how he initially viewed the war. Caputo thought he would be going off to battle like the media, and Hollywood movies made it out to be, expecting to return home to a community that praised him of his war efforts. Instead he returned with a drastic indifference on all the tragedies of war bringing back feelings of guilt, and grief but also engaging in a complete new level of maturity, that no man should ever have expectations of being. Caputo isn’t the only soldier that struggled through a loss of his identity though; In the prologue of “A Rumor of War” Caputo explains the different opinions that most aspiring “war heroes” had, compared to the actual brutality they underwent which resulted in the ultimate struggle of a loss of their innocence, and identity along the way. The media during this time used all sorts of propaganda to influence youthful naïve men (like Caputo himself). This misconception of a heroic and inviting war is something most -if not every single young soldier went through. Which is why I would recommend A Rumor of War to any individual seeking a real and honest sensation of the experience’s and conflicts that came with the Vietnam war. Directed straight from a veteran himself, Caputo informs the reader with personal experiences that you cannot receive from any historical textbook, or article on the Vietnam
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    of the Vietnam War, countless documents from the time period, thousands of letters and diaries, and numerous government documents from the time. But, there is one memoir that with accuracy and clear and precise, imagery, can bring the reader back in time, to step into the author’s shoes, to his time that he served in the Vietnam War as a soldier, and briefly his life after. The memoir that is being described is the writing that comes from the mind and actual accounts of Philip Caputo, and it’s titled

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