There are thousands of books and memoirs that retell the events 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 A Rumor of War. This memoir is one of the best primary sources from the time period. It does a great job at showing the reader the life of a soldier during this time period, showing several aspects of their lives very well.
Some of the things this memoir does a good job at showing include; showing the struggles of soldiers and their commands during the war, showing the gruesome truths of the war, and describing the transition between the soldier’s mindset about the war, before and after being in it. (Philip Caputo, A Rumor of War (1996; NY: Henry Holt and Company, 1977)). This paper will argue that Caputo’s account of the Vietnam War, and the government cover-up, sheds light to the public understanding of the brutality of the Vietnam…show more content… There are killings for no reason, and if even a civilian is killed, they are not worth anything simply because of their race. He also writes that, the war is not only intensifying in number of attacks, but it is also getting more vicious. They begin to take hostages, trophies from the bodies, and kill for no reason, he says that the rules of engagement mean close to nothing for most men at this point (Caputo