In his novel, Dispatches, Michael Herr delves into the atrocities of the Vietnam War and exposes to America the real truth behind sending troops abroad. Many Americans were in a way blind to what was happening halfway across the world. Without the horrors unfolding right before them in their streets it was easy for people to become indifferent to the war simply because they were not fully aware of what was happening. Many Americans were for the war because the government promised communist containment and promoted the war in a light that deemed it necessary and in a way America’s duty as a strong democratic nation.
However there was a small group of counter-culture individuals who wanted to expose the war for its true events and prove to the nation that the fight in Vietnam was not only unnecessary but also costly to America and it’s people. The mass media portrayed Vietnam as an evil that needed to be stopped and that our war efforts were not only benefitting the fight on communism but also winning it. Herr and his writings in Dispatches countered that thinking by describing the true horrors of the war and the vast impact it was having on our soldiers.…show more content… Khe Sanh was a military base in Vietnam, there the soldiers endured many hardships and were under constant attack. Khe Sanh was one of the roughest areas Herr experienced. Although Khe Sanh was a living hell when asked about it lieutenants and other high profile individuals would downplay the events and depict it as a better than it was, this is a perfect example of how government and media would manipulate the truth to help better ease the American people. To Herr, Khe Sanh showed the true horrors of war and how constant attack and little help from other divisions takes a huge toll on the