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The Thins They Carried Research Paper

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Danylo Yanovskiy
Mr. Delle Bovi
English 12R Period 4
7 January 2016 Vietnam was a bloody place from the 1950s to the 1970s. When it came to the draft, all the teenagers who were drafted were distraught. They believed, along with all the other American citizens, that the U.S. should not be getting involved in the war. The boys who were drafted did everything possible to escape their fates of entering the war. They crossed borders to Canada and other countries. They also claimed that they were physically or mentally incapable of fighting in the war so that they would get exempt from the war. Boys who got drafted, did everything possible to dodge the war or dodge the draft to not get involved in the war they believed that U.S. should never have …show more content…

In the beginning of the war, the Selective Service collected the names of all American men that were in the draft-ages. When someone’s name was called, they had to report to their local draft broad, which was made up of community members, so that they could begin to evaluate whether he would be fit for battle. The draft committee had a large amount of power in deciding who would stay and who would go. In Tim O’Brien’s novel, The Thins They Carried, Tim O’Brien had a big life decision in front of him; it was whether to flee to Canada or stay in U.S. and enter the war. He had the chance to jump off of a boat and swim to Canada and be safe, but he froze and that lead to him going to Vietnam. There were many others that face big decisions just like Tim O’Brien. Eric Schechter once wrote,” what my friends were going through; my own experience was too different. I was good at math, so I knew I’d be going to college, and I’d automatically get a draft deferment. Also, I felt less nationalism than most people. For me it would be just an inconvenience, not a great hardship, to flee to Canada, at that time a safe haven for draft dodgers. I knew that I would never wear a uniform” which demonstrates that he had an option of staying and fighting but chose to go to Canada because he didn’t believe in the war and he was set on going to college (Schechter 1). In November of 1969, everything changes. A lottery began to take away the student deferments and tried to get the kids who were in college, to go to Vietnam and

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