Personal Narrative Film, Video Manuscript/Mixed Material Photo, Print, Drawing Audio Recording William Timothy O'Brien Collection
Veterans History Project Service Summary:
- War or Conflict: Vietnam War, 1961-1975
- Branch of Service: Army
- Unit of Service: 5th Battalion, 46th Infantry Regiment, 198th Infantry Brigade
- Location of Service: Quang Ngai Province, Vietnam
- Highest Rank: Sergeant
Drafted into the Army in 1968 when he was fresh out of college, Tim O'Brien was assigned to the infantry and within a year was serving in Vietnam. He was opposed to the war and during training actually planned to go AWOL to Canada. His ambitions to be a writer were fueled by his experiences in country, and he went on to write a series of acclaimed books about the war, including The Things They Carried and Going After Cacciato. (At the end of the interview, O'Brien speaks about an
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PlayUnhappy about being drafted in 1968; opposed to the war; feared embarrassment and ridicule if he ducked the draft; parents had both served in WWII; had hoped he could serve in a war in which he believed as they had. 00:00:38.6 - 00:03:38.2
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PlayTraining did not prepare him for the kind of guerilla war Vietnam proved to be; only one time did he actually see an enemy soldier, on a night ambush; fired at a group of three Vietcong; still carries the burden that he might have killed one of them; continued to wrestle with his doubts about the war in his early days of service. 00:04:40.3 - 00:09:04.7
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PlayDuring training in Washington State, he plotted to go AWOL to Canada; went to Seattle on leave with intent of taking a bus to Canada; instead, went back to the base. 00:10:30.6 - 00:12:07.7
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PlayIn country, there was no sense of mission or even where he was other than his province; has been in contact with six members of his platoon; learned that there is no typical Vietnam veteran and that he can only speak for his own experience there; a "hearty, pranksterish" mood among the men disappeared once the fighting started; platoon leader was beloved by all his men but O’Brien, who found his treatment of the locals distasteful; the man committed suicide not long after he came home; much later, O’Brien met his son, only six when his father died, and whom O’Brien sees as a fellow veteran of the war. 00:15:38.0 - 00:21:23.0
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PlayHow he came to be wounded; early in his tour; ambushed by enemy; grenade landed near him, another soldier nearby took most of the blast; he was "hurt," not wounded. 00:23:19.2 - 00:26:36.3
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PlayDidn’t understand why locals in an area they called "Pinkville" were so hostile until they learned of the My Lai Massacre, which had recently occurred near there; considers the massacre "flat-out murder." 00:26:59.5 - 00:29:31.5
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PlayWriting while in country: wrote a few letters home; didn’t go into much detail; motive was "more superstitious" than protecting parents; wrote some short pieces for the Minneapolis newspaper and one for Playboy (published after he returned) that became the basis for his first book, If I Die in a Combat Zone; had always wanted to be a writer, but Vietnam made him need to be a writer; pieces were about events and other people, not about him; went to graduate school at Harvard after his return, kept writing short pieces, not intending them to be a book, but at some point, they accumulated into one. 00:33:32.1 - 00:37:51.5
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PlayWould have been a writer even without Vietnam; the experience made him a certain kind of writer; all his books are about the individual’s struggle to do the right thing against outside forces; has read a lot of war literature, which inspired rather than informed him; these writers created works of art that salvaged something from the awful experience of war; tries to reflect the non-linear experience of Vietnam; of his books, The Things They Carried and In the Lake of the Woods best capture that. 00:39:45.6 - 00:46:00.2
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PlayWhy Vietnam continues to be a divisive subject: nothing much has changed; colleagues he is in touch with still think the U.S. should have dropped nuclear weapons on Hanoi, that we could have occupied the country and determined its politics; draws comparisons between Vietnam and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. 00:48:37.1 - 00:52:59.4
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PlayIn 1994, wrote an article, "The Vietnam in Me," for the New York Times; talks about that piece and what has changed for him since. 00:54:31.2 - 00:58:06.3
About this Item
Title
- William Timothy O'Brien Collection
Names
- Library of Congress
- Wiener, Thomas
- O'Brien, William Timothy
State of Birth
- MN
Home State
- TX
Headings
- - O'Brien, William Timothy
- - Vietnam War, 1961-1975 -- Personal Narratives
- - United States. Army.
Repository
- Veterans History Project, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress
Gender
- Male
Race
- White
Status
- Veteran
Service History
-
Vietnam War, 1961-1975
- Branch of Service: Army
- Unit of Service: 5th Battalion, 46th Infantry Regiment, 198th Infantry Brigade
- Location of Service: Quang Ngai Province, Vietnam
- Highest Rank: Sergeant
- Entrance into Service: Drafted
- Military Status: Veteran
Materials
- Video: Betacam SP [1 item] -- Oral history interview (collected 11/12/2004)
- Audio: DAT [1 item] -- Oral history interview (collected 11/12/2004)
- Video: VHS [1 item] -- Reference copy (collected 11/12/2004)
- Audio: 10" Audio Reel [1 item] -- Oral history interview (collected 11/12/2004)
Collection Number
- AFC/2001/001/31937
Cite as
- William Timothy O'Brien Collection (AFC/2001/001/31937), Veterans History Project, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress
Online Format
- image
- video