Fact, Fiction, and the Vietnam War

Abstract

This articles explores the power of the literary works written on account of the Vietnam War to explain a number of factors that factual political ducumentation has not been able to. This is partly due to the fact that the already imposing corpus of literature on the Vietnam War permits a full appreciation of the war’s complexity. The contradictory thesis explained by works written at different periods of the conflict serve as barometer of the morale of the writer, the body intellectual and in general public opinion regarding the conflict.