War Is Hell

Going After Cacciato demonstrates that the war in Vietnam was horrific and brutal, as wars inherently are. Soldiers are required to follow leaders who are inadequate or ill-informed and are thrust into foreign environments without training of the land, the languages, or the culture. Their comrades die in battle, which is to be expected, but also die in innocuous situations such as clearing a village, walking along a jungle trail, and even by their own troops.

The war in Vietnam is famous for its unpopularity with the American public and its use of young underprivileged men as cannon fodder. Paul Berlin's platoon members are all inexperienced young men barely out of their teens from sleepy Midwestern towns, who are plunged into violence and brutality with little or no warning.

Although the author is referring specifically to Vietnam with the "war is hell" theme, he also nods...