Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in If I Die in a Combat Zone, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Evils of the Vietnam War
Courage
Duty vs. Conscience
The Enemy
Racism at War
Summary
Analysis
Erik writes a letter to O’Brien in April, which O’Brien receives on April 16. Alpha Company spends most of April, an unbearably hot month in Vietnam, camped out at LZ Minuteman, occasionally marching to nearby villages to dodge the midday heat on the hilltop base. They don’t bother looking for Viet Cong. The rest of the day they lay around, build shade, or play chess. On April 16, rumor spreads that they will soon embark on a Combat Assault in Pinkville, all the men fear. Captain Johansen gives no hints one way or the other.
Alpha Company’s tenure at LZ Minuteman suggests that their combat service in Vietnam is punctuated by long periods of boredom. Once again, their decision not to even look for Viet Cong to fight suggests that most of the men in Alpha Company don’t care about winning or achieving the war’s objectives—they simply want to survive.
Themes
In the afternoon, resupply helicopters arrive carrying Erik’s letter, among other things. In the letter, Erik quotes a poem which reads, “April is the cruelest month.” The days at LZ Minuteman blur together. Colonel Daud commands Alpha Company to send ambush patrols out each night, but often Captain Johansen and his officers just fake them, calling in on a radio with fake coordinates and ordering artillery strikes on empty patches of jungle. The men in Alpha Company appreciate their officers for this. The officers think Colonel Daud is inexperienced and “too damn gung-ho.” Rumors about Pinkville persist, predicting a long campaign near My Lai.
Erik’s letter is a reference to T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land, which tackles themes of societal decay and disillusionment in the wake of World War I. This suggests that Erik perceives the Vietnam War in a similar light: a senseless conflict that breeds nothing but suffering. Meanwhile, Captain Johansen’s decision to disobey direct orders rather than put his men at unnecessary risk suggests that he cares more for his men’s wellbeing than his own military career. If his disobedience were discovered, Johansen would probably be severely punished. Despite that possibility, Johansen chooses to mitigate unnecessary risks to his men’s safety as best he can, demonstrating that he possesses both compassion and good judgment.
Themes
Alpha Company gets three days of rest in Chu Lai in the end of April. Colonel Daud meets them there and announces that they’ll be going to Pinkville. He gives Alpha Company a pep talk and says if they’re sloppy, they’ll die—but if they’re sharp, Pinkville is as safe as New York City. When Colonel Daud leaves, an officer calls him a “pompous asshole.” O’Brien writes a letter to Erik and goes to a floor show to see a Korean stripper, trying not to think about Pinkville.
Colonel Daud is depicted as most upper-level officers are in the memoir: militaristic and bold, but also utterly unrealistic. His reassurance that Pinkville will be no more danger than New York City is obviously a gross underestimation of the dangers the soldiers will face there. Daud thus seems like the opposite of men like Johansen, risking soldiers’ lives for the sake of objectives without concern for their wellbeing.
Themes
On the morning of April 29, Alpha Company waits for the helicopters on the landing pad before sunrise. Most of them are hungover, which makes it difficult to be a soldier. Colonel Daud arrives in his helicopter just as the sun rises, announcing that the other helicopters will be there in minutes to pick them up. Reconnaissance claims that Pinkville is quiet this morning. The helicopters pick up Alpha Company and fly them to My Khe. The journey feels “hopelessly short.” The men are quiet, though they wish they had a joke to tell, something to break the tension.
Alpha Company’s descent into Pinkville marks the beginning of O’Brien’s worst experiences in Vietnam, demonstrating the true extent of the war’s horrors as well as the lengths some men will go when driven by hatred, rage, and fear. Alpha Company’s men’s struggle to be soldiers while hungover suggests that beneath the gear and weapons, they are still just regular people trying to cope with terrible circumstances.
Themes
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O’Brien thinks the worst part of a Combat Assault is how exposed they are when they land. The tactic is effectively a “blitzkrieg”: helicopters deploy platoons of soldiers in minutes, who start shooting before they even touch the ground. As the helicopters reach their landing zone, they spray bullets into the surrounding jungle: suppressive fire. Soldiers leap out of the helicopters, clear the landing zone, and take cover. The helicopters leave. There is no gunfire, no Viet Cong there to meet them. Bates is still terrified, but most of the soldiers are “happy to be alive” and feel “brave.” They charge through My Khe, killing two Viet Cong and losing one of their own soldiers. Over the next weeks, Colonel Daud sends the soldiers on so many Combat Assaults that they grow to hate him and they celebrate when they hear he died in an ambush.
Combat Assaults represent a dramatic, but incredibly risky way to put soldiers into a combat zone, since enemy soldiers are likely to be waiting in the jungle to shoot down helicopters as they land. Colonel Daud’s decision to send Alpha Company on numerous Combat Assaults into different parts of Pinkville suggests that he does not value Alpha Company’s lives, since he repeatedly puts them at great risk. Alpha Company’s hatred for Daud and celebration when he dies suggests that they come to see him, rather than the Viet Cong, as their worst enemy, since he causes them more consistent suffering.
Themes
