After the Vietnam War, countless soldiers suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. The trauma they saw, endured and witnessed changed forever and frightened their lives. Men, like Tim O'Brien, the author of the novel The Things They Carried, suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and it took them years to get their lives back after returning home. In an excerpt from his novel, O'Brien shows the reader how the men endured this harrowing experience in the jungles of Vietnam through the details of all the items they carry. The men of the Vietnam War didn't know why they were there. fight in Vietnam and what their purpose was there. The United States justified its involvement in the war by claiming that it was fighting communism and preventing communist North Vietnam from taking over the more democratic South Vietnam. This affected the soldiers as they did not know why they were there, killing villagers and innocent civilians. They destroyed land and crops to fight the Viet Cong and the effects of Agent Orange, the toxin used to destroy vegetation, are still widespread today. A second reason the United States justified its involvement in the Vietnam War was to prevent the spread of communism across Asia. The United States proposed the domino theory and stated that if Vietnam became a communist country, the countries around it would also become communist (Herring). This war against communism brought no solution because, even today, Vietnam is still a communist country; the soldiers therefore do not have the feeling of having fought for a real cause. No one received anything satisfactory from the war. The men eventually returned home fearful for life of violence and death ... middle of paper ... assistance needed to treat their PTSD. Works Cited Bremner, J. "Chronic PTSD In Vietnam Combat Veterans: Evolution of Illness and Addiction." than psychology?. Australia: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, 2006. Print. Herring, G. “The Cold War and Vietnam”. 2011. "National Center for PTSD - What is PTSD?." United States Department of Veterans Affairs Np. January 1, 2007. Web. .O'Brien, Tim. that they carried. Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing..