Do you think Americans understood the experiences of soldiers in Vietnam and what those experiences meant when they returned to the United States after combat?

One of the important themes that Frances Fitzgerald writes about in her Fire in the Lake:  The Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnam is how poorly American politicians and military figures who established American policy and conducted the war in Vietnam understood about the country, its history, its cultures.

  1.   Discuss some significant examples of these misunderstandings as Fitzgerald presents them.  Consider this problem of understanding also in Wilson Hubbell’s presentation of his experiences in Vietnam.
  2. Do you think Americans understood the experiences of soldiers in Vietnam and what those experiences meant when they returned to the United States after combat?
  3. What were the most powerful elements of Wilson’s presentation for you?