Field Trip

This chapter is proof that no one who has not experienced the war in Vietnam can understand it. Kathleen asks on page 175 "But why?". It's a good question that even soldiers had to answer. They had better answers than civilians, though. The soldiers fought because they had to, and that's what O'Brien tells his daughter. They didn't know why they had to. They just had to. Civilians, however, don't even understand that they had to. Civilians ask for reasons just like Kathleen did, and that's why O'Brien wrote the book.