My Father Leaves for Vietnam

     While superficially it is an emotional story about a boy saying goodbye to his dad, "My Father Leaves for Vietnam" is a unique example of war poetry which sustains a metaphor to represent the ignorance of the population about the Vietnam War.
     In the poem, the father represents all of the men who were drafted into battle during the Vietnam War, and the boy stands in for the general public the soldiers are leaving behind. The child's innocence and lack of understanding of the situation mirror the way there was confusion and ignorance on the part of the people regarding the Vietnam War. Other than the vague, loose aim of halting the spread of communism, there was little discernible reason to the public for engaging in this war. At first, most were on board with America's idealist endeavor, however as the years crawled by with no betterment of the situation, people tired of sending more and more young men to kill and be killed in a foreign jungle for seemingly no reason. This murkiness and lack of clarity are portrayed in the poem by the innocence of youth.
     While not explicitly and ardently anti-war, the poem is commenting on the sadness caused by war, and specifically is likely questioning whether there was any good reason at all for American involvement in Vietnam.