Tim O'Brien and the Vietnam experience

Tim O'Brien is an American writer who, drafted to serve in Vietnam, was so deeply affected by the experience that he draws heavily on it in his fiction.

What follows is an outline of the main events in this war that affected so deeply a whole generation of Americans (and which left a terrible mark on the Vietnamese people).

* In 1954, the French were driven out of Vietnam by Ho Chi Minh’s soldiers.
Vietnam was divided into two: Communists ruled the North, and non-Communists the South.

* There should have been elections, which did not take place due to Southern fear that Ho Chi Minh would win.
* Ho Chi Minh set out to unite Vietnam through war.
* Americans intervened as part of their policy to stop the spred of communism worldwide. (Containment policy)
* The Vietnam war was one of ambushes and sudden attacks.

* Ordinary villagers fought the war.
* It was a guerrilla war, difficult for Americans.
* By the early 1960s, it was clear that South Vietnam, suported by the American government, was losing the war.
* Yet, the war would go on for more than a decade. (until 1973-1975)
American fighting men grew angry and frustrated. They burnt towns and sprayed napalm (deadly chemicals) againts the Vietcong soldiers and villages.

* There were peace marchs all over the USA.
* In 1973, during Nixon's presidency, the last American soldier left Vietnam. However, the war would be over only in 1975, when Ho Chi Minh's victorious tanks eneterd the city of Saigon.

As said above, Tim O'Brien relies heavily on his war experience to write much if his fiction. "How to Tell a True War Story" is a good example of this, together with a text with many traits of metafiction.
What is metafiction?
“Metafiction is a self-reflexivity prompted by the author’s awareness of the theory underlying the construction of fictional works.” (Patricia Waugh)

Relation with other arts: There are many movies which depict the Vietnam War from several perspectives. A great -very interesting one- is Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now! which turns Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness into a Vietnam War experience.
You may watch the original trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tt0xxAMTp8M