Part 1

Roger Donlon was one of the heroes of the Vietnam War according to the book, Patriots. He caught my attention while reading for his humbleness even though being a hero. People who participate in other countries’ war are heroes in personal view. Specifically, Roger Donlon was the one that came special to me because he was very humble all the time when he was telling the story. It is easy to be proud of oneself and speak in a lofty manner when he or she dedicated his life for other countries’ war, which is mostly unrelated to that person’s life. What is more, many people consider less developed countries very light and they have a lot of pride in them of being a citizen in more developed country. Nevertheless, for his entire story, he lowered himself as a baby in army. “We were babes in arms in every way,” said Roger, “We were working with and against cultures that were two thousand years old. They could manipulate us. (Appy 13)” Roger’s modest attitude made his story even more believable. In some cases, when a speaker makes a boast of himself/herself, that affects the story to be doubted. In other words, audiences, including me, do not know what really happened in Vietnam at that specific moment no matter how the speaker exaggerates the story. Roger’s humble attitude throughout his entire story makes the story very trustworthy, at least to me. Being in Vietnam during the war gives more credibility to Roger, but level of credibility may be vary from people to people because some people might make up or overstate an event. Nevertheless, credibility is given to most of the people because they have felt, seen and heard more things than people who were not there. Historical stories are sometimes very subjective and biased. This story written by Roger Donlon is trustworthy and believable to me, but trustworthy does not mean that it is always a objective and factual story because a story can still be true, but the story might contain only a writer or main character’s opinion and view in the story.

Part 2
             In this book, Vo Nguyen Giap’s story was the most disappointing for me to read because of two different reason. To begin with, the story was very disappointing with the way of the speaker’s story telling. This might be too personal problem to be disappointed at this story, but I think it is very important to tell the story in soft, yet powerful way so that readers can be persuaded or understand the story without any antagonistic feeling. “Well, that’s right, but intelligence alone is not enough. (Appy 42)” Other readers might not agree with me; however, those sentences were sort of too direct and strong to me and gave me a feeling that the speaker believes himself hundred percent for sure. In addition to the way of the speaker telling the story, the historical fact that America’s such a huge amount of expenditure on Vietnam War could not result in victory. To be honest, the States did not really have a reason to support them if they have no possibility of getting any benefit out of the war; however, they spent lots of money, time and people for the war only for the sacrifice of the nation itself. Usually, people say that effort will never betray us because people believe that their dream will come true with the time and effort spent on the dream and I strongly agree and believe that logic. Therefore, the fact that South Vietnam, which got a help from the States, lost the war was very disappointing to me.
             Vo Nguyen Giap’s story was disappointing, but it contained good lesson as well. The story taught me that help should increase the possibility of victory, but the help cannot always bring the victory. People often wanted to be paid for their time and effort they have spent for someone or something even though that is not money, however, this story told me as a reader that I should not ask for my benefit when giving someone a hand for either big or small help. Also, the story provided a good lesson that we should appreciate for living in an independent country. “Today you’re running an independent country,” said Vo Nguyen Giap, “Isn’t that wonderful? (Appy 43)” I am not an American citizen, but I am still from an independent country, Korea. Therefore this story taught me that I should appreciate that I have my own country although it is not a big and strong country that all the other countries are fearing.