Chapters 5: Enemies

Who broke whose nose?

• During a fistfight over a jackknife, Dave Jensen broke Lee Strunk’s nose. Dave was  bigger and stronger than Lee, so he was easily able to wrap a hand around Lee’s neck, pin him down, and hit him hard. Even after Lee’s nose was broken, “Jensen kept hitting him, over and over, quick stiff punches that did not miss” (O’Brien 59). As a result of the fight, Lee was choppered back to the rear where his nose would be treated and healed.

What was the effect of the fight on Jensen?

• Dave Jensen began to worry and became paranoid. Jensen took special precautions while on patrol, kept his back covered, kept track of Lee’s whereabouts, and “avoided situations that might put the two of them alone together” (O’Brien 60). Eventually, this started affecting his mental state and  Jensen couldn’t distinguish enemies from friends. Instead, “the distinction between good guys and bad guys disappeared for him” (O’Brien 60). One afternoon, Jensen went on a shooting frenzy and didn’t stop until he had wasted one magazine of ammunition. No one was hurt, but it was clear that he was no longer mentally stable.

What did Jensen finally do to resolve the conflict between them?

• To resolve the conflict. Jensen decided to get even with Lee Strunk. To do so, he “borrowed a pistol, gripped it by the barrel, and used it like a hammer to break his own nose” (O’Brien 60). After this, Jensen walked over to Lee and asked him if things were squared, to which Lee responded that they were.  It was later known that Lee had, in fact, stolen Jensen’s jackknife, so the conflict could have been resolved if Lee had simply given back the jackknife. 

What is the irony of this chapter’s title?

• The irony of the chapter’s title, “Enemies”, is that the soldiers are supposed to be a team fighting against the true enemies, who are in fact the North Vietnamese. Lee Strunk and Dave Jensen can’t stand to be around each other and oppose each other at every opportunity, yet are fighting side by side in a brutal war. Additionally, the title of the next chapter is “Friends”, which contradicts the title of this chapter. 

Reflection:

This chapter is focused on the internal conflicts between U.S. troops caused by the war, rather than the conflicts with the real enemies, who are the North Vietnamese. It provides insight on how the war distorts social relationships and causes chaos within sides. In this story specifically, Dave Jensen and Lee Strunk are involved in a fist fight for something insignificant, a jackknife. The way they deal with the problem is immature and shows just how much their mentalities are affected by the pressures of the war. At the end of this chapter, Lee comments on this issue and confesses that “the man’s crazy… I stole his fucking jackknife” (O’Brien 61). This whole conflict would have been avoided if Lee hadn’t stolen that jackknife in the first place. The logical solution would have been to peacefully talk it out or that Lee return the jackknife that he stole. However, both characters resorted to violence, which leads to the conclusion that as troops in the war, violence had become embedded into their nature.