Rainbow Death Task 2

This poem is written from the point of view of a Vietnam war veteran. We are able to see this as the poem talks about Agent Orange, a chemical agent which gained fame during the Vietnam war for poisoning crops and people. Therefore, Wilson would have experienced the horrors of jungle warfare, including ambushes and perhaps accidental collateral damage by the extensive chemical warfare.

The poem, set in Vietnam, describes the damage the chemicals are inflicting on the people. The chemical agents are described as "omnipotent" - unlimited power, and indifferent to who is affected, as if it was God himself. It causes "illnesses, birth defects and premature deaths"

The author deliberately chooses words with a strong impact. He describes the mixture of chemical agents as a potpourri, a mixture of fragrant plants material. In this case, a deadly concoction of poisons. Using the words "nefariously and deceit" his personal opinion of the Vietnam War is the means used to carry it out were unjustifiable

My personal opinion of this poem is that it quite accurately describes the front line conditions of the Vietnam war. Innocent civilians are shot, bombed and poisoned. The Communist activities are disrupted but not halted. A waste of resources for the US government that brought the world no further from Communism, instead rallying support for it. It is also true that future generation, American or Vietnamese, would be affected by Agent Orange by birth defects.

Television brought the brutality of war into the comfort of the living room. Vietnam was lost in the living rooms of America--not on the battlefields of Vietnam.
--Marshall McLuhan, 1975

Rainbow Death

This poem is written by Hubert Wilson, a soldier from Vietnam, sent by the US government in 1955 to prevent the spread of communism, which they ultimately failed in. However, in the process, there was much damage done to the country and casualties among the population.

USA attempted to use its technology to defeat the enemy and sap their morale. It acheived only the opposite effect. It made the enemy's will to fight even stronger while the public back in America was horrified by the violence dealt to the Vietnamese. They used herbicidal warfare. The defoliants, which were distributed in drums marked with color-coded bands, included the "Rainbow Herbicides"— Agent Pink, Agent Green, Agent Purple, Agent Blue, Agent White, and the most famous Agent Orange. They destroy crops, but most cruelly of all, they cause severe health problems to people, but don't kill them, leading to lifelong suffering.

The poem talks about all of these chemical agents and the effects on the people. More often than not, innocent civilians are hit and not the communists, because they have made adequate preparations. Also some US soldiers are affected, leading to widespread collateral damage. The effects may not have been felt immediately, but after the war, many veterans were unable to return to normality - normal life as an American

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_orange
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_war

E-learning assignment

Alright. Haven't been posting for a while. Now, I am off to do an English assignment right here on this blog. I'll take the two star and three star poems - "Rainbow Death" and "We slept by Our Boots On". On guard!