"We need to start treating Vietnam like a country and not a war. It will take old age and the death of all the veterans before it stops to be our 51st state (Alvarez, 2013).” In the story "The Man I Killed," Tim O'Brien, who served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam, describes the guilt many American soldiers felt for the atrocities committed in Vietnam. “Vietnam is not an appendage of America. This kind of thinking got us into trouble in the first place. We are bound together by a painful history, but it is not our liver or our appendage: it is a country (Alvarez, 2013)." The Vietnam War was one of the longest and costliest wars in American history. It started from 1955 to April 30, 1975. This war lasted almost 20 years. According to the article "How the US Got Involved In Vietnam" by Jeff Drake, the United States attacked Vietnam and this should not have happened. This war could have been avoidable. The 58,000 Americans did not have to die, and neither did the 2,000,000 Vietnamese. The US government was responsible for their deaths. What the government told the public from the beginning was that they were going to war because they had to stop the communist threat in Vietnam, otherwise other countries would follow suit; who were to defend the democratic government of South Vietnam against the gathering red hordes. While others say it was an attempt by the United States to suppress a heroic Vietnamese national liberation movement that had driven French colonialism out of their country (Drake, 1993). According to Jeff Drake "imperialist arrogance, personal gain and prestige, greed, anti-Communist hysteria, and the desire for control drove the decision-making process that led the United States to war." Jeff Drake was an American soldier who fought in... middle of paper......ericanexperience/features/interview/mylai-obrien/>.Davis, Paul, Gary Harrison, David Johnson, Patricia Smith, and John Crawford. The Bedford Anthology of World Literature: The Twentieth Century, 1900 to the Present. 6. United States of America: Bedford/St.Martin's, 2003. Print.Drake, Jeff. ""How the US Got Involved In Vietnam." (1993). Web. 17 December 2013. .Homel, David. "Tim O'Brien Tells Vietnam War Stories Like No Other Author." The Gazette, 5 May 1990: 0. ProQuest . December 17, 2013. "Rising Star Tim O'Brien.". 2013. .