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We believe that the SweetHeart of the Song Tra Bong was a true war story in O'Brien's definition of the phrase. As he defined it, a true war story is, "never moral... It does not instruct... nor suggest models of proper human behavior." (O'Brian 19). The most important part of a war story is it's values which are often hard to fully understand. It is less important if the events all actually happened. O'Brien even admits, "Rat had a reputation for exaggeration and overstatement," (O'Brian 1). However, he also says, "In many cases a true war story cannot be believed. If you believe it, be skeptical" (O'Brien 20). So if the story is unbelievable, maybe that only means it is a better war story.

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The "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong" seems to be a true war story, according to O'Brien's definition. However, the facts may not be entirely true based on the fact that Rat Kiley is known for having “a reputation for exaggeration and overstatement" (O'Brien). This story seems to follow O'Brian's definition due to the fact that it teaches no moral principles and it is disturbing to the point that it may be hard to tell. At the conclusion of the story, the reader does not learn anything. Instead, the story is very objective and solely states the facts. This is in accordance with O'Brian's definition in which he says, “A true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behavior, nor restrain men from doing the things men have always done” (O’Brien 19). In addition, this story is so disturbing that "sometimes it's just beyond telling” (O’Brien 20). For example, After Fossie sees his girlfriend, O’Brien writes, “But the grotesque part, he said, was her jewelry. At the girl's throat was a necklace of  human tongues” (O’Brien 13). This once again displays the lack of morals and difficulty to tell the story due to the fact that the author takes no stance on the wearing of the necklace and that the nature of the necklace is so disturbing.

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O'Brien defined a "true war story" as one thats undeniably immoral. This idea is further explored later in the story "Sweetheart of Song Tra Bong" through Mary Anne; young and impressionable Mary Anne travels to Vietnam to be with her boyfriend, Mark Fossie, but she finds herself dragged into the excitement and adventure of the war quite fast. She changes from an ordinary American teen to a strong, combat-ready fighter as she becomes more immersed in the lives of the soldiers: “At the end of the second week, when four casualties came in, Mary Anne wasn't afraid to get her hands bloody. At times, in fact, she seemed fascinated by it. Not the gore so much, but the adrenaline buzz that went with the job, that quick hot rush in your veins when the choppers settled down and you had to do things fast and right”(O’Brien). As evident, Mary Anne transformed from a young, morally sound person, into a bloodlusted killer: "There was a novelty to it; she was good for morale”(O'Brien(.

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To define a true war story, according to Tim O'Brien, it "is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behavior" (O'Brien 19), and this story does not encourage any morality from the reader or teller, and instead faces them with what the horrors and experience of war can deteriorate someone so innocent into. From what O'Brien describes in his definition, there is a lack of morality and proper human behavior found within "The Sweetheart of Song Tra Bong," as Mary Anne proceeded along in Vietnam. She became violent and desecrated human bodies, "at the girl's throat was a necklace of human tongues" (O'Brien 13), and while many soldiers were disgusted, it was immoral and "grotesque," and there was no lesson to be learned. Rat Kiley, was also known to "exaggerate," as the narrator describes, taking a lot of credibility and possible truth and facts out of the story, which lines up with O'Briens claim that true war stories are "difficult to separate what happened from what seemed to happen" (O'Brien 19). Mixed with the memory that Rat appears to have on what he thought had happened, and his exaggeration, the truth may be less than what Rat had given.

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To prove if this story is a true war story we have to look back at O'Briens central definition of a "true war story". His explanation has three main parts. The stories are never believable because truly war captures that most unimaginable and horrific detail. This is very true of "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong" because "at the girl's throat was a necklace of human tongues" is a disgusting detail that is impossible to forgot and shows the gore for the story. The point of the story becomes about the emotions that soldiers had to keep concealed and sometimes that is why they fold into elaborate and unbelievable tales. O’Brien goes back and forth between saying the story must be true or it can have some fabricated details but the point of a war story is not the truth, not to mull over the small details but to feel just how terrible and scared the soldiers felt that they lived to tell stories. This story does seem to have a point to it but may have been exaggerated especially because of Rat's story telling skills. "For Rat Kiely, I think, the facts were formed by sensation, not the other way around," (O'Brien 1). So Rat is using this story to show his emotions and while that may lead to some embellishment that does not mean the central elements of the story are false. These will remain the same is all sorts of retellings and alterations. But lastly and perhaps most important a true war story has a meaning behind it that all soldiers who hear it and share it agree on. In this case that is how profoundly the soldiers all agree on the fact that their innocence along with that of the lives they knew back home, represented by Mary Anne, was taken by the war. This was the point of the story that no matter who you came to the war as a piece of you was lost in the violence.

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When Mary Anne first arrived at the camp, she appeared very content with being there. However, by the end of the story when Rat saw Mary Anne, he said "it took a few seconds…to appreciate the full change. In part it was her eyes, no sense of the person behind it” (pg 13). This quote demonstrates just how drastically Mary Anne changed. Mary Anne represents how the war changes the soldiers in Vietnam. They start as Mary Anne when she first arrives at camp, perky and cheerful, but later lose themselves in the face of the war as they experience the “drug” of Vietnam and the adrenaline of it all just like how she is presented by the end of the story. On another note, O'Brien notes important aspects of true war stories that help determine how this one is true too. Furthermore, O'Brien states, "In any war story, but especially a true one, it's difficult to separate what happened from what seemed to happen. What seems to happen
becomes its own happening and has to be told that way." Thus, even if the story is not true, it still sort of is because Rat Kiley tells how things seem to be and how the experience of the soldiers seems to be.

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We think that "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong" is a true war story because of how it follows along with O'Brien's descriptions. O'Brien says that “a true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behavior, nor restrain men from doing the things men have always done.” This story has elements of surprise which can be difficult for readers to believe; however, this is exactly what makes a war story true. An example of this can be seen in the tongue necklace,  At  the  girl's  throat  was  a  necklace  of  human tongues. Elongated and narrow, like pieces of blackened leather, the  tongues  were  threaded  along  a  length  of  copper  wire,  one overlapping  the  next,  the  tips  curled  upward  as  if  caught  in  a final shrill syllable.” Such an accessory is hard to picture and believe. This factors in to the truth behind the story, as making something like this up just doesn't make sense.

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A true war story is a story of what happened and what was believed to have happened by the soldier. It is not always certain what was the exact outcomes of things or how things exactly went so soldiers hypothesize to fill in gaps of their experiences. O'Brien suggests that Mary Anne's transformation in the story reflects the profound impact of war on soldiers, causing a loss of identity and disconnection from their former selves. He writes, "She  had  crossed  to  the  other  side.  She  was  part  of  the land.  She  was  wearing  her  culottes,  her  pink  sweater,  and  a necklace  of  human  tongues.  She  was  dangerous.  She  was  ready for the kill” (16), highlighting how Mary Anne's experience in Vietnam has fundamentally changed her. O'Brien suggests that Mary Anne's transformation in the story reflects the profound impact of war on soldiers, causing a loss of identity and disconnection from their former selves. He highlights the emotional and sensory experiences of soldiers in war, conveying the reality of war without providing moral guidance or suggesting proper behavior. Therefore, the story of Mary Anne's transformation is an example of a true war story, as it conveys the emotional and psychological impact of war on soldiers. Additionally,  this is a true war story because it seems unbelievable and O’Brien previously said the most unbelievable stories are the ones that are true. For instance, Rat told this story and anyone laughed, “he’d sigh and wait it out, but the one thing he could not tolerate was disbelief” (5).

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We think that "Sweetheart of the Song Era Bong" is a true war story because many parts of the story didn't seem realistic or could have been exaggerated. O'Brien says "in any war story, but especially a true one, it's difficult to separate what happened from what seemed to happen. What seems to happen becomes its own happening and has to be told that way. The angles of vision are skewed" ("A True War Story" 19). O'Brien's definition of a true war story was that it didn't have to be real to be true. As long as it was grounded in the reality of war and the experiences of the soldiers, then it is true. Mary Anne is made to represent the impact of war on people and how they become desensitized to death. O'Brien highlighted how people change once they entered the war. "What happened to her, Rat said, was what happened to all  of  them.  You  come  over  clean  and  you  get  dirty  and  then  afterward it's never the same. A question of degree. Some make it  intact,  some  don't  make  it  at  all" ("Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong" 15). Unfortunately, this is a common experience with many soldiers or veterans. Even if the story isn't 100% true, the experiences of the soldiers are shown through Mary Anne, which makes it a true war story. O'Brien also explains that "if at the end of a war story you feel uplifted, or if you feel that some small bit of rectitude has been salvaged from the larger waste, then you have been made the victim of a very old and terrible lie" ("A True War Story" 20). This story is not a happy ending as Mary Anne walked off into the mountains and was never seen again and nobody was ever found.

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We do believe that "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong" is a true war story because in O'Brien's definition, a war story doesn't have a happy ending, isn't moral, and doesn't show proper human behavior. In the short story, Mary Anne runs away because she saw the violent nature of the war and it took a toll on her mental wellbeing. "And then one morning, all alone, Mary Anne walked off into the mountains and did not come back. No body was ever found. No equipment, no clothing (O'Brien 15). What the men originally thought would be a good idea to bring Mary Anne to the camp, turned out to cause Mary Anne to become a victim of the war. She started to become disconnected from her true identity and lose her innocence. "At the girl's throat was a necklace of human tongues. Elongated and narrow, like pieces of blackened leather, the tongues were threaded along a length of copper wire, one overlapping the next, the tips curled upward as if caught in a final shrill syllable" (O'Brien 13). This suggests  that Mary Anne is not demonstrating proper human behavior, therefore supporting O'Brien's definition of a true war story. Additionally, the story is hard to believe and isn't uplifting. With Mary Anne running away into the woods and demonstrating these unusual behaviors, it is hard to believe that these actions actually happened. It is also not uplifting because although the story never says Mary Anne dies, it is hard to believe that she would survive in the forest alone for very long.

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"Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong" is, in my opinion, a true war story according to O'Brien's definition. O'Brien believes that a true war story is never moral and it doesn't teach a lesson, but it does not necessarily have to be true in its entirety. When Rat Kiley tells his story he already has "a reputation for exaggeration and overstatement, a compulsion to rev up the facts," so he is not taken very seriously, but an actual war story doesn't have to be. The story still reflects on the nature of war and demonstrates how strange it can be, regardless of how tall the tale is. Using Mary Anne, Rat describes "what happened to all of them. You come over clean and you get dirty and then afterward it's never the same. A question of degree. Some make it intact, some don't make it at all". Although Mary Anne is an extreme case where she supposedly goes feral, the story still emphasizes the harshness of war with no moral, good ending, or lesson, making it a true war story.

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It seems to be a true war story. According to Tim O'Brien, "A true war story is never moral"(19). The "Sweetheart of Song Tra Bong" sees Mary Anne shipped over to Vietnam since she is Fossie's elementary school sweetheart. When she arrives, she is very bubbly and almost excited to be there. Unfortunately she is quickly removed of all these traits and "Her body seemed foreign somehow - too stiff in places, too firm where the softness used to be"(6). Clearly she lost touch with who she was and became a different person. This loss of her "morals" proves that this story is a true war story. She became almost less human and lost her true self. It was a bleak story that was not trying to preach a way of life. Therefore, it fits under O'Brien's definition of a true war story.

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Both the characters of Mary Anne and Rat's narrarration show that "Sweetheart of Song Tra Bong" is a true war story. In "How to tell a True War Story", it is stated that a true war story has no moral to it. In Sweetheart", this is shown through Mary Anne's character regression. "It took a few seconds, Rat said, to appreciate the full change. In part it was her eyes: utterly flat and indifferent. There was no emotion in her stare, no sense of person behind it. But the grotesque part, he said, was her jewelry. At the girl's throat was a necklace of human tongues"(O'Brien 13). When Mary Anne first came to Vietnam, she was a naive girl who had never experienced war before. However, as the story progresses she becomes desensitized to her environment, eventually showing her transition into a killer with the Green Berets. "Sweetheart" also represents a true war story because of the line between fact and fiction. Before the story begins, the narrator tells the reader that "Rat had a reputation for exaggeration and overstatement, a compulsion to rev up the facts, and for most of us it was normal procedure to discount sixty or seventy percent of anything he had to say" (O'Brien 1). Throughout the story Rat's narrarration is constantly cut in for over exaggerating aspects of the story, so it is unknown if the events truly happen, shrouding a sense of mystery and incompleteness over the story.

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The story of "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong" is a true war story becuse the definition provided by O'brien is that a war story is never morale and it does not make the reader feel uplifted. Mary Anne is a part of the group, going on missions and even, going missing. She sucomes to the war mindset and begins to lose herself. O’Brien uses her emptiness to express raw, truthful expressions about the soldiers, how they don't belong where they were, “not just the hootch but everything around it, the entire war, the rivers and deep mister-over valleys” (O’Brien 13). The loss of character that Mary Anne suffers transitions into her unfortunate destiny, of living among the wild. But is she really lost, or does she simply not exist anymore. This question is what defines Mary Anne’s character development, or retraction, and the direct reason that O’Brien used her for his story, to further the narrative of the “true war story”. This is a true war story because by definition, this story doesn't end happily, and it ends by telling the reader that she is missing. This leaves the reader uneasy with the final words of “If you believed the Greenies, Rat said, Mary Anne was still somewhere out there in the dark… She had crossed to the other side. She was dangerous. She was ready for the kill” (O’Brien 16). Mary Anne’s character achieves a miserable mystery, leaving the reader empty and seeking a happier ending for a character who was such a lift in morale, but because this was a true war story, it had to end in saddness.