Being Country by Mert Heybet

1) In Bobbie Ann Mason’s novel, “In Country,” Sam stretches the imagination of our times. Ten years after the end of the Vietnam War, in the most prosaic and magical way possible, she stubbornly undertakes the exorcism of a ghost that almost everything in our everyday life manages to bury. (https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-09-22-bk-17893-story.html) This part shows us that the passage was written right after or during the Vietnam War.
2) As fighting in Vietnam intensified in the mid-1960s, the American war machine required enormous resources not only to subdue the enemy but also to sustain its fighting men. A legion of butchers, bakers, and ice cream makers fed the troops. Librarians shelved books in base libraries, entertainment specialists planned morale-boosting field trips and talent shows, craft-shop attendants minded the kilns and darkrooms, and lifeguards kept watch at the pools. Military-run retail outlets and bars employed even more personnel to stock the shelves, pour the drinks, book the bands, and count the slugs in the slot machines. On rear bases, an army of plumbers, electricians, and refrigerator repairmen kept the water running, the lights on, and the drinks ice cold. (https://www.historynet.com/easy-living-in-a-hard-war-behind-the-lines-in-vietnam.htm)
3) As in any war, the increased number of men (and increasingly women) in the military draws labor from farms and rural communities. That, in turn, hastens the move toward more mechanized agriculture.

During the Vietnam War years, rough 9 million people served in the military, compared with the 16 million who served during World War II. Of the 9 million, roughly 3 million served in the Southeast Asia area, and half of those actually saw combat in Vietnam.

By 1970, roughly 25 percent of the U.S. population was living on farms or in rural communities where hired hands would be hired from. So, using the 9 million figure, roughly 2.25 million men would have left rural communities for the military during the Vietnam era. The Vietnam War had a significant impact on the rural workforce.

In the 1960s, almost all farms were mechanized, but the war forced many farmers to become even more efficient by buying larger, more specialized machines and concentrating their operations on one main crop.

Economic costs. The Defense Department reported that the overall cost of the Vietnam war was $173 billion (equivalent to $770 billion in 2003 dollars). Veteran's benefits and interest would add another $250 billion ($1 Trillion in 2003 dollars).

(https://livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe50s/life_08.html)
4)Agriculture played in large role in the Vietnam war. Vietnamese agriculture was a target. American agricultural innovation provided a powerful chemical weapons for the war. And American agriculture was affected by the draining of farm labor and the war's impact on the overall economy. (https://livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe50s/life_08.html)
5) In addition to the timely cultural references, the characters that Mason presented also helped her gain a broader audience than many novelists enjoy. These characters do not have their interests and sensibilities formed by reading literature, but, like most Americans, they know life through the references that the consumer culture has given them. McDonald's, Holiday Inn and the shopping mall are all not just abstract, but significant pieces of their lives. In Country, like most of Bobbie Ann Mason's works, succeeds in using the mundane aspects of modern life in a search for greater meaning. (https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/country)

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