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When looking back at a war as controversial as America's involvement in Vietnam, it is difficult to understand why soldiers would choose to fight and why they kept fighting for so long. Through a series of letters written by the soldiers themselves, one can see multiple motivations for soldiers in Vietnam, such as believing in the cause, self-preservation, and comradary amongst the men. This is all brought together in Dear America: Letters Home From Vietnam, an adequate volume edited by Bernard Edelman for the New York Vietnam Veterans Memorial Commission.
First, there were many soldiers, at least in the beginning, who believed in the cause. The American government began this police action to keep communism from spreading, to preserve democracy in the world; throughout the military ranks, men could identify with this. As Specialist Fourth Class George Olsen wrote to a college friend, "I'm where I want to be, quite voluntarily doing what I think is right" (42). Many GI's were......

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