E-Learning Task 1

Henry M Bchtold was sent to Vietnam from 1967-1968. During that time, the Vietnam War was raging and he witnessed what happened. He fell in love with the place, even saying that Vietnam was his mistress. He always went back to Vietnam now and then. He wrote this poem during one of his visits in 2009. He was in his hotel room in Saigon watching the news channel. A picture of a boy with a helmet flashed on the news channel. This reminded him of the Vietnam War in the late 1960s, giving him inspiration to write this poem. Since then, he has been visiting Vietnam quite often to revisit old memories and has been posting pictures on his blog.

The conflict in this poem is about how because of war, many children in Vietnam lose their opportunity for education and in the end join the arm forces, only to eventually lose their lives.

References:
http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/2010warpoetry.html#children
http://www.henrybechtold.com/index.html