Shortly after finishing Trip to Hanoi I felt that it was necessary to see the condition of the Americans and Vietnamese during the certain time. To my surprise, Susan Sontag’s voyage to Hanoi took place in 1968, which was marked by the Tet Offensive, otherwise known as the climax of the war. This was a time that was filled with a number of attacks from the Americans that were knocking down and killing nearly everything in sight. It is important to note that Sontag was completely against what was occurring in Vietnam. She felt that she was “Made miserable and angry for your years by knowledge of the excruciating suffering of the Vietnamese people at the hands of my own government.” The anti-war approach Sontag presents is filled with love and admiration in the beginning, but as time progressed she feels immensely disconnected. She talks about how Americans are looked at as “cac ban,” meaning friends. This reveals the state of mind that most Vietnamese held, with the exception of the American government, which is noted as the “enemy.” As her trip continues Sontag notes, “There is a barrier I can’t cross. I’m overcome by how exotic the Vietnamese are-impossible for us to understand them, clearly impossible for them to understand us.” This feeling is continuous from the point that she realizes that there is a significant different between the two countries. She feels as “someone from a “big” culture visiting a “little” culture.” Sontag finds it hard to sympathize with the Vietnamese in the midst of the piece because of the gap between the two cultures.

The effort that Susan Sontag extended towards this work was simply amazing. The reality of the situation was that she was placed in a different part of the world, from a country of freedom attempting to get a feel for what exactly was occurring in what was presented to the American public as a “hostile country.” She was able to present the fact that the Vietnamese are the same innocent people, trying to survive on a daily basis from a harsh and merciless American government in a well-constructed literary piece.