“APO 96225” by Larry Rottman

After reading Larry Rottman’s poem, “APO 96225,” the attitude of the American public toward the war in Vietnam was very clearly revealed. The letters sent home by the soldier in the poem are initially vague and pleasant, but when the mother instructs her son to finally send information on what is really happening, his statements shock his family. The brutality and inhumanity of what was actually happening in the war was not what the family wanted to hear, and the father responds to his son’s letter with the message, “Please don’t write such depressing letters. You’re upsetting your mother,” (Rottman, 846). This is the phrase that really represents the American view of Vietnam. During the war, most people did not want to hear the details of what was really happening; they wanted the information that had been combed through and toned down. The son in the poem shares trivial details about the weather and scenery with his family rather than the actual information because he knows they do not want to hear it. This is confirmed with the father’s response above. Through his poem, Rottman clearly portrays the American’s refusal to know the truth of what was happening during the war, as it was not what they wanted to hear. The son’s return to discussion of the weather in the last stanza of the poem proves that he was correct in his decision to not originally share any reality with his family.