I was really surprised by the camaraderie (or rather lack of) in the US army in Vietnam. Having soldiers come on individual time schedules and a real problem with fragging with over 15% of deaths due to friendly fire– that's just crazy. The soldiers also seemed to be living in an apocalyptic world and were reduced to savagery. The description of "We ... put Playboy magazines in their hands, cut off their ears to wear around our necks" is terrifying.
But aside from being a morally and morale-ly deficient war, what surprised me were the sides who backed the effort back in the States. I question whether Patterson is right in saying that labor unions, corporations, Congress, the media, and Churches supported the war solely because of anti-communist opinion. Could it have been that strong that Johnson would blindly follow the polls and continue the effort in "the bottomless pit?" Another idea that struck me was the media's emerging influence as a reporter of true facts and not just a relabelled echo-chamber for the government, and how this could've ultimately led to the prospect of peace talks. Hopefully we'll be able to talk about this in class.
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