I just need help answering these questions. They are at the bottom under the letter.

Question

Dear Angela, 

This is by far the most difficult letter I shall ever write. What makes it so difficult is that you’ll be reading it in the unhappy event of my death. You’ve already learned of my death; I hope the news was broken to you gently. God, Angie, I didn’t want to die. I had so much to live for. You were my main reason for living. You’re a jewel, a treasure.... 

Please don’t hate the war because it has taken me. I’m glad and proud that America has found me equal to the task of defending it. Vietnam isn’t a far-off country in a remote corner of the world. It is Sagamore, Brooklyn, Honolulu, or any other part of the world where there are Americans. Vietnam is a test of the American spirit. I hope I have helped in a little way to pass the test. 

The press, the television screen, the magazines are filled with the images of young men burning their draft cards to demonstrate their courage. Their rejection is of the ancient law that a male fights to protect his own people and his own land. Does it take courage to flaunt the authorities and burn a draft card? Ask the men at Dak To, Con Tien, or Hill 875; they’ll tell you how much courage it takes.

Most people never think of their freedom... They never think much about breathing either, or blood circulating, except when these functions are checked by a doctor. Freedom, like breathing and circulating blood, is part of our being. Why must people take their freedom for granted? Why can’t they support the men who are trying to protect their lifeblood, freedom? 

Patriotism is more than fighting or dying for one’s country. It is participating in its development, its progress, and its governmental processes. It is sharing the never fully paid price of the freedom which was bequeathed to us who enjoy it today. Not to squander, not to exploit, but to preserve and enhance for those who will follow after us. 

Just as a man will stand by his family be it right or wrong, so will the patriot stand where Stephen Decatur stood when he offered the toast, “Our country, in her intercourse with foreign nations, may she always be in the right, but our country right or wrong.” 

We must do the job God set down for us. It’s up to every American to fight for the freedom we hold so dear. We must instruct the young in the ways of these great United States. We mustn’t let them take these freedoms for granted.

I want you to go on to live a full, rich, productive life. I want you to share your love with someone. You may meet another man and bring up a family. Please bring up your children to be proud Americans. Don’t worry about me, honey. God must have a special place for soldiers. 

I’ve died as I’ve always hoped, protecting what I do hold so dear to my heart. We will meet again in the future. We will. I’ll be waiting for that day. I’ll be watching over you, Angie, and if it’s possible to help you in some way I will. 

Feel some relief with the knowledge that you filled my short life with more happiness than most men know in a lifetime. The inevitable, well, the last one; I love you with all my heart and my love for you will survive into eternity.

1. How do you think Sintoni’s fiancée reacted to receiving this letter? 
2. What is your reaction to this letter?

Answer 1

Hi Coleton,

Well, with these questions, I think it's just best to put yourself in each person's shoes and then sort of free write to get your mind going. Just start writing about how you would feel. Or, record yourself talking about it and then write that stuff down.

Here are my thoughts and questions:

Think about what was being said about the war in Vietnam at the time, and the things that he referenced about the draft cards. He was about to leave (or return to?) a war that divided an already divided country. Service members were being insulted and abused after coming home from a horrifying war in a place that would be very different from the US. They were sent to fight to keep Communism from

spreading, and they were mostly very young people. They knew that there were a lot of casualties, and they watched embedded journalists on TV. It was horrifying.

Why do you think he wrote the letters to his loved ones? Think about the casualty count. People were seeing coffins coming back from Vietnam on the evening news. Visibly injured service members and many with severe PTSD were coming back (or, would be).

How does he feel about the war? What does he feel about the US? How do you think Angela feels about Joe, the war, the country?

Think: the person you love most in the world -- the person you fell for in high school, who you probably think you'll marry -- that person is going to war. Or, you are leaving that person to go and fight in a war that a lot of people are aggressively opposed to.

Another thing to imagine is this: say you lost someone so important to you, and then, after you found out about their death, someone hands you a letter from that person. that person only wrote 3 or 4 letters JUST IN CASE they died, and you received one of them.

If you were him, about to go do something dangerous, for a cause you believed in, or out of a sense of duty, would you write letters? Who would you write them to?

Would you want to read the letter that your loved one left?

A lot of the pain of loss is not just missing the person, but also the pain of losing the future. these two were high school sweethearts. They loved each other, knew each other pretty much their whole lives, and wanted to have a family together. Then, a bunch of people in charge, safely in power and away from danger, decided to start a war. The draft was put into effect. and two people who had plans for a life together now have no future together.

How would it feel to read that letter?

Also, here is a picture of the author (which you probably already have): https://www.vvmf.org/Wall-of-Faces/47720/JOSEPH-E-SINTONI/