Throughout the book, Mr. Webb painstakingly leaves political discussion out of the picture, and instead, focuses on a Marine rifle platoon in one of the fiercest battlefields of Vietnam where the American civilian value has no relevance, and the platoon, consequently, is pitted in a struggle for survival. Eventually, the entire platoon is wiped out during a regimental operation against the North Vietnamese regulars. Ironically, it is the crippled Harvard undergraduate--a misfit who is dubbed the "Senator" because of his elite background--who delivers the verdict on the anti-war demonstrators for their alleged cowardice.
The book does not try to justify the "legitimacy"--or the lack thereof--of the war where Mr. Webb and his men fought and bled, but calls for its readers to sympathize with and respect the men who fought in it. As he suggests through a Maileresque device known as the Time Machine, everyone in the platoon, except for Senator and the lieutenant, joins the Corps to get away from grim prospects at home, unaware that they will die in a godforsaken war. However, in spite of this, unlike many other typical Vietnam War novels, it discusses abstract ideals such as honor and duty associated with battlefield through Lt. Hodges who willingly volunteers for a tour in Vietnam.
True, the book is dark and depressing, but it is also entertaining and totally believable at the same time. That is why this book remains one of the finest literary works on the Vietnam War