Vietnam War and precious artifacts

I'm very excited in starting our unit on the Vietnam War because it was a war full of controversial, painful, and interesting aspects that helped shape us somewhat into the country we are today. In Sturken's Article she talks about these "artifacts" or precious belongings that people kept with them in order to help cope with the anguish of the war. These things ranged from pictures, letters, personal belongings reminding them of home, or anything they cherished. These soldiers made sure to keep all these things with them because they needed a sense of motivation to continue and also the memories to stay sane. We can relate this to the first chapter of Tim O'Brien's Novel The Things They Carried because the first chapter briefly goes into the background of the soldiers in the platoon and reveal personal "artifacts" that each possess with them that reveal their personality or home life. I personally believe that the Vietnam War was a mistake because we didn't really gain anything except a black memorial at Washington D.C. to show us how many died during the war. Since we can't go back in time to change what happened we should have learned the mistake of entering pointless wars......lol