Overview

In 1968, during the height of the Vietnam war, Bobby Costello and Walter Dybek two young men barely out of their teens are sent to Korea with their Air National Guard unit. Bobby, "Dear John ed" by his girlfriend at home, quickly falls in love with a Korean woman named Chae. Walter, feeling abandoned by his lifelong buddy, chooses to befriend Stokes, a domineering bigot he and Bobby bunk with. Constantly haunting all of them are the foreboding radio reports involving the war in Vietnam and the racial unrest in the United States. Sides are being chosen, even among the G.I.'s who have pledged to stand together, and the moral values of both Bobby and Walter soon come into question. By the play's end, Bobby realizes the responsibility he has to himself and to society, while Walter plunges blithely into a darker world of hate.

Keywords

• Adolescence
• Betrayal
• Death
• Friendship
• Love
• Memory
• Politics
• War