Lieutenant Philip Caputo's book is divided into three parts, because his service in Vietnam naturally breaks into three separate types of service: There is his defensive role in "The Splendid Little War," there is his role as a death historian in "The Officer in Charge of the Dead," and there is thirdly, his active exploratory role "In Death's Grey Land." This variety of roles gave Caputo a different point of view than even his compatriots.
Lt. Caputo knows the names of the dead, because he wrote them all down and document the occurrences of their deaths. He went to war to fight bad guys, and instead, he ends up counting bodies. This serves as a real life symbol for the true cost of war: horror, agony, torture, and death. Unlike some of his contemporaries, he did not use his time to indulge in escapism with movies and shows. Many of the other officers preferred that escapism to real responsibility.
There are two kinds of situations in the book: those for which Lt. Caputo is responsible and those for which some other person is responsible, in his opinion. For instance, Lt. Caputo was unable to acquire more intel on his missions than just a few very brief orders. No one seemed to have the bigger picture except the people at the top who didn't say. Then again, He does accept responsibility for the actions of his men when two of his company assassinate prisoners of war against orders. Responsibility is a haunting aspect of Caputo's time in Vietnam, and when he came back, there were those who wanted him to claim full responsibility for a war he suffered in earnest.
