Helicopters
Herr is fascinated by the incredible power of helicopters in combat. Throughout his time in Vietnam, he travels throughout the country primarily in the air. He writes that the helicopters "were so plentiful and loose that you could touch down at five or six places in a day." He pays great attention to the aerial advantage that helicopters provided, and describes the view of the ground from the air. There is in some sense a technological glamorization, with Herr treating the helicopters as objects of masculine power.
Bodies
As with any piece of war writing, "Dispatches" contains many vivid descriptions of casualties. Yet Herr does not view them as static entities, rather like other logistics of a combat scenario. For example, one scene follows a Marine working on body detail who struggles to pack the bodies of fellow soldiers. Frustrated, he says "Damn...this fucker had big feet." He also writes about Marines posing and taking photographs of bodies. In this sense, the treatment of bodies in "Dispatches" is less ceremonial than troublesome. Viewing the corpses of dead soldiers, Herr considers his own mortality, writing "I realized the only corpse I couldn't bear to look at would be the one I would never have to see."
Khe Sahn
The third section of the novel takes place at Khe Sahn and features some of the novel's most descriptive writing. Herr writes with precision about the area's terrain and weather. He portrays the landscape as "a run of erratic mountain ranges, gnarled valleys, jungled ravines and abrupt plains." Stationed at Khe Sahn, Herr follows the movement of troops and palpably describes the mood and emotions circulating in the tense combat situation. As he writes, "Khe Sahn was a very bad place then."
The Map of Vietnam
The novel begins with Herr describing a map of Vietnam that once lined his walls. Yet as he writes, "it wasn't real any more." It contained French elements as well as American elements, all of which were jumbled during the Vietnam War. In this way, Herr is commenting on the troubled colonial history of Vietnam, and pointedly referring to the ways in which combat and warfare irreparably altered the country.
Drugs
Alongside the vivid portrayals of combat and casualties, Herr also covers the leisure pursuits of soldiers, and himself, during the Vietnam War. As becomes incredibly clear, drugs were a popular pastime. Herr smokes marijuana with his friends and fellow journalists. It becomes a means by which to connect the men. Like a water-cooler in the American workplace, a joint or a smoke-circle became a place a place where the men could both discuss the war and relax.
Film
Much of Herr's writing has a cinematic quality. He crafts scenes as those with the sweeping scope of the camera. He goes so far as to suggest that the war itself was a movie. At one point, a wounded soldier yells "I hate this movie." In this way, Herr suggests that the war was so inconceivably horrible that it was best represented through the fiction of film.
