Its Personal.

Throughout Hearts and Minds Tim O’Brien uses many different rhetorical devices to show the readers what being in the Vietnam War was actually like. He writes his thoughts, and those of others; we are able to get a view of life in the war.
He uses stories from other men and from his own personal to try to give the audience the feel of the war and all that it entailed. He gets the audience to trust what he is telling them is true by using the fact that he was there in Vietnam as a soldier. This gives the audience the notion that they can trust him and thus give in to his attempts to show them what it was like.
I love that he tells all the stories not only from his point of view, but also from those of other soldiers he was with in Vietnam. It makes the stories seem more sincere and that makes them more believable. The men are just normal people that were forced to join a war that they didn’t want to be a part of anyways. It goes along with the commonplace from Thank You For Arguing. By using the men he allows the people to envision themselves in the midst of the fighting.
He allows the readers to get to know each of the characters, which allows the reader to become emotionally attached to each one. He uses the emotional connection to each of the characters to make the readers feel for the characters and their stories. It makes the book feel personal.