What transforms Mary Ann Bell into a killer in Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong is the crude reality of Vietnam. By spending so much time with the soldiers she, in difference to them, became curious about the land and it's culture and wanted to become part of it. She is a fast learner and as her time in the combat zone passes she has drastic changes happening to her. From being a "body" of what america was to the soldiers and suddenly becoming a native to the land she surprised the soldiers.
I don't believe that her being a woman does have an effect. It can happen to any of us. Though her being a stereotypical american teenager girl does. She'd been meant to come as a piece of eye candy or so to speak for the soldiers, as a sign of hope that things after Vietnam would never change, that they would be able to like it through like nothing happened.
O'Brien lets Rat Kiley tell part of the story because Kiley knows it from a different perspective. Although Kiley tends to exaggerate it does fit O'Brien's criteria that it is a true war story due to the fact that it was unbeleavable.
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