Radio funny man Adrian Cronauer is sent to create just a humor straight back into the soldiers' lives. After setting up shop, Cronauer delights the G.I.s but shocks his superior officer, Sergeant Major Dickerson, with his irreverent spin on the warfare. Cronauer pursues a relationship with a Vietnamese girl named Trinh, who shows him the horrors of warfare first hand, while Dickerson attempts to censor Cronauer's broadcasts.