It Was Just What It Was.

"'That old man,' she said, 'is he mad at you or something?' 'I hope not' 'He looks mad.' 'No,' I said. 'All that's finished'" (page 179). Ambiguity! Tim could mean that the war is over or he could mean that he has finally put Kiowa to rest in his mind. For him, those things probably mean the same thing. His fellow soldiers equaled the Vietnam War. We see it as a fact in history. Just something that happened. Tim lived it.

After he returns Kiowa's moccasins (why did he have moccasins?), he is at peace with his best friend's death, and therefore, at peace with the war? So "that old man" isn't angry anymore.

I don't know if this story is true or not, but if it is I also do not know if Tim originally knew that he would take the shoes back. Once he saw the field, he knew he had to. Because "Now, [the field] was just what it was. Flat and dreary and unremarkable" (page 176), Tim had to make something permanent within it. He had to leave the shoes there.