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All literature consists of two parts - what the author wants to say, and how he says it.
Really good literature is good at both parts simultaneously.
What an author has to say is always context driven. The context of the author's own life experience, and the context of the reader she/he is trying to entertain/communicate with. And that is a variable - every one has a slightly (or greatly) different life experience.
Yes, Heinlein was an American, writing for an audience of people with some form of American life experience. And yes, he was an Naval Academy graduate, who never saw combat (medically retired because of Tuberculosis in the mid 1930's (when there was no effective treatment)). Tunnel In The Sky was an American Science Fiction take on the same subject material as Lord Of The Flies. Different perspective, different results.
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