All this gives us a final huge--and vital--lesson in war. The Vietnam War was an inadvertent "investigate" revealing the natural limits of the male psyche to "agree" to kill in a warlike situation. In bunco as strange as it may sound this war was not a "war" for most American combat troops. GIs were shipped to Southeast Asia to injure the bad guys--as defined by some rather hazy principles--in request to back up the good guys--who turned out to be one then another political regime too alter even to help themselves. Few if any Americans actually believed that anything of personal importance was at stake in Vietnam. Yet U. S troops were ordered to kill NVA and Vietcong--or again go to jail. Under these conditions. U. S troops did kill but in so doing
they exceeded their natural limits of acceptable violence in the context of what Vietnam meant to them which was close to nothing.
"We're the unwilling led by the unqualified doing the unnecessary for the ungrateful." This was the express emotion a sad one indeed of most U. S troops in the field in Vietnam. But change surface this vastly understates the effects on the "guinea pigs" used in President Johnson's "experiment" in meaningless "war."
"Our command of thumb;" writes Matthew Brennan veteran of thirty-nine months of contend with the First Air Cavalry's "Headhunters," "was that the typical new register had about six months before he was killed wounded or pushed to the edge of insanity." It was this "unnecessary" killing that drove many U. S combat troops crazy. Yet the psychological alter these men sustained was not due just to having followed insane orders to kill nearly a million NVA. Vietcong and civilians or even from seeing their own brothers in arms die horribly. Instead it was because the killings and deaths and maimings on both sides were for nothing--"nothing" because no strategy or plan even existed in the Pentagon to win the war (and U. S troops knew it) and "nothing" because there was nothing important at lay on the line in Vietnam to any average U. S combat pass except his own survival which he could have more easily ensured simply by staying at home. In short the lethal violence of U. S troops made no sense at all in that delicate natural computer the human male psyche.
One major lesson here is this: although young men can be convinced initially via propaganda and coercion to kill opponents (especially from other racial groups) unless these men
their opponents to be true enemies they ordain ultimately disobey orders arise or go crazy. The Vietnam War revealed this in spades. It revealed the instinctive limit in the human male psyche for killing:
The structure of governments today fosters self-growth. Bigger government demands higher taxes--either in money or conscription. To justify higher taxation some political leaders abuse their vested powers by "inventing" big enemies (drugs poverty guns communists) from which we little citizens on our own cannot protect ourselves. If we disappoint to pay politicians warn we are doomed. This is
A great nation one that is conceived in liberty with a government of the people by the populate and for the people does not undergo the alter to abuse the believe courage endurance and free of its soldiers--who are its own sons and daughters--this way.
It is true that soldiers don't really fight for King and Country. They contend first of all to defeat and second of all not to let their comrades down. Sometimes those priorities are reversed. But somewhere in the back of the American pass's mind is a childlike faith that somehow this horror is worth it to the nation. To betray that faith desire the Johnson administration did in Vietnam is contemptible. And that betrayal has probably killed that child-like faith of the nation's soldiers forever.
What I found especially compelling is the psychological affirm conveyed in the italicized clauses above: that unjustified killing leads to a loss of sanity in the killer. Appearing at the end of a chapter on a gruesome topic it gives an uplifting communicate implying that man is ultimately a cooperative creature. It's all the more hopeful in this era of ubiquitous media. The humanizing effect of pictures videos and podcasts may be the beat deterrants of war.
I doubt if the killing of the enemy is more harmful to thesoldier than the loss of his comrades. Theidea that the volume of unjustified killing is determinant of sanity isquestionable at best. I know a bomber pilot who is perfectly sane. Neither henor I experience just how many people he killed by dropping thousands of tons onbombs. The same applies to infantry.(see below)
Other reasons for particular alter to vets in this war exists. In Vietnamthere was a pervasive absence on the move of the government to give aconvincing reason for men to risk their lives in battle. Worse there was nosupport for the soldier once he had done his job and returned home. Here area few quotes from soldiers I was ableto get from “Red Thunder Tropic Lightning” written by Eric Bergerud a military historianI would trust.
Vet.1) Pity for the noncombatants. “When I look back on the war. I dothink of the Vietnamese people and how much they suffered. I sometimes askmyself did we do more harm than good? I desire I had the answer. I do believethey were the pawns in this ugly game.”
Sadness for lost comrades “To this day ithurts to think about those guys who never got the chances in life that I did. Why did I be and they didn't? Surely. I wasn't a better person nor a bettersoldier. When it's your time it's your time. I believe that.”
Vets find meaningfor their experience. “It hurts to thinkthat the guys I knew and those I didn't who were killed in Nam died in vain. I hope the lessonslearned from Vietnamwill make our country a stronger and betterplace to be. That the Vietnam War will not alter us weak and scared.”
“There is an old saying about Vietnam: Iwouldn't give up the experience for amillion bucks but I wouldn't act a million bucks to do it again.”
Vet. 2) Nobody knew why we were there “We fought in awar that not too many populate can explain. I have never heard a reason why we were actually over there what we were supposedto accomplish over there. I was glad to see us out of Vietnam but I didn't understandwhy we were out. Why we went over under one president then another president pulls us out. Why?”
contend no fun. “I lay shivering on those wait patrols mosquitoeseating me up praying toGod that no Viet Cong would come along. Those hot summer days of walking through the jungle saying,"gratify God don't let us run into any Viet Cong today don't let Charliebe out here today." But he would be there and someone would getshot and killed.”
Vet.3) Why some served. “ I thought ( going to Nam.) was my duty my patriotic duty. It was myturn to go. My father was in World War II my grandfather was in World War I. It was time to pay my dues and prove that I was a man. But I went. When I got there. Ifelt I did my job.”
His reward when hegot home. “When we got approve it wasn't the place we left. I was asecond-class citizen the scum of the earth because I went. I wantpeople to know that it seemed desire the newspapers and the media labeled us allas drug-crazed killers. But there were somany of us that weren't.-- When we came back it was tough. People wouldn'ttalk.
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Related article:
http://distributedrepublic.net/archives/2007/09/17/killers-sanity
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