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Epilogue
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Epilogue Before my first trip to Vietnam, I believed that most politicians, professional soldiers, and concerned citizens accepted the concept of going to war to protect their country's national interest. I didn't know that many of those responsible for war-making decisions ignored Clausewitz's philosophy: "No one starts a war-or rather, no one in his senses ought to do so--withoutfirst being clear in his mind what he intends to achieve by that war and how he intends to conduct it." And I didn't know that national interest could be turned on and offlike a faucet , drowning warriors in blood and leaving them hanging to drain like slaughtered pigs. In Vietnam I saw men sucked into an abstract pull of war, because the rules had changed. For some, it was like they could be little boys again. They could escape orderly society's day-to-day boredom for awhile, and run with the gang. They could cuss without looking over their shoulders to see who was listening. They could escape their parents' supervision . They could kill somebody and earn a medal instead of a prison sentence. I also saw men so strongly welded to their buddies , their troops, their units, and their way of life, that their unreal world became their only reality. Many extended their tours, or ifthey rotated home, 215 216. The Bridges ofVietnam they returned to Vietnam early. Unlike Young, who wrote that Vietnam was like a movie that you entered in the middle of and left in the middle of, these men wanted to stay to see the end. For some of them, the distinction between warriors and mercenaries blurred. I learned to be speculative and wary of senior officers from any service . I discovered that donning leaves, eagles or stars does not automatically confer a minimum level ofknowledge and integrity upon an officer. I confirmed what I had been taught for seventeen years, that maturity comes from training, whether it be at home, in school, or in the service. Military training produces the cohesive thought and discipline that can carry men through the unreal world of war, and return them to the real world. Military training teaches men to do bestial acts without becoming animals. Military training creates units that can win, based upon the fact that a unit of two people can do more than two separate individuals. Above all, I learned that, once committed to war and combat, most men become heroes. They endure more hardships-away from home, away from family, living unnatural day-to-day lives, killing, blood, dirt, agony, indignity-than their trainers could ever have created artificially. They will sacrifice on one level for their country and for their units, but on the personal level they will sacrifice for their buddies. If they're lucky, they return home with the same bodies they had when they left. Ifthey're unlucky, they go home with parts of their bodies maimed or missing, or they don't go home at all. In summary, war is an anomaly because it suspends certain rules of civilization while tightening others, and even interjecting new ones. War is obscene, because it offers a legitimate reason to perform the most illegitimate acts. War is sanctifying, because it takes a saintly act to sacrifice yourself for a fellow human being. War produces maturation because it brings warriors face-to-face with the unfaceable. Above all, war is a three-letter-word that overpowers the sum of every four-letter-word in existence. A Marine engineer officer, hours backfrom Vietnam in 1968, was asked by a reporter from the Nevada StateJournal in my presence to comment upon his last thirteen months. Mter reflecting for a moment, he said, "It was the most fantastic experience anybody could ever have." Asked to expand, he said, "Completely different from reality." Perhaps that's why troopers in Vietnam began calling the United States "the world." [54.225.1.66] Project MUSE (2024-03-19 03:44 GMT) Epilogue • 217 A Marine helicopter pilot attending the University of Nevada in 1969 said it this way to me: "I'm attending a class given by a professor who's never been to war. He talks to students about ethics in life-and-death situations . He has neat, clinical answers to all this theory. But he has no idea what it's like to be on night medevac standby for four hours, pacing back and forth, smoking cigarette after cigarette...