What is the price we pay for a warlike America? I time-traveled back to Vietnam today, thanks to a very personal report about that war by Anthony St. John, posted by Seymour Hersh.
The posted excerpt is ugly, deep, personal, specific to a slog by part of the Americal Division through leech-infested trenches. Vietnam, like all our wars, was deeply rooted in the American vision of “manhood.” War is what “real men” do. Are called upon to do. Are forced to do. Expect they will have to do. And for many, want to do.
War is honored, rewarded, given medals. The rewards for politicians’ and generals’ folly. The soldier is the sacrificial lamb, brought to the slaughter by safe people, sitting in leather chairs, far behind the lines of combat.
Soldiers knew, as they pulled the leeches from their bodies, that they were slogging through Vietnam’s jungles for nothing at all. The only solace – their buddies. There was no other gain. In that small moment, in the ditch, it just was.
The soldiers knew, the watchers at home knew, anyone making even the most cursory glance at what was happening knew, that the Vietnam war was insane, stupid, and meaningless. That all the chest-thumping rhetoric broadcast in the political sphere was a delusion.
Leaders lied; soldiers died. Brutally stupidly, in some gully beside a rice paddy, their brains blown away, limbs lost, lives changed or lost forever.
No it was not the first war ever; foot soldiers have been paying the price for politicians’ folly for centuries. The gullys of Vietnam echoed the trenches of World War I. But it was our war, my war, the searing experience for a generation of young American males, black (disproportionately) and white, deployed or rising the war at home.
The nation wanted no more of that, in that moment in the 1970s. But the politicians and policy-makers worried about this “Vietnam syndrome.” The reluctance to fight, to deploy overseas. Manhood lies deep in this spiritual and intellectual trench. Yes, that manhood thing again – when, they asked, will the nation grow a new spine and be willing, once again, to go out in search of what John Quincy Adams called “monsters to destroy.” Time to get back in the saddle and sally forth.
These chest thumpers of maleness celebrated America’s military “victory” over Saddam Hussein, a fifth-rate opponent. America was “back.” They poured more sacrificial lambs/men into the breach 2003. Once again, America was on the march and the foot soldier was doing the marching.
Water-filled gullys in Vietnam were replaced by sand-blown streets in the Middle East and South Asia. Vietnam, redux: knocking down doors instead of burning hootches; families cowering in fear in the face of red-faced, frightened boys with guns, scared, themselves, that there might be a terrorist behind the curtain. Boys masquerading as a conquering force, hollering, brandishing weapons, interrogating, torturing. The politicians demanded this; manhood demanded this.
It failed, as it did in Vietnam. Returning, with the nation’s collective tail between its legs, the soldiers headed to their hospitals, VA centers, counseling, PTSD- riddled lives. Victims of another round of politician’s and generals’ egos and lies. Defeated. For all the male bravado, a failure.
“What did I do this for?” “Was it for nothing at all.” Firmly, yes, it was for nothing at all. For the delusion of global superiority, the mistaken belief that America was rightly in charge and should remake another country. The misguided, even cynical idea, that it was America’s mission to impose government on another people we did not know or understand.
And who pays? Oh, yes, the people of Iraq (or Afghanistan, if you prefer). But we are paying dearly at home. Check out the homeless in America’s streets today, like Portland OR where I live. Check out the service records of many of the deluded men who thought it wise to attack the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Angry men, wounded men, lost men. Families broken apart courtesy of the dreams of rage in the dark of night and unleashed anger and violence. Better prosthetics for men whose hearts and spirits are more broken than their phantom limbs. There is no doubt that we are paying the price of hubris, or warped vision of manhood, and the suicidal delusions of policy-makers.
Oh, yes, I have served in the counsels of government. In those chaotic conversations about how to fix the problems of Haiti, or Cuba, or Iraq, or the Balkans. Sat in the cheap seats at Situation Room meetings watching the macho intellectual combat on full display at the main table. My answer is tougher than yours; my logic more commanding than yours; I just countered your argument with something more tough. Combat through mental logic, angry assertion, a “can do” male mentality.
Like a graduate school seminar – yes, I have done that, too. Hearts don’t belong there; they have been shut down. It is inappropriate to talk about who dies, who pays the price, what indigenous person in a hootch, mud hut, stucco house is going to be back against the wall in fear. It would be wrong to anticipate failure; we are a “can do” nation. And the male egos rage on.
I was raised in this ethos; I know this rage and fear.
For all that manhood-driven aggression, America is now paying the price. At home, and in our reputation abroad. We are sick and divided as a nation and no longer respected in the world.
More humility, and less hubris would serve us better. Men, and women, who know compassion, lovingkindness, greater joy, and less anger, would serve us better. The next generation of soldiers would not be asked to pay the price.
I was speaking today about the war in Ukraine on some online platform of disagreement – for us, in this country, perhaps another senseless excursion into madness. You are right – it is the same ancient testosterone fueled battle between men screeching "I want it" versus " you can't have it".
As I was reading your essay I realized what I was arguing online is the exact same rationale used in Vietnam – you let this country fall to the evils of communism the world as we know it will end. Except today it is if we let Ukraine fall to Russia, Europe will be next. It is heinous to me that we could descend into madness on the idea of a "what if".
But is it important for us to "help a friend"? Is it important to contain Russia? Is Europe really at risk? After all, Europe is more than just our allies. They are family. At least for European Americans they are family. Right now it's just money and arms. In Vietnam it was just "advisors". Is there any difference? A country as large and wealthy as us what would happen if we just stood by while Russia and Ukraine battled each other for testosterone bragging rights.
One thing I have learned at 71 that I didn't know at 21 was there are no simple answers. There is no moral superiority on either side of the debate. It pisses me off that Putin invaded Ukraine. There is something about Putin's arrogance that tweaks me. But this is war. Dirty, ugly, costly and excruciatingly painful. Is there ever a "worth it"? Unless it's personal, is it ever worth it? For Ukraine it's personal. And is it ever ok – considering the cost of war – to sit passively back while someone like Putin takes something that is not his? It's not our war. It's not our direct problem. (Although it could be argued that it is likely, if Russia controls the Black Sea that it is our indirect problem.)
It has been a long long time since the United States has had a war that is our personal business. And we are strategically placed in the world to make a personal war pretty unlikely. But you never know. And there's always Ukraine.
The person I was "debating" would argue it's America first. We have enough problems here without spending our taxes across the ocean. She's right in many ways. And God knows we have done the "minimal involvement", but very pricey, thing often –no, not often – all the time. I know this well. But once we are there it is an easy swing left to boots on the ground and we are bodies deep in another testosterone fueled posturing take down.
And just to point out, new modern war is not going to be limited to men –our next war that has boots on the ground won't be just men. 153 women died in combat in the mideast region. Perhaps that seems a small number but it is too big for yet another senseless war. And what will happen to warfare with a healthy dose of estrogen thrown into the mix? And before you all get all unicorns and rainbows: women survive birthing, PMS can be brutal and menopause is its own special kind of battlefield.
Just saying.
Jo Trafford
Sad to read, Abby. It was worth recounting all of that, for the last paragraph. May it be so. May we continue inclining our hearts and minds toward compassion and kindness to all.