The Vietnam Reader (2 page)

The Vietnam Reader
is organized according to two chronological schemes. The first is the typical arc of the Vietnam narrative and traces the tour of duty from induction all the way through returning stateside. The second scheme is the timeframe during which these books and films were released. In certain chapters (such as the popular songs) I found it did more justice to the material to collect works that span a great deal of time but are similar in either theme or genre, thereby illustrating how trends in representing Vietnam echoed the changes in American popular and political culture. This combination of approaches is intended to give the reader a better sense of how both the soldiers’ and the public’s attitudes toward Vietnam have changed as the years pass.

An important point to keep in mind is that this anthology isn’t concerned with the Vietnamese or French points of view, which have produced an equal if not greater number of insightful and important works. Instead, this volume is restricted to American views of the war. One remarkable aspect of America’s involvement is that its literature focuses almost solely on the war’s effect on the American soldier and American culture at large. In work after work, Vietnam and the Vietnamese are merely a backdrop for the drama of America confronting itself. To balance American views with others’ here—in retrospect—would be to rewrite history and to present a false portrait of America’s true concerns.

A number of themes run through these works or can be read into them, the most obvious the representation of the American soldier, since he (most decidedly he) is usually the main character. In Vietnam literature, even more so than in the literature of previous American wars, the hero is the combat infantryman, whether he’s regular Army, Special Forces, or a Marine; there are few pieces concerned with Navy or Air Force personnel, and only a smattering deal with support troops. The soldier and later the vet are often given to the reader as types, if not stereotypes already familiar to the casual reader or viewer. Here’s a brief list: professional warrior, reluctant draftee, terrified new guy, hardened grunt, psycho killer/psycho vet, deluded lifer, bumbling ROTC lieutenant, disabled protest vet, troubled/addicted vet. Of course these end up being reductive if not outright slanderous clichés, but the reader will recognize variations on all these characters throughout this book and should be aware of them, and also of who on that list is eligible to play the American hero, and why.

Another major concern in these works is their view of the American presence in Vietnam—that is, the question that tortured all of America back then and still troubles some now: Was the war right or wrong? And was the American presence simply an extension of the American character, and not an anomaly? That is, can (should) the war be related to the larger cultural forces that produced it? Most of these works comment overtly on these questions, though some operate more subtly. Every author (filmmaker, photographer, songwriter) has his or her view of the war, and it’s rare when that view doesn’t surface in the work. The stances of some—say, Ron Kovic in
Born on the Fourth of July
—are unequivocally critical of U.S. involvement, while an alternative viewpoint can be found in the way James Webb’s
Fields of Fire
passes judgment on those who opposed the war. What, the reader should ask at this point, is the relationship between subjectivity and war literature? How can the author’s politics
not
influence his or her depiction of the war? Does this extend beyond the political to the personal—that is, the emotional relationship the author has with his or her experience, especially if it’s traumatic? This takes us back to the basic philosophical question of what is true and how we as readers can tell. It’s a sticky question, especially since the final authority for portraying this war—unlike any other American war—has been by default ceded to the individual participants. Instead of a monolithic history of the war, a mural painted by seemingly trustworthy official historians, what Americans have to sort through is an infinite number of puzzle pieces, few of which seem to fit, and some of which seem to be negatives of each other.

How the author or character perceives the military is a constant theme, as is the culpability of the government with respect to the war, the military, and the individual soldier. Questions of truth and responsibility often take the form of a struggle between private thought and public speech, usually in the form of lies, silence, or a tacit acceptance of the unacceptable. Several pieces highlight the use and misuse of language, whether by the media, the government, or the troops themselves. Matters of race and gender as well as class pop up in these accounts, often as a consequence of the soldier or civilian questioning his or her position not merely in the war but in American society. The fact that the war is being debated back in America is inescapable for soldiers in Vietnam, and returning vets quickly realize that the country has changed as drastically as they have. The Vietnam era witnessed the most sweeping and rapid social change in American history, and naturally the writings and films reflect the flashpoints of the culture. The only thing missing, it seems, is the Vietnamese.

On a more literary level, academic critics find the different forms and styles used by Vietnam writers interesting, most championing more technically adventurous work and decrying realism as plodding and incapable of getting the true feel of the war. General audiences, on the other hand, tend to prize the documentary, wanting to trust in the authenticity of what they’re being shown. Other critics question various authors’ use of the
bildungsroman
form, wondering whether the tour of duty can be so neatly squeezed into the German learning-novel, the youth’s positive movement from innocence to experience. Some have even labeled the typical Vietnam narrative an anti
bildungsroman,
wherein the lesson learned is destructive and leads not to wisdom but confusion. Others denounce the very process by which a chaotic, often formless experience is presented by the artist in formal dramatic terms; these critics look for new styles and forms springing organically from the war, not the tired formula fiction and films of the World War II era.

How America sees and has seen Vietnam across time depends on a number of volatile, not always reliable factors such as the overall political climate and the individual reader or viewer’s politics—and in some cases personal relationship to the war. Above and beyond these concerns is the very basic proposition, put forth endlessly by veterans and civilians alike, that you can’t know what it was like if you weren’t there. Add the difficulty of relating the chaos of war through a structured form (the plotted novel or conventional drama), and it seems impossible that the reader could understand the experience.

This is what I call the “gap” between veterans and civilians, even civilians who were there (Michael Herr has some interesting things to say about this in
Dispatches),
and we see it crop up repeatedly in these selections. Civilians don’t or won’t understand; veterans shut themselves off or refuse to talk because they feel distant, different. Much of the drama in these accounts of the war and its aftermath—and certainly much of the despair—comes from a self-conscious recognition of the gap. How America sees the veteran and how the veteran sees America are views, as it were, from the opposite sides of the gap.

Part of the gap has to do with the elusive nature of truth. In a war smothered in lies, silence, and misinformation (even now, well after the fact), how does a writer or screenwriter claim to be the bearer of truth? In American Vietnam literature, as perhaps nowhere else, it often seems the author’s authority comes not from his or her work but simply from being there, with the strange corollary that nonfiction’s spurious claim to the status of objectivity is extended to fiction written by veterans. The latter is particularly an issue given the pronounced split in methods or modes of portraying the war. While some authors choose a documentary realism, others, hoping to come closer to the emotional and intellectual effect of the experience, shoot for a more poetic or metaphorical truth, employing wild satire (Stephen Wright), magical realism (Larry Heinemann), or absurd allegory (David Rabe). When an author purposefully mixes real and metaphorical forms, the result can leave the reader with more questions than answers. As readers will see from Tim O’Brien’s great metafiction “How to Tell a True War Story” and Michael Cimino’s
The Deer Hunter,
this can be a valuable thing.

So how, against these odds, does the artist bridge the gap, send his or her work sparking across it so readers and viewers feel that, briefly, they understand what it must have truly been like in Vietnam? One provocative answer is that the Vietnam artist does it the same way any artist does it, using point of view, concrete detail, and the power of language and image, sound and vision—all of the artist’s sharpest tools—to transport the reader or viewer there. Another answer is that it’s impossible. Regardless, year after year, American artists—vets and otherwise—try. This book is a testament to how well they’ve done.

Chronology of the War

2nd Century
B.C.
The Chinese conquer Vietnam.

939
Vietnam expels the occupying Chinese armies.

1500s
French missionaries and traders arrive.

1857
Unable to gain trade concessions, the French attack Da Nang.

1867
The French officially make Southern Vietnam (Cochin China) their colony.

1883
The French capture Hanoi and divide the North into two regions, Annam and Tonkin.

1890
Birth of Ho Chi Minh.

1919
Vietnamese living in Paris try to meet with Woodrow Wilson at Versailles to discuss independence. They’re turned away.

1940
Japan occupies Vietnam but lets French rule continue.

1945
The Japanese surrender Saigon to British troops; Ho Chi Minh declares Vietnamese independence, but the British impose martial law and return power to the French.

1946
The Viet Minh attack the French, beginning the Indochina War.

1950
The United States sends the French mission economic and military aid.

1954
The French surrender at Dien Bien Phu leads to the Geneva Accords, by which Vietnam is partitioned along the 17th Parallel.

1959
A communist attack on Bien Hoa kills two U.S. military advisers.

1961
President Kennedy sends Green Berets and military advisers to train South Vietnamese troops.

1963
A coup overthrows Vietnamese President Diem with tacit U.S. approval. Diem is assassinated. Less than a month later, JFK is assassinated.

1964
North Vietnamese torpedo boats allegedly attack two U.S. warships. Congress passes the Tonkin Gulf resolution, giving the military the means of protecting itself from Vietnamese aggression.

February 1965
Operation Rolling Thunder. The United States begins sustained aerial bombing of the North.

March 1965
First battalion of U.S. ground troops arrives at Da Nang.

October 1965
The Ia Drang Valley. First major battle between U.S. and Northern forces.

January-February 1968
The Tet Offensive, a massive countrywide attack by Viet Cong forces. While a crushing defeat for the VC, it turned American public opinion against the war. Though the Marines weathered the seventy-seven-day siege of Khe Sanh, it was perceived by the media and the public as a defeat.

March 1968
My Lai. Lt. William Calley and his troops murder an entire South Vietnamese village, killing hundreds.

March 1968
President Johnson announces he will not seek reelection.

May 1968
First formal peace talks.

October 1968
LBJ stops the bombing of the North.

March 1969
President Nixon authorizes the secret, illegal bombing of Cambodia.

June 1969
First U.S. troop withdrawals.

September 1969
Ho Chi Minh dies.

May 1970
In the United States, students stage massive protests against the bombing of Cambodia. National Guardsmen kill four demonstrators at Kent State University.

1970-71
Troop withdrawals continue.

January 1972
Nixon announces that his national security adviser, Henry Kissinger, has been conducting secret peace talks since1969.

March-April 1972
The Easter Offensive. Northern forces attack bases in the South.

August 1972
Last American ground troops leave Vietnam.

November 1972
Nixon reelected.

April-December 1972
Major bombing of the North.