Reading from my Dad's letter home from a Naples hospital to his parents in Hollywood Ca, "The bullet entered on the right chest 1 1/2 inch above the nipple and and went smack bang through without touching a bone and leaving two of the neatest holes you ever saw. As I flipped backwards down the hill I thought, "so this is how it ends, I wonder if the folks will be OK". I made the mistake once of remarking to him that we send young men to war because they are filled with testosterone and don't yet fear death, that they will charge up the hill to take an enemy position. He told me with some anger, "No, they don't charge up the hill, they hide in any cover they can find, they have to be led up the hill", which was what he was doing as the platoon leader when a German soldier popped up and blasted him with a burst from a machine pistol.
103
My father was a Holocaust survivor. When I saw Schindler’s List, I wanted to protect him from the horrors depicted in that film. When I warned him that he might be deeply disturbed by the movie, he laughed me off. “I’ve seen everything in that movie and much, much worse. They can’t show what it was really like; if they did, no one would watch the movie.”
130
Thank you. My dad was killed October 4, 1944 somewhere in Belgium / Luxembourg. Good to have a moment to remember him - feel the loss that I never knew him.
24
HBO is airing a series on world War II titled "The Pacific" that very graphically portrays much of the reality of combat.
5
On a war memorial I know here in Germany are engraved the words …
“Because the dead are silent, history repeats.”
Luckily, there are those letters from the dead to remind us what a despicable and worthless crime war is.
14
And yet, we learn nothing from this slaughter...Nothing whatsoever. So, really, what is the use of these article or stories. What is the use?
5
“...the incommunicable experience of war.” The experience is incommunicable, the words are not. Writing as though this may be the last day. Basic.
3
That was then, this is now. Now most veterans support a treasonous playboy from NY. The kind of elite man they used to mock and despise. I will never again honor our vets at my favorite pastime of baseball, and I will always make sure I’m in the head when they play the anthem. My pride for this country is diminished beyond repair. Putin won. The greatest generation fought and died in vain.
19
Enrolling is the only most extraordinary decision you could make. On one hand you should enroll because without the United States keeping peace in many parts of the world Russia lead by a criminal will rule half of the word and China with a criminal agenda will rule the rest of the world with a European Union very weak. there would not be no more democracies all that will be left will be turmoil and criminal leaders supported by Russia.
On the other hand as a soldier of the USA you could be killed or severely injured and the gift of life is the biggest gift you can give to your country and the world but it could create horrible pain for your family. it is a very hard choice and extremely difficult choice but I believe that America is such a huge an important democracy that Enrolling in its army is the thing to do. I became American 12 years ago and decided to enroll 10 years ago during the iraki war with a unique agenda. I was close to 60 years old but I wanted to enroll as a driver of trucks because truck drivers where blown off by IED and young soldiers, young truck drivers 20 years old to 25 were killed although they had a great future ahead of them but I did not have one, mine was behind me. unfortunately both the army and the national guard rejected me because I was too old. Yes we must enroll in the US army because the future of our planet depends on American soldiers and of course on decent commander-in-chief which is not the case today 11/11/2019
2
The Idiocy for War began in 1950, the Korean war, a civil war between North & South. Next...Vietnam, North & South, both not dissimilar to our North/South Civil war of 1860-65.
Who benefited from these conflicts ? Certainly not those Americans who sacrificed OR OUR FREEDOMS !
As other regions settled....the military establishment lobbied to enter into ancient conflicts in Arabia. Who would think Westerners would know to solve religious conflicts of centuries ? We didn't! And we can't !
Whomever decided the United States of America to be the 'policemen of the world' ? JUST STOP Our boys and girls are too precious to die in meaningless conflicts...…!!!!!
6
Phil Ochs, Draft Dodger Rag: "And if you ever get a war without blood and gore, I'll be the first to go." That's principle.
4
My father fought during World War II. He had fought in the 101st Airborne, Yankee Infantry Div., and was involved in liberating a concentration camp. He experienced nightmares that made him shout in his sleep, and my mother would say he was having a "war" nightmare. I remember his description of his getting closer and closer on foot to the conc. camp he liberated - first mistaking a pile of emaciated bodies for some strange fire-wood and then describing his realization. When he described it, you could see the horror in his eyes, so I always assumed any nightmares were related to that, although he was in bloody battles, as well, and saw a lot of fatalities.
Trump's concept of war is a John Wayne movie, AT BEST (considering his limited attn span & that the movie isn't about him).
I look forward to his facing some of the same indictments his former campaign mgr and fixer atty have seen, as well as getting tried for treating migrant children worse than animals are treated in a zoo.
Trump's "America first" bellowing is an insult to my father's memory. Back then this was what Nazi sympathizers shouted. His autocratic behavior, disrespect for our NATO allies, inhumane disregard for migrants, admiration of demagogues, and attitude toward the Kahn family while campaigning were an insult to this country.
During his veterans day speech today the protestors, sounds were filtered out; and it sounded as though only 20 people were applauding.
That's 20 more than he deserves.
21
I am the son of a valiant WWII verteine. I grew up on military bases. I listened to the stories that my father and friends told about WWII. That was was so horrible that no a single one could talk about combat. All their stories were about silly or funny things that happened. My father saw the atrocities that the Japanese Army committed on the people of Burma. A close friend of his landed on Omaha beach and only he and another man in his company got off that beach un-wounded or killed. . Another was with the first US Army unit to reach the Dachau Nazi extermination camp. He could not talk about it to anyone. Anyone wh, like bone spur Trump that thanks our mentality people are insulting them. I do not "thank" combat veterans because that is meaningless coming from someone who did not have to go to war and kill. To me most of the "thankers" are the same people who oppose better benefits, medical care and retirement for those heros. Draft dodger "Bonespur" insults the US military every time he mentions it.
15
"And came out with a hate for war I’ll never lose. "
as George McGovern said on the floor of the US Senate:
"This chamber reeks of blood. Every Senator here is partly responsible for that human wreckage at Walter Reed and Bethesda Naval and all across our land—young men without legs, or arms, or genitals, or faces or hopes.
There are not very many of these blasted and broken boys who think this war is a glorious adventure. .... It does not take any courage at all for a congressman, or a senator, or a president to wrap himself in the flag "
24
My Dad, a World War II combat infantryman always quipped, "Heaven, and hell, are both above the Earth." His first hand account of the battle of Monte Porchia and Anzio are worth reading (in his memoir, "Private Good Luck"). What he witnessed in combat haunted him his entire life.
9
The Man He Killed by Thomas Hardy
Had he and I but met
By some old ancient inn,
We should have set us down to wet
Right many a nipperkin!
But ranged as infantry,
And staring face to face,
I shot at him as he at me,
And killed him in his place.
I shot him dead because--
Because he was my foe,
Just so: my foe of course he was;
That's clear enough; although
He thought he'd 'list, perhaps,
Off-hand like--just as I--
Was out of work--had sold his traps--
No other reason why.
Yes; quaint and curious war is!
You shoot a fellow down
You'd treat, if met where any bar is,
Or help to half a crown.
10
Thank god for their sacrifice or we'd be living ( or dying) under Nazi rule.
4
My father, a decorated sergeant fought in the Battle of the Bulge, and later witnessed the striped pajama bodies of Nazi death march victims. Worse, in one way, was the behavior of his commanding officers -- one who awarded himself a Purple Heart because he was too afraid of combat; another who permitted the gang rape of a French woman; another who said we should have been fighting with the Germans against the Soviets, to say nothing of their pervasive racism. No wonder when they wanted to send my father to Officer's Candidate School, he refused.
8
It is Remembrance Day in Canada and these letters brought home the terror these soldiers endured. My father and his four brothers fought in the RCAF in WW2 and my uncle ended up being a member of the Guinea Pig Club, enduring major face surgeries through the years. This was a result of being burned as a navigator in his plane. He never mentioned it. We owe the WW2 combatants thanks for not being ruled by a fanatic like Hitler.
Netflix has a great documentary series that demonstrates the course of WW2 and its events. We need to be knowledgeable about the true nature of war, give thanks to our veterans but learn from history---not repeat it!
44
I only wish that the leaders who send men into combat and those who proudly chant "support our troops" (as if that is the same thing as supporting the war or the reasons why we are there), or "U S A! U S A" as if war is a football game, would read this and understand. The sanitized war movies were designed, as Ron Kovitz noted, to get the next generation to fight. When Saving Private Ryan came along, with its images of the horrors of Omaha beach, it still missed the horror of the smell, but came close. Yet I remember a tv program where this Army spit and polish type was saying the movie did a disservice to the country, and on the same program a grizzled WWII ranger veteran who was there looking at him and saying "Son, were you anywhere near fighting outside fighting to get a table at some restaurant?"
My dad was a WWII vet and like the letter writers, it affected him his whole life. He always said those cheering the war were the VFW and American legion types, who in his experience were usually the back of the lines guys, he said if you saw and smelled combat the last thing you would do is cheer it. He was an anamoly of people his age, he hated the Vietnam war and was outspoken about it, and said no war is worth the cost, but Vietnam was criminal in what it took. And when challenged, he had the credentials, multiple purple hearts, silver star, action from the breakout through the bulge and end of the war (3rd army, tank destroyer unit), he would understand these letters
83
Like all things in life, you can't really know someone else's experience without "walking a mile" in their shoes. War, in all its horror, is perhaps the most extreme version of this truism. Anyone who doesn't know this and and approach the use of war as anything but the last resort doesn't know or care about the people they send in to it.
8
A sure way to end war: require any president who starts it, any congress member who votes for it, to send a son or daughter or go himself or herself--and no hiring substitutes, as in the Civil War. Man, we'd have peace on earth in almost no time, or close to it, since, as Dr. King inconveniently pointed out, the US is the main perpetrator of violence in the world.
18
Read Wartime: Understanding and Behavior in the Second World War by Paul Fussell. He says all anyone needs to know.
3
And articles like this will always remain hidden like here in the NYT, where most will never see them. Because if everyone knew the reality, no one would join to participate in these "wars". No kids would be seeing TikTok videos of the military firing machine guns and commenting enviously "The sound of freedom!". They might be talking about peace, which, I might add, a lot used to.
8
Actually, everyone who snidely remarks “OK boomer”, should read these. It puts the UNBELIEVABLE stress of seeing something unpleasant on social media into a whole new perspective.
10
and yet, many young men and women will think its a noble cause and march on to see for themselves.
1
So terribly sad.
My dad was a pilot in World War II, and was wounded. He would never speak about his experiences, except to say that it was a horrible time and that he hated war.
Such a waste of life.
8
This article reminds me of The Death of Capt. Waskow, perhaps the best thing Ernie Pyle ever wrote. It is worth reading any time, but, especially, on Veterans Day. Pyle, when he wrote it, thought it awful and feared that he'd lost whatever gifts he might have had as a writer. On the contrary. It is, I think, one of the most eloquent things ever written about the horrors and madness of war:
https://sites.mediaschool.indiana.edu/erniepyle/1944/01/10/the-death-of-captain-waskow/
8
As awful to soldiers as is real combat, it is not ever worse than what happens to inocent civilians, unarmed and undefended, but executed en masse in concentration camps. Combat's losses are not any sadder than executions in POW camps. But for all the terrors and horrors of combat, history seems to tell us that if we're going to die in combat attacks, it seems right to fight defying our fear as the better part of valor, not run from it. For we cannot know from the killed soldiers, whether they fought on their feet defying death, or died as cowards, trembling and fleeing the enemy, or on their knees as martyrs.
1
As a young man I remember my neighbor, an aging WWI veteran who would warn against the glorification of war. He knew the trenches. His mission, late in life, was to grow the most beautiful roses until his twilight passed.
I also remember, sitting with a WWII vet, on the banks of the Colorado River in one of its majestic sandstone canyons, as his contemporary recited from memory Rudyard Kipling's "Gunga Din." "You are a better man than I, Gunga Din." War was never glorified in those serene moments in nature.
9
I have read many, many books on war, especially books about the Civil War and World War II. Up until about a decade ago, I always thought that many of the authors treated fighting as a football game, with the casualties and the amount of land gained, as the scorecards. I.E. -- We took 100 yards and lost 30 men. That has changed in recent years and that is a good thing. US Grant won the civil war simply because he threw thousands and thousands of soldiers at confederate defenses, knowing full well that many would die but the North had more than enough men to compensate for these deaths. Hmmmm.
2
@Seth
That's not true. Grant was not the butcher that defeated confederates said he was in order to excuse their losing to him.Do some research on him and read his memoirs,you'll come away with a different view.
8
@Seth Sorry Seth butyour facts on Grant are wrong. Lee was the butcher as well as a traitor, slave owner, and racist.
11
Thank you for sharing these powerful and haunting descriptions, and for your own understated and eloquent commentary. Sadly some wars may be necessary, but they should always be the last resort. And we must always commit to honoring and caring for those who endure it on our behalf.
7
I cannot imagine that the brave young men who risked everything to save the world from the clutches of a madman envisioned the chaotic despotic mess that calls itself government today.
There was a time, not even that long ago, that dignity, comity and principle mattered. Not anymore.
How short the memory. How deep have we severed the ties that bind this nation together.
The glorification of endless war and the paid patriotism that passes for real patriotism ensures that we will be engaged in battles for a long, long time.
17
As I read this moving piece, I thought not only of the many Americans, including immigrants to our country, who have fought, lost their lives, or returned home with horrific memories of their fighting days, but also my thoughts were drawn to the thousand of Kurdish troops and civilians who fought and often lost their lives fighting with us in Syria and who were tossed aside by Trump who continue to fight and die.
22
A very good friend of my family fought with General Patton as an infantryman. He's now deceased. From rural Minnesota, he spoke German at home. Being 6'2', he lied about his age and enlisted at 16. He fought 180 days straight, including the Battle of the Bulge. He had at least one Bronze Star and at least two Purple Hearts. He had so many combat points that after V-E Day he was on the first troop ship back to the states, where he was to start training for the invasion of Japan. He rarely spoke of his wartime experiences, but one day he and I were on a long drive and he started talking. He told me that his time in battle was the best experience of his life. House to house combat was his favorite. He said that he had complete freedom. When he went AWOL in Germany, being hosted by a family with the same surname as his, who feted him with food and liquor they'd been hoarding, the MP's just came and got him and sent him back to the front; experienced soldiers being at a premium. What I make of this is that some people enjoy war, which is why we're still at it.
9
My father fought in France during WWII, and suffered through the Battle of the Bulge. At a family reunion in 2001, a cousin told me that her dad (my dad’s brother-in-law) said my dad was never the same after the war. He was always a kind and sensitive man, and I think it was very hard for him. He seldom spoke about the war, but suffered with anxiety the rest of his life.
12
My mother was a teenager in Brussels at the time. The building she lived in was grazed by a v2 rocket (Similer to a scud missile) while she was in school. The scarred building remains to this day. She and her family loved the American soldiers who ‘liberated’ Belgium. She married a US soldier, my dad, after the war. As fate would have it, as a landlord I had the honor of renting to an elderly tenant Emilio, who was a paratrooper who was dropped into and fought in the Arden. He told me about the battle and I told him he saved my Mom.
11
This Author doesn't seem to take into account any question of why did this attack at around 3 weeks before the end of the war even happen. It didn't have any effect on ending the war. That was all happening around Berlin. This whole battle was an exercise to learn how effective the US Army's training was. It just happened to happen under live fire conditions, with real life death. Their was absolutely no military reason to have had this last battle. These men died and were wounded for absolutely nothing, accept for some General to get another metal.
10
Thank you for this sharing of your research. More like this is needed — perhaps it would have some impact on our overly militaristic society.
2
Growing up in a working class neighborhood in NC during Vietnam, I enlisted in the Air Force in early 1966 and trained in electronics, thus making my two tours in SE Asia safe. Not so for three young men who lived within a mile of my family's house. The first casualty was a young Marine who had driven the car on my first date who was killed in 1966 leaving behind his date that night, a widow at 19. The second young man, a draftee, was killed during the Tet Offensive in 1968, I saw his name in the Stars & Stripes and had to sit down. The third young man of 19 was killed in 1970. Fifty years later I often wonder why I was so lucky and why these three young boys who I played sports and socialized with were called to make the ultimate sacrifice. Yes, I feel guilty and yes I honor their memory every Veterans Day.
29
@EDH You weren't 'lucky' (although I know what you are getting at). You were in a particular part of the machine, and they were in other parts. 'Nothing personal,' as the saying goes. Maybe you'll meet up eventually and learn they've been fine while you've been doing the guilt thing.
2
My Father, Ralph Snyder, was drafted in October 1941 and was discharged from Ft. Pickett VA. in August of 1945. As a Platoon Sergeant in Co. E of the 127th Infantry Regiment in the 32nd Division he saw battle and was injured in New Guinea during Buna-Gona, and then again in the Philippines. Spent almost 3 years in the South Pacific. I knew him much later as a quiet and kind man who worked hard and loved his kids. No hint of what he had been through in those 3 years. So let movies be made and politicians hold up the flag but don't ever forget there are real heroes standing next to us.
15
A much-needed corrective to our usual narratives, although I myself have read enough about our Civil War to know something of the reality about which Professor Isserman writes. Thank you for running this piece.
5
I had the good fortune to serve under Colonel (then LTC) Robert Howard, who was nominated for the Medal of Honor 3 times and was one of the most highly decorated troops of the Vietnam era. He was our Commander at Special Troops Battalion VII Corps at Kelley Barracks in Stuttgart, Germany in the 1980s.
He was not the Hollywood image of a Soldier in any era, yet he was certainly one of the most accomplished Americans to have ever served. He rose from Private to First Sergeant as an enlisted man and then from Lieutenant to Colonel in the officer ranks. You can look him up- anything I could describe here would not do justice to his memory.
Contrary to the image often cast (and commented here) that our troops are poor kids trying to escape poverty, the truth is that the men and women of our volunteer force want to serve. Many people find a purpose in military service that they do not get in civilian life. Maybe some do not understand that desire or feeling, but I had it and am glad that I served in our Army.
Our troops make a deal with their country- they pledge to follow lawful orders regardless, even unto death. What America owes them is to not waste their lives and sacrifice on stupid wars and private agendas. There are far too many chickenhawks in and around D.C. that have never served but are happy to send you or your loved ones off to the next war.
22
@David Gregory I agree with what you say and do not wish -- in any way -- to demean those who volunteer for military service. However, since there is no draft, it seems politicians find lots of reasons to go to war. As one of their commanders put it: "We went to war and America went shopping." Perhaps if military service was mandatory, Americans might pay a little more attention to funding never-ending bombing and combat.
13
The movie “Saving Private Ryan” runs nearly three hours, but one really only needs to see the twenty-minute scene depicting the landing at Omaha Beach — it says all that ever needs to be said about the unconscionable inhumanity of war.
12
It has always been hard for me to believe that people think war will be anything else but truly awful. But they lie to themselves, again and again.
It's a corny suggestion that will never be followed, but what if we have our leaders read some of these kinds of letters out loud before a vote or order to start fighting -- in a televised event for the nation?
5
My father was a career Marine (30 years) - He was at Pearl Harbor on Dec 7, a tour in Korea, and two tours in Vietnam. He did not speak very much about the conflicts, however I remember him discussing the horrors of Guadalcanal. Years later he would comment on war movies and the things that they could never get right. One was the smells and the other was the sheer and vast number of flies because of the unburied dead bodies. In Guadalcanal, a marine could not eat alone, he needed a partner to chase the flies away. He could not move a morsel of food from his plate to his mouth without it becoming covered in flies.
18
"... he would comment on war movies and the things that they could never get right."
There is a scene in a war movie whose name I forget that depicts soldiers conversing while walking in front of a large open window that is supposedly in view of the enemy. In reality, no one would do that if they could help it.
"... the sheer and vast number of flies because of the unburied dead bodies."
"Saving Private Ryan" is sufficiently realistic that viewers can hear flies buzzing around the bodies of dead rangers in the scene where the soldiers encounter a German machine gun position. Other aspects of that scene look ridiculously unrealistic. Would anyone charge a machine gun when it could be outflanked?
1
My father in law, was one of the finest men I ever met.
He landed in Normandy on D-day, and fought in the Battle of the Bulge. He was one of 3 soldiers who returned out of 190 in the unit he shipped out with.
He earned a bronze star and had two purple hearts.
He never set foot on European soil again; he never attended veterans' or commemorative events. He had seen enough.
He loved his wife, his daughter and his grandchildren and was a loyal friend and mentor. Rest in peace.
50
I recommend 'The Sorrow of War', by Bao Ninh, which was immediately deemed a classic of war narrative when published in English in 1994, earning comparisons with Erich Maria Remarque’s famous All Quiet on The Western Front. Based on Ninh’s time as a North Vietnamese soldier, who served with the Glorious 27th Youth brigade—of the 500 who went to war in 1969, Ninh was one of the ten who survived; of these, six later committed suicide—the novel recounts the experiences of its anti-hero, Kien, a middle-aged war veteran chronicling his war memories while collecting the bodies of his fallen comrades in the jungles of Central Vietnam. In 1994, Ninh became the first Vietnamese writer to win an overseas literary prize when The Sorrow of War bagged The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, trumping Italo Calvino’s The Road to San Giovanni, among others. At the awards ceremony in Hay-on-Wye, Robert Winder, then the literary editor of The Independent, called the novel “historic,” and remarked, while announcing the award: “Usually, history is the story told by the winners; Bao Ninh’s book reminds us that, in war, everybody loses.”
16
Before I deployed to Iraq in 2003 a friend who was a Viet Nam veteran told me, "War won't be what you expect." I asked him how he knew what I expected and he replied. "it doesn't matter what you expect. It will be different."
It was different. As far as I can tell, that's true for everyone.
33
An excellent piece. I co-directed a documentary about a group of veterans that, sadly, many have never heard of: the American volunteers who fought in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade against fascism in the Spanish Civil War. Roughly half of the 2,800 volunteers lost their lives in Spain. We felt it our duty to depict the brutality of war, and to highlight the volunteers’ hopes of preventing a larger world war by stopping fascism in Spain. What I take from the article and comments is that war is destructive beyond our abilities to comprehend, and that we must do everything possible to prevent any more of it. This requires not just a cultural shift, but a recognition that our economy benefits too much from war, just as President Eisenhower warned.
12
To this day, who never did their army service in a battle, will never understand what is felling during that moments in war.
I know one thing is sure, trauma which inflicted upon a psychology of any person never leaves. It seems something in your brain permanently altered, even if you cope postwar life very well, you still live with it till end of your life.
The most infuriating thing is , listening somebody talking about bravado and supremacy to beat someone else while they have no skin in the game.
Like Trump when he talks about how to defeat ISIS or anybody else but not one second thinking who accomplished or did that thing. That attitude of disrespect and taking light of the duty is simply the most repulsive behavior who saw war and survived.
You may never go war, but that doesn't mean that you cannot get some idea about it, today we have ample resources what does it mean to be in the war, Start with Ken Burn's documentary.
20
We spend vast sums on the military and tolerate enormous waste, but for any kind of foreign aid we are misers.
We avidly study war and portray it in fiction, but far less effort is put into the causes of conflict. I wonder how many books have been written about WWII, compared to how many written about the era from 1919 to 1933 that made that war inevitable.
5
Although Walt Whitman famously claimed that the real war would never get into the books, Professor Isserman’s judicious use of these documents comes mighty close. Gratitude from this veteran and alumnus of Hamilton.
6
When people ask I tell them Vietnam was just a mess. In Italy you took a hill and came a step closer to ridding the world of monsters. In Vietnam you took it and left it next day. Believe me, no one knew what they were doing the whole time. Joining was the dumbest thing I’ve ever done by far. Got my free donut this morning at Dunkin’ Donuts.
61
Willing to go the slaughterhouse to kill Hitler and Tojo, to keep the world safe for human freedom. stop the butchery and not let darkness descend on millions. That was why. Thank you Greatest Generation.
That was the terrible thing about Vietnam, probably Desert Storm too, they did their duty too but those wars appear to have been mistakes
Fine with me if we destroy ISIS but also for Trump to pull out of Syria rather than take sides in their religious ethnic civil war, not with American blood thank you.
3
In Vietnam, because of the heat and sun, bodies would soon take on a greenish color. As the time progressed they would begin to bloat and swell and turn black. Many of the helicopter pilots on the "slick ships" would not take them on board to be evacuated off the fire bases.
3
'Such euphemisms do not come close to the “truth” of warfare, ...'
Despite his stated intentions, Isserman turns war into a business transaction when he uses the word "cost":
"The cost to the 10th ..."
"... the division’s costliest day ..."
2
Sgt. Denis Nunan writing in 1945: '“Thanks to the failure of the press, and to the stupidity of Hollywood,” ...'
Actually, before that, the press could be quite explicit about the realities of war.
In September 1943, LIFE Magazine published the first "photograph depicting dead American troops" "in any American publication during World War II."
That is the photo by George Strock captioned "Three dead Americans on the beach at Buna."
More about how the photo came to be published can be found at time.com:
"The reason we print it now is that, last week, President Roosevelt and [Director of the Office of War Information] Elmer Davis and the War Department decided that the American people ought to be able to see their own boys as they fall in battle; to come directly and without words into the presence of their own dead."
The Photo That Won World War II: 'Dead Americans at Buna Beach,' 1943
by Ben Cosgrove
Oct 31, 2014
time.com
9
OK so the New York Times wants to write about what combat is actually like and they choose..... a researcher from a liberal arts college.
.
You couldn’t have reached out to someone with actual first hand experience in combat? Someone in politics maybe? How about Representative Dan Crenshaw? He could have written an article with this headline and I might have felt much better about it.
1
"You couldn’t have reached out to someone with actual first hand experience in combat?"
Did you even read the OpEd?
Isserman QUOTES combat veterans.
Why are you so intent on silencing them?
17
Ah, I see. Only conservatives are real war veterans, can appreciate what real red blooded Americans face when bravely going to war? The draft boards did not distinguish. John Kerry, a true war hero who saved lives and witnessed the slaughter as a Swift Boat captain, is nobody’s idea of a conservative. Yet he’s quite eloquent about the horrors of war ... read what he’s said, or talk to him, as I have. There are plenty of liberals who are combat veterans, why not a researcher from a liberal arts college, indeed!
9
Not in your worst nightmare.
War is Hell.
The US military has been stupendously successful at keeping wars small, far away and (on our side) limited to the military. That very success tempts politicians to misuse that magnificent and idealistic tool for base purposes.
Iraq, Afghanistan, and our whole Middle East policy are all about the oil and oil profits. Why has there been so much more PTSD from Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan than from WWII and Korea? It's not just from recognizing PTSD better. It's from soldiers recognizing their lives are being wasted to protect corporate profits, not to promote peace and stability in the world.
Preserving Pax Americana, promoting good government and individual freedom around the world are goals worth fighting for. Protecting corporate profits and oligarchy is not.
15
I wish every member of Congress and the Senate would sit down and read these letters, along with letters home from the Civil War, WW I, Korea and Vietnam. With the end of the draft, America’s armed forces have become largely an army of young men and women seeking to escape poverty, and the upper classes have less and less direct connection to the harsh realities of war.
It’s a lot easier to send young Americans off to war if you don’t actually know what war is like, and how it affects the fighters, their families and society at large. Short of volunteering themselves, or encouraging their children to do so, reading honest accounts of the sheer horror of armed conflict is the best way to appreciate reality.
272
@Judith Nelson not true, most people who join the military do not come from the lower class.
1
@Judith Nelson
Your comment offers one of the most compelling reasons to end the All Volunteer Force and reinstitute the Draft. Or, for Conscientious Objectors to military service, two years of non-military National Service.
Maybe then, more than “The 1 Percent” and their families would develop a better understanding of what citizenship and patriotism really mean.
Another compelling read: War Is A Racket, by retired Marine Corps Brigadier General Smedley D. Butler, first published in 1935.
59
@Charles The data say you're wrong.
Googling "social class of army recruits usa" or similar will show you the actual numbers, and you will learn that those from lower income families are, in fact, over-represented in the military.
26
My Dad -- a World War II vet -- carried all of this to the day he died at age 86. He could never reconcile what he was taught by his religion and what he saw and did in war.
As a kid, I watched movies like The Longest Day with my Dad. With the Hollywood picture of my Dad in mind, I was incredibly proud of him and the fact that he was awarded a Bronze Star. I could never understand why he wanted to return that medal. I couldn't understand how or why he was wracked with depression through his adult life.
Until I was honored to attend and hear his last conversation -- a kind of confession -- with a minister. He carried the weight of that war throughout his days.
I'll let others slam the politicians. Instead, I'll thank veterans everywhere.
298
What is it like?
Well, it’s dirty, noisy, and a constant heartbreak.
But more than anything is a struggle to convince yourself that killing human beings is ok because you’re side is right and the other side is wrong.
Then you pull the trigger and the other person across the open field is no more. Only a small red cloud that hangs in the air for just a moment is all that remains of what was once a human being. He’s not going home any more, he’s not going to his family, and somewhere some one will wait for him to come home tonight, but he won’t.
And all along you convince yourself this is ok, because he was one of the bad guys.
Thirty years later you can still see his smile just a moment before, with the flex of a finger, you took everything from him. Later that day If you happen to pass by his town, and you see a little girl looking up to the mountain, walk on by. For if you ask what she’s doing, she will tell you that daddy promised to come home, so she will wait there until he does. Only you know he won’t.
But it was ok, because he was one of the bad guys. And you’re one of the good guys.
That’s war is really like.
359
@AutumnLeaf, wow - this account stopped me in my tracks. I have never been in combat, but I believe you.
24
@AutumnLeaf
Simply, Bravo.
22
@AutumnLeaf
Enjoyed the fine writing. But I think you got one thing wrong. Soldiers don’t kill just because the other guy is a bad guy. They kill because the other guy is trying to kill them.
47
VETERAN’S DAY: As a Vietnam veteran. I ask myself “Would I risk my life for the current president, Donald Trump?” A man who avoided military service with 5 supposed “bone spurs”, who doesn’t pay taxes, who feels the office of the. President gives him and his family the right to enrich themselves at the taxpayer’s expense, and is creating chaos in the world by destroying existing alliances and treaties that have kept the world relatively stable and avoided a major world conflict for 70 years. The answer is NO!! Republicans, it is your patriotic duty to remove this menace from our body politic. Like a cancer, it should be removed and placed in its proper, place, Guantanamo or other suitable place where he cannot inflict his poison on the world.
328
@Alan MacHardy I largely agree with you. Trump doesn't serve anything, or anyone but himself and his own interests, and violates the public trust without compunction. That said, I just want him gone, not to Guantanamo, but to retirement in Florida, while the various lawsuits against him work their way through. Also, I believe he had two deferments based on "bone spurs," and the others were college deferments, allowing him to risk his own private Viet Nam against STDs.
30
@Alan MacHardy Well said and as a Brit veteran of Northern Ireland and the Falkland conflicts I say hit trump where it hurts him most his ego vanity and pocket make him pay back all the tax he has stolen and keep hitting him and his family with charge after charge for some of the crimes he has committed
25
@Alan MacHardy One of the few good things about ol' "bone spurs" is that he really does seem to not like war, and not just for himself. Ironic, that this might be the one thing that causes Republicans to give him the boot.
3
An article like this should be placed on every desk/email/Twitter address, etc. in the Capitol on all the major patriotic holidays, starting with the White House.
Would it help raise the consciousness of the military adventurers in the Congress, White House, Defense and State Depts., the CIA and all the Intelligence/security apparatus? Probably not. Just one more thing in the endless barrage of mostly useless information that assaults us every day. (Note my military language.
As for the language of the letters, those young men mostly had had good public high school educations and could speak well. It would be good to think about that, too.
94
@bse Wouldn't make much difference to at least one intended recipient...too long. And written by some 'professor.' (no offense to you, Dr. Isserman)
2
Wonderful article. I would just like to add that these young men of whom the author writes and from whom he quotes were fighting the German Nazi troops. Today, in the White House, we have a Commander in Chief who called neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, VA "fine people." If these men died to protect or save us from the heinous ideology of the Nazi's we need to all stand up to domestic terrorists everywhere. They make a mockery of the bravery and decency of these very young WWII soldiers.
And yes, war is monstrous, but sometimes, as in WWII (not WWI whose end we celebrate today) it is necessary to defeat a great evil. We owe everything to the men and women who fought that war.
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@lzolatrov
Any veteran fought to this nation shouldn't expect any appreciation or understanding from Trump.
Trump's every single behavior and action is an insult to them.
27
Let's also eliminate another useless word in talking about war, i.e. the expression our politicians use, "boots on the ground". Meaningless. As one of the soldiers pointed out in the excruciating, overpowering smell of blood emanating from dead bodies of his regiment, the more honest expression to use in anticipating lethal force in war is "blood on the ground". How many gallons of human blood will this war cost us. Both my father in WWII in the medical unit of the Army for 3 years and my sister serving on the USS Sanctuary in Viet Nam, caring for wounded Marines saw this side of war. Dad never spoke of the horror he saw, but his wife, my mother shared one story. Dad was caring for a wounded RAF pilot in England in his hospital. He was so badly burnt that he did not go to the regular mess to eat with the other men. So my father fed him individually in the confines of his room, preserving the man's dignity and not compelling him to show his horribly wounded face to others. My sister for her part had the blood type of a Marine who was losing blood rapidly from a stomach wound. So she hooked up to him directly in a transfusion to save his life. That is war. The lead platoon in every war should be the senators and representatives and cabinet members who declare war. Yeah, they are quite old, but no older than the many civilians that are killed by their declared war, collateral damage as they say. Maybe then, reason and right judgment would prevail over vain glory and ego
34
"... between 15,000 and 20,000 wartime letters, as well as scores of wartime diaries."
There is a book in those documents. For a superb example of how effective letters by combatants can be at conveying war as it is, see:
"Tommy's war : the Western Front in soldiers' words and photographs" by Richard van Emden (Bloomsbury, 2014).
In his introductory chapter on the VPK camera*, van Emden says that photography was forbidden by the British military, yet soldiers took photos anyway.
More broadly, contact with the press was forbidden by the British and French militaries. The press countered that by offering cash prizes for pictures and advice on how would-be photographers could evade detection by the military authorities.
* "VPK" is an abbreviation of "Vest Pocket Kodak".
1
Lies are told about what war is like because few people would fight, except in immediate defense of themselves, their families and property, etc., if they understood the truth, the danger as well as the horror. It is indeed an "old lie", as Wilfred Owen said.
6
We don’t get the whole truth.......ever. Just like Reagans war on drugs, Escobar was pulling in a half billion dollars a week in the 80’s, and not re-circulating the money back into the economy (do the math) and the Bushes wanting to get there hands on our Social Security.
War is mechanism conceived to sacrifice the lives of the lower social classes to enrich and empower men of the higher social classes.
2
My uncle, Horace Leone, served in Italy. He said the shelling terrified everybody.
But every so often, a shell landed with a thud. The men credited factory workers in occupied Czechoslovakia for sabotaging the Nazi war effort.
For every shell that didn't explode, the men gratefully said, "Made in Czechoslovakia."
17
On this Veterans Day, let us remember the 600,000+ Vietnamese civilians (North and South) estimated to have been killed by American operations alone in that war, the at least 150,000 Iraqi civilians, and the about 40,000 Afghan civilians, all killed by American bombs and bullets.
Not one of these wars was fought to protect American ground. In the cases of Vietnam and Iraq, there was no precise justification for being there. The invasion of Iraq had a phony casus belli and was a clear breach of international law.
The American behemoth weeps fat tears for its own dead. Those of the countries it attacks are disregarded.
And who's reaped the ultimate political gains? The Vietnamese Communist Party, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, and Afghan growers and heroin traffickers and their government partners. Oh, yeah--and Donald Trump.
26
"Into the Valley" by John Hersey,
https://www.amazon.com/Into-Valley-Marines-at-Guadalcanal/dp/0803273282
Is a vivid description of such experiences.
3
If you want to stop war, then let's put trump, Wayne LaPierre, John Bolton, Dick Cheney, GW Bush Jr. and all other gung-ho macho men on the front lines. Talk is cheap. I am talking to you Lindsay Graham.
If you are willing to send someone to war, then you better send a family member to be sure it's worth the cost. Preferably, volunteer yourself.
I knew many WWII, Korean, and Vietnam war veterans. The ones who fought on the front lines were anti-war.
We can honor our veterans by not sending future generations to war that we would not want to join in the fight. Conversely, we can honor our veterans by only sending future generations to war that we would join in the fight ourselves.
trump, Bolton, Graham, Cheney are chicken-hawks.
15
I would also suggest ‘And No Birds Sang’ by Farley Mowat. My grandfather, Major Theodore Graham, who likewise fought with the Canadian army in Italy, WWII, described it as best capturing “the feeling of the war” as he experienced it. My other grandfather, Lt. Colonel J.G. Robertson, maimed at Vimy Ridge, France in WWI (he also served in WWII) left a minimally worded trench diary, often with less than a sentence entries, that was nonetheless more evocative than some of the most poetic of writings (with the obvious exception of John McCrae).
2
This article should be required reading in every high school in the country.
The reality is that our military forces' primary mission is to insure that American businesses have access to cheap raw materials, cheap labor, and profitable foreign markets. Take the profit out of warfare and, I believe, there will be far fewer wars. We were a more honest people during the 19th century when newspapers, businessmen, politicians, and the public identified ourselves as an "American Empire expanding westward to the Pacific. Teddie Roosevelt even spoke of "America's expansion westward across the Pacific to China" at the turn of the century.
Behind Every Great Fortune There Is a Crime — attributed to Honoré de Balzac
I cringe every time someone asks if I am a veteran replies with a "Thank you for your service." I tell them that I had little choice. I was conscripted into the Army in 1961. Vietnam was barely a blip in public awareness -- few body bags were returning home yet. I filed for conscientious objection but, the Pasadena Draft Board refused to honor it (in 1961, atheists had no legitimate grounds for C.O. status.) and I had no religious nor political connections.
Still, I was one of the "lucky ones." I wasn't forced into combat and I was spared PTSD and SUD.
8
I went to France and visited the grave of my Grandfather's Brother, my great uncle. He was KIA in the last German Offensive near Chateaux Thierry France on August 11, 1918 3 Months before Armistice Day. As I looked over his grave I had to wonder what went through this young man's mind the last 72 hours before he got hit and died. I can only imagine that he was terrified,hungry and only wanted to be somewhere else those last days.
13
I grew up in a service family and am the son of a World War II infantry veteran of the Pacific Theater. I am now a seventh-grade history teacher in a poor neighborhood of Los Angeles. Many of my students are thinking of the military as a way forward in life. If they choose this path, they are unlikely to go to West Point, but will instead enlist directly, go through ROTC or OCS.
I am going to print this article and a couple of others I have found today, put them in binders, and give them to my young people. They deserve better than to die in one of our endless, for-profit wars.
22
"They [my young people] deserve better than to die in one of our endless, for-profit wars."
You are welcome to your own views, but you shouldn't be imposing them on your seventh-grade history students.
As for wars being "endless", that is certainly true, although not in the way you seem to mean.
For example, the US still has military bases in Germany and Japan. And Japan has a "Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park", which includes the remains of a building that was heavily damaged when Hiroshima was bombed.
In the US, the American Civil War is still being fought -- the conflicts over the so-called Confederate flag are an example.
3
@FNC
I am not "imposing" my views on my students. Rather I am "exposing" them to a number of sources, some of which are primary source documents, so that they may make up their own minds.
And I know exactly what I'm talking about when I say "endless, for-profit wars". These are corporate wars, fought not for any legitimate reason having to do with the defense of our country or ideals, but simply to maintain the profit-margins and perhaps the very existence of our military-industrial-security-surveillance complex. Not a single one of my students should die for Raytheon's bottom line.
19
@Vesuviano The conundrum is that those for-profit wars keep our high standard of living. My dad says he remembers when James Baker was asked why the wars in Iraq, the answer was "jobs".
3
Commanding, "Hit the earth, men!" isn't necessary. As the bullets and shrapnel begin to fly, hitting the earth comes naturally to frightened, horrified men.
As explained to me by a Vietnam veteran, a retired Army colonel and recipient of 2 Silver Stars, the challenge is getting the soldiers, facing imminent slaughter and death, to rise up and to attack.
The essential, but very difficult to effectively command order is, "Charge!"
5
This article and the book should be required reading for every single living American.
17
@Rob Hendrickson
Starting with Bush II, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz et al.
1
On this veteran’s day I read this article and remember my friends who weren’t able to come home from Vietnam. When people say “thank you for your service” to me I feel guilty because I came home. Why me and not them? If you haven’t served in a war you can not understand what it is like to be sent across the sea
thousands of miles from the home and the ones you love to a place where you come to except that you will not return from alive.
I’ve reached a point where I think about Eisenhower’s speech about the threat of the Military Industrial Complex and understand that we stay in these wars to make them wealthy.
End these wars so this generation won’t have more men like me feeling guilty because they lived when their friends died.
94
@Bill Thank you for sharing your story. The challenge is that many people believe ending wars means ending the military. We can stop our wars and keep our military, and we should.
16
@Bill I still feel guilty that came back and many the kids I served with did not. That feeling will never leave me until join them.
16
Thank you, Mr. Isserman.
Keep reminding us of the profound suffering and inhumanity. They will continue to glamorize it and sanitize it and reduce it to "Thank you for your service," walking away feeling better about themselves.
And voters, remember to give as much weight to the foreign policy stance of a candidate as you do to other issues.
With whatever power we have left, we must at least try to stop the wanton slaughter.
30
The Hollywood images and press lies we carried with us disgusted me most when I arrived in Viet Nam. After so much war how could anyone not know the awful reality of the battlefields? One fact that constantly surprised me, however, is that wars are fought by the young. I once idly calculated the average age of my first company, sergeants and all and had to fudge the numbers to get to 19. The ages of the letter writers in this fine article only confirm it. And the ages of many that we captured or of the dead we identified were even younger.
31
My husband is a Vietnam vet. He recommends the book,
What It Is Like to Go to War (2011) by Karl Mariantes, a marine
officer during the Vietnam war. Mariantes not only speaks
about the necessity of appropriate counseling for veterans when they return but also of the critical need to address
issues of life and death and killing before deployment.
33
John Keegan's "The Face of Battle" was published in 1976 and began to make the realities of war clear to me. It's still vivid and compelling, and since then many historians have broadened and deepened our understanding. Prof. Isserman's book on the 10th Mountain Division sounds like the latest in an essential line, and if this column is any indication he uncovered a real treasure trove of reality.
21
@Observer
All Quiet On The Western Front says it all--both the book and the movie.
3
There are many ways for citizens to experience war.The closest and most accessible are some of the Civil War Battlefields-Antietam,Manassas, and Gettysburg, all very close to Washington D.C. These National Military Parks should be on everyone’s itinerary.They tell a graphic story of war and sacrifice and it is impossible to walk the grounds without a sadness for all the suffering and immense loss of life. Their story is told in understated plaques and markers but it is impossible not to imagine the fallen who lie there.More than 750,000 died in this war and we can easily learn their stories and honor them by visiting the National Battlefields.
21
@JANET MICHAEL
Yes. My father and I visited a good number of the Civil War battlefields, and it is profoundly moving. It is one of the most important trips I've ever taken.
2
@JANET MICHAEL
Honor is not a word that comes easy to me in the context of the civil war. I'm not going to honor anyone who fought for slavery. I'm reminded of Regan visiting a cemetery in Bitburg which included the SS.
4
@John
The handbook of the strategist has said:
'Do not invite the fight, accept it instead,'
'Better a foot behind than an inch too far ahead,'
Which means:
Look a man straight in the face and make no move,
Roll up your sleeve and clench no fist,
Open your hand and show no weapon,
Bare your breast and find no foe.
But as long as there be a foe, value him,
Respect him, measure him, be humble toward him;
Let him not strip from you, however strong he be,
Compassion, the one wealth which can afford him.
.............The Way of Life according to Lao-Tzu an american version, Witter Bynner
My late father earned a CIB and battle stars for service in Apennines and Po Valley campaigns. He fought with the 92nd Division. This is a very moving account and the closest thing I've read about what he might have faced in Italy. My father died in 2008.
61
@Bob One story I do remember him telling. We were on a family trip and had pulled off to the side of road to change drivers. My mom had stopped underneath some high voltage lines and he was a little unnerved by the location. Once back in the car and moving again, he said there was a soldier in his unit that had gone out to explode some enemy landmines. Turns out, there high-voltage lines overhead. The soldier was electrocuted when the lines came down from the explosions he'd set off.
14
The day I was born in the late 1950's-early 1960's A man moved into the house next door. He used to say Happy Birthday to me and I would say Happy Move in Day.
As kid, I watched all the Hollywood movies of WWII. I and the other kids in the neighborhood played "war" and hit the dirt.
The Man next door I knew we addressed as Colonel. He had retired in the late 1950's. He had been a field officer in Europe during WWII.
When I hit High School I had a class in history that was looking in depth into WWI and WWII. I asked the Colonel if I could interview him for a paper. He said yes, but that it would take the good part of an afternoon.
I only put a small part of what he said into that paper. The rest gave me nightmares for a month. He did not hold back which was uncharacteristic of him as he was usually a reserved person.
I never looked at a war movie again the same way. It is also why I advocated what I wrote in another comment on the NY Times today on the subject of pulling out troops out of endless war in Afghanistan. We have the technology to not subject our young people to this fate. We just need the backbone to use.
80
@JD, I don't understand. What technology are you speaking of that will allow our young people to be spared endless war?
3
@Registur Trademark Probably nuclear bombs, if such is the case I suspect he did not really hear the Colonels message. Nuclear bombs immolate both the innocents and the handful of guilty.
This is not to minimize the losses in Italy or elsewhere on the western front
But I am always struck by the fact that severe losses there were often merely a rounding error
When compared to the eastern front.
12
There are any number of great writers who have written on the horror of war.
The true horror of war is how the press and Hollywood, Congress, and the White House dissemble and lie about it. It's a charnel house. Our country trades young men's lives for short term, unrealizable, ridiculous and corrupt goals, and the media encourages this with odes to war.
Thanks for an honest article.
119
@Ernest Montague
“There are any number of great writers who have written on the horror of war.”
James Jones’ cautionary tale, The Thin Red Line, comes to mind.
Terrence Malik’s film, of the same title, is his introspective meditation on the unvarnished blunt force of the novel, but the novel itself is a scarring read.
5
War diaries and graphic histories have for years presented us with armed conflict in all its horror and nightmarish terror.
Evenidently, Isserman believes she has uncovered something new and unknown.
Meanwhile, the horrors of war don't end with tours of duty.
A least 60,000 veterans died by suicide between 2008 and 2017, with little sign that the crisis is abating despite suicide prevention being the VA's top priority. Veterans' suicide rate is 1.5 times the rate for non-veterans.
In recent years most Americans have come to glorify the government employees assigned to fight wars. We call their employment "serving the nation," while ignoring the cost to the soldiers.
About 23 percent of female veterans have reported being sexually assaulted during their time in the military.
According to the National Center for PTSD:
More than 2 of 10 Veterans with PTSD also have SUD.
Almost 1 out of every 3 Veterans seeking treatment for SUD also has PTSD.
The number of Veterans who smoke (nicotine) is almost double for those with PTSD (about 6 of 10) versus those without a PTSD diagnosis (3 of 10).
In the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, about 1 in 10 returning Veterans seen in VA have a problem with alcohol or other drugs.
War veterans with PTSD and alcohol problems tend to binge drink. Binge drinking is when a person drinks a lot of alcohol (4-5 drinks or more) in a short period of time (1-2 hours).
Let's not forget the dark side of soldiering.
26
This was also true of the civil war. War deaths don’t end with the end of the war.
5
@Ricardo Chavira
Even the finest arms are an instrument of evil,
A spread of plague,
And the way for a vital man to go is not the way of a soldier.
But in time of war men civilized in peace
Turn from their higher to their lower nature.
Arms are an instrument of evil,
No measure for thoughtful men
Until there fail all other choice
But sad acceptance of it.
Triumph is not beautiful.
He who thinks triumph beautiful
Is one with a will to kill,
And one with a will to kill
Shall never prevail upon the world.
It is a good sign when man's higher nature comes forward,
A bad sign when his lower nature comes forward,
When retainers take charge
And the master stays back
As in the conduct of a funeral.
The death of a multitude is cause for mourning:
Conduct your triumph as a funeral.
...................The Way of Life according to Lao-Tzu an american version, Witter Bynner
1
Reading the article reminded me of when George H.W. Bush and the Defense Department instituted a ban against photographing flag-draped coffins returning from the Persian Gulf in 1991 and lasted 19 years. The popular slogan during the Iraq war was "You don't have to support the war but support the troops." How utterly ridiculous that was. Government mind control man!
63
I would also suggest reading Erich Maria Remarque's novel of World War One, "All Quiet on the Western Front". No glamour, just horror.
35
@Dick Ellingson My WWII vet father was a young high school student in 1939 when the war began in Europe; his h.s. history teacher, a veteran of the trenches a generation earlier, had his students read All Quiet on the Western Front . . . and several generations later, my dad revealed this fact, which I hadn't heard before, to my young students in my h.s. English class, also reading All Quiet. Dad was there along with other vets, honored guests at the school assembly on Veteran's Day, 1999.
4
A good follow-up read:
"A Letter Marked Free" by Robert Lynch.
My Marine Corps aviator father had a story about John Wayne. My gather came home -in one piece- from the occupation of Japan on a hospital ship.
When they landed on the west coast, the first item was a USO show given by the popular entertainers of the day. The men who traveled on the hospital ship, some of them to never walk, see, copulate again, or worse, came to the theater.
The first entertainer was a man who never saw combat, his only service was in propaganda films. He came onto the stage in chaps and cowboy hat, took twin revolvers out of holsters and spun them in the air and shouted "Howdy Partners!" he was promptly booed of-stage. His name was John Wayne.
147
@Svirchev ~ And how do veterans generally organize themselves once recuperated ? It looks like they revel in their survival ~ as they should ~ while largely sitting by while their children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren go off to die in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, etc. Where's their outrage at the American leaders who wage these wars ? Seems the stench of the blood, the vista of their buddies' corpses recedes when they could otherwise use their great gravity & experience to head off repeated tragedies. Where are you, silent vets ?
4
@Svirchev Reagan was another one who stayed home to make propaganda films. Claimed he had vision problems even though no one in Hollywood ever saw him wearing glasses.
6
An extraordinary, searing, important Op-Ed. Thank you, Prof. Isserman.
See also "The War Prayer," by Mark Twain. https://warprayer.org/
32
@MC
Yes. "The War Prayer" does capture something about the "folks back home" who so willingly send their sons into combat.
We can't count the true number of casualties ex ante -- only ex post. And if/when we get past the simple numbers of the casualties on the field, we can get an idea of the far larger numbers who never got close.
A good read related to Viet Nam -- my war -- is "The Wall Within."
That comes closer to the real experiences of those who went and those who did not.
You can find it here: https://www.sandiegovideoproduction.com/steve-mason/
My brother died from Agent Orange. He was no less a casualty of the war than anyone else. He will not be counted as a war casualty.
But it wasn't the VC or NVA that killed him.
It was us.
9
@MC
I had not previously read Mark Twain's War Prayer. Such a powerful statement against any war. Thank you for posting.
6
We're progressively sanitizing "wars", thus making them more palatable to the uncaring Uninvolved.
From broadswords and battle axes at close quarters, to 20 year old gamers sitting in secure buildings, flying drones over the 3rd world countries that we've randomly invaded and attacking "insurgents" (aka, residents), and the occasional wedding party at a safe distance. No draft, so no longer the worry that Sally or Bobby might bleed out in a rice field in 'Nam.
Meanwhile, the MIC insures their ever-growing revenue stream in the pursuit of Perpetual Wars that "keep us safe".
“Those rich boys daydream about vast armies and navies conquering all the seas and lands while we humble folk think of boys that we know - sons even - dying in a process that benefits no one but the international banks and their lawyer-lobbyists. . . The real political struggle in the United States, since the Civil War, has been between the peaceful inhabitants of the nation with their generally representative Congresses and a small professional elite totally split off from the nation, pursuing wealth through wars that they invent and justify and resonate for others to die in.”
- "The Golden Years", Gore Vidal
41
Truly one of the most powerful pieces of writing on war and its true nature. Perhaps we can share this with family members and friends on this day, on Memorial Day and any day when we hear others clamor for war. Thank you Professor Isserman.
43
An article that should be published every Veterans Day, Memorial Day and July Fourth to remind our citizens of the realities of war. I was never in the armed services but the comrade and anguish that war creates needs to be realized by veterans and their families as well as non-veterans needs to be emotionally felt.
31
@Munro Freiser
No.
You can't emotionally feel anything genuine about it.
If you weren't in it, didn't experience the terror, see and especially smell what it was like, nothing that combat veterans can say or write will ever provide you with even the slightest vicarious experience.
I don't for a second doubt the sincerity of what really is wishful thinking -- that somehow hearing or reading the words might provide you with some idea of the reality of it.
But it's a fool's errand. It can't and won't happen, even to the most high-minded out there.
There's a reason the word "unimaginable" is sometimes used in such observations. Think of the very worst you can imagine.
It was worse.
But thanks for the effort. It's good that you try.
Just remember -- for all the casualties we may inflict on those whom we fight, we experience casualties of our own that they didn't cause.
31
@Don: Munro didn’t claim to be able to emotionally relate to or even understand the experience of the horror of war. Instead he suggested that the authors letters be read by all of us on Veterans Day so we at least attempt to teach our children there are alternatives to war instead of blindly following each generation into the next war. In order to prevent war, we must stop honoring the idea that war solves mans problems while simultaneously honoring the dead. 
32