“It seemed now that everybody knew someone who had been in Vietnam and didn’t want to talk about it. Maybe they just didn’t know how.” (Herr, 251) That is a quote from Michael Herr’s Dispatches, a book published in 1977 that explores the traumatizing experiences of soldiers who fought during the Vietnam War. The quote appears in the chapter Breathing Out, in which Herr describes his experiences after he arrives home from the Vietnam War. I think this quote provides a good scope of just how many people were affected by the Vietnam War. It was something that had devastated so many Americans, and from Herr’s perspective it had almost felt as if everybody he interacted with had been touched either directly or indirectly by the war.
This is a feeling that my family and I can relate to. Around late March of last year, my family and I had taken a trip to Washington D.C. because my dad along with some of his friends and associates were going to be sworn in by the Supreme Court. While we were in Washington, we decided to do some site-seeing and we had visited places like the Lincoln Memorial, the White House, the Korean War Veterans Memorial, and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. When we got to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial my mom had mentioned that her cousin, Anthony Rutigliano, had passed away in the Vietnam War, which was news to me. However, the most shocking part of our visit to the memorial was seeing the sheer mass of it. The memorial is a large black wall which is engraved with all the names of the veterans who tragically passed during the war. There are a staggering 58,320 names engraved on that wall. There were staff at the memorial who had large books with all the names written down inside them. They were there to help you find names on the wall. It took us a good while for my mom to find her cousin’s name. It was a beautiful sight however it was also very solemn and sad. I think seeing the amount of names that were written on the wall, sort of really made me feel the impact that war has, and it helped to solidify my belied that American has a real problem of glorifying war.
America has overwhelming pride when it comes to war and the military. Having grown up in America my entire life, it has been made very clear to me how much this country loves its military. We are told to respect soldiers and venerate them, and while yes, I think it is important to keep in mind the sacrifices that have been made for us by soldiers, I also think it is important that we not fetishize it. I think having a memorial for people who lost their lives in a war is a beautiful way to commemorate them, however there should have never been a war in the first place. The leaders and people in power in this country love to fight unnecessary fights like the Korean and Vietnam Wars, which cause people to unnecessarily lose their lives. Journalist W. Scott Poole, puts this idea perfectly in a quote from his article entitled “When We Idealize War, Soldiers Pay the Price.” Poole states, “Militarism needs this kitsch just as much as it needs you to forget about the death of actual veterans and the physical and mental torments of the wounded and traumatized. Instead we’re exhorted to embrace the lethal atavism of the summer of 1914’s war fever. That fever allows for celebration of arms and the armed. It encourages Americans to sign up for the armed forces. And it makes it possible to send others to die and kill in our place — even for causes that are less than noble.” (Poole)
By Dino Romano
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