Vietnam Generation Volume 3 Number 1 Swords into Ploughshares: A "Home Front" Article 1 Anthology 1-1990 Swords into Ploughshares: A "Home Front" Anthology Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.lasalle.edu/vietnamgeneration Part of the American Studies Commons Recommended Citation (1990) "Swords into Ploughshares: A "Home Front" Anthology," Vietnam Generation: Vol. 3 : No. 1 , Article 1. Available at: http://digitalcommons.lasalle.edu/vietnamgeneration/vol3/iss1/1 This Complete Volume is brought to you for free and open access by La Salle University Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Vietnam Generation by an authorized editor of La Salle University Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Swords Into P loughshares: A “Home Front” Anthology Swords Into P loughshares: A “Home Front” Anthology Vietnam Generation V o lU M E 5 EdiTEd by SANdRA G im vis INUMbER 1 4 iNTROduCTION Sandra Gurvis 7 A t i i * J u s tic e D e p a r t m e n t , INovEMbER 15,1969 Denise Levertov 8 L e t t e r s Tr o m H o m e Karen Joy Fow ler 2 7 T h s P ip E D r e a m e r s Sandra Gurvis 4 8 TH e STRAwbERRy S t a t e m e n t : N o t e s o f a CollEqE REVOluTiONARy James S. Kunen 7 8 TH e FiR S T F e w FR iE N ds Marilyn Singer 7 0 T hE L o n q N iq k r Toni Cade Bambara 7 6 F o r K N o b b y Jemela Mwelu 7 8 T h e BA R qAiN Patti Davis 8 0 W e W o n t G o : P ersonaI A c c o u n ts ofWAR ObjECTORS A lice Lynd 9 7 D A v id Susan Lowell 1 0 5 ThE LAkE W as F ull o f A R iificiA l Thiivqs Karen Joy Fowler 115 H O M EC O M iN q Shirley Ann Grau 1 2 5 L u lU b y Leslie Silko 1 5 2 ThE MissiNq P e r s o n Maxine Kumin 1 5 9 T h E V ilU q E Kate Wilhelm 1 4 6 IdlE ANd DisoRdERly P e r s o n s Mary Hazzard 1 5 7 A C iv il CAivipAiqN Julia Thacker 16 1 P a t 's FR iEN d N o r m Sandra Gurvis 1 6 6 K N O w iN q Marilyn M. McMahon 1 6 8 M O R ATO R iU M Wayne Karlin 1 7 5 N o t e s o n The A u t h o r s Front and back cover photos courtesy of Ohio State University Archives. ‘The Long Night" by Toni Cade Bambara; reprinted by permission of Random House, Inc.. Copyright ©Toni Cade Bambara 1974,1976,1977. From The Sea Birds Are Still Alive (New f ork: Random House, 1977). ‘TheLakeW asFuUofArtificialThings,"by Karen Joy Fowler; reprinted with permission of Karen Joy Fowler. Originally published in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine (October 1985): 125-135. ‘‘Letters From Home," by Karen Joy Fowler; reprinted with permission of Karen Joy Fowler. From In the Field o j Fire, Jeanne Van Buren Dann and Jack Dann, eds. (New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 1987): 71-89. ‘‘Pat’s Friend Norm ’’ by Ruth Geller; reprinted with permission of Ruth Geller. From Pictures fro m the Past (Buffalo: Imp Press, 1980): 187-194. ‘‘Homecoming,’’ by Shirley Ann Grau, from Shirley Ann Grau, The Wind Shifting W est Copyright © 1973. by Shirley Ann Grau. Reprinted by pennission of Brandt & Brandi Literaiy Agents, Inc. “Idle and Disorderly Persons," by M aiy Hazzard; reprinted with permission of Maiy Hazzard. From M aiy Hazzard, Idle and Disorderly Persons (Seattle: Madrona, 1981): 45-51,57-64, 195-163. ‘The Missing Person," by Maxine Kumin; reprinted by permission of Curtis Brown, Ltd. Copyright © 1978 by Maxine Kumin. First published in Triquarterly. All rights reserved. ‘The Strawberry Statement Notes of a College Revolutionary," by James S. Kunen; reprinted with permission of James S. Kunen. Excerpted from The Strawberry Statement: Notes o f a College Revolutionary [New York: Random House, 1969): 26-45. ‘‘At the Justice Department, November 15, 1969," by Denise Levertov, from Denise Levertov: Poems: 1968-72. Copyright © 1971 by Denise Levertov Goodman. Reprinted with permission of New Directions Publishing Corp. ‘‘David," by Susan Lowell; reprinted, with changes, with permission of Susan Lowell. Originally published in Southern Review 7 (Winter 1971): 254-264. “We Won’t Go: Personal Accounts of War Objectors." compiled by Alice Lynd; reprinted with pennission of Alice Lynd and Beacon Press. Excerpted from We Won’t Go: Personal Accounts o f War Objectors, Alice Lynd, ed. (Boston: Beacon Press, 1966): 15-32, 55-59, 109-119. "Knowing," by Marilyn M. McMahon; reprinted with permission o f Marilyn M. McMahon. From Works in Progress (Seattle: McMahon, 1988). "Lullaby," by Leslie Silko; reprinted with permission of Leslie Silko. From The Best American Short Stories 1975, Martha Foley ed. (Boston: Houghton Milllin, 1975): 254-62. Originally published in The Chicago Review. ‘The First Few Friends," by Marilyn Singer; reprinted with permission of Marilyn Singer. From The First Few Friends (New York: Harper & Row, 1981): 99-107, 120-122, 129-135. "A Civil Campaign," by Julia Thacker; reprinted with permission of Julia Thacker. From New Directions 44: An International Anthology o f Poetry and Prose, J. Laughlin, ed. (New York: New Directions, 1982): 83-88. T h e Village," by Kate Wilhelm, first published in Bad Moon Rising (New York: Haiper and Row). Copyright © 1973, by Kate Wilhelm. Reprinted by permission of Brandt & Brandt Literaiy Agents, Inc. iNTROdlJCTiON SANdRA GuRvis They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears intopruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they leant war any more. As I sat listening to-and repeating—those ancient words during a recent bat mitzvah, I was nearly moved to tears. The refrain of that old song, “When Will They Ever Learn?” echoed in my head. The United States has sent American troops to Saudi Arabia and threatens to go to war unless Saddam Hussein pulls the Iraqi army out of Kuwait. And this time I have even more to lose. I have a son. This issue of Vietnam Generation tells the stories of those who’ve sacrificed—their freedom, their time, and those they love— to another far away “military action": the American war in Vietnam. Some of America’s finest writers were damn sick of that war. Many said so in an elegant and powerful way. The short stories, poems and personal narratives seem especially propitious. Not only because of recent developments in the Persian Gulf, but because the United States always seems to be teetering on the edge of war somewhere in the world... Grenada, Panama, Nicaragua. El Salvador. The situations have stemmed from U.S. policy over the past four decades. Because he felt threatened by the Soviet Union after World War II, in 1947, Harry S. Truman announced a doctrine of international resistance to Communist aggression called (but of course) the Truman Doctrine. This action preceded the Containment Policy, which was later devised to suppress Communist expansion. The Containment Policy, in turn, laid the groundwork for the Eisenhower Doctrine, which approved the use of armed force to resist the advance of international Communism. By adopting Truman’s policy and applying it in Vietnam, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon supported the notion that if one Southeast Asian nation fell to the Communists, the others would also succumb, falling like a row of dominoes. The Berlin Wall has tumbled instead and today we find ourselves in sympathy with the Russians, who lack adequate food and toilet paper. And we have a volunteer army which, some say, is at the hot spot of the moment because it wants to be there. “Nobody was forced to go to Saudi Arabia," commented Newsweek’s Tony Clifton. “And because it’s a volunteer army, there aren’t many rich and middle class kids with Introduction 5 watchful parents back home. It’s an army drawn from poor (and cloutless) kids whojoined to avoid unemployment lines, to take advantage of the GI education bill—or because they actually wanted to become soldiers.”1 Perhaps those in the latter category should have read the selections in this anthology before signing up. War is still glorified in books and movies. It’s portrayed as bloody and dirty and romantic, an irresistible combination to footloose and feckless young men and women who have never seen a real human being suffer or die. It also offers young adults an easy escape from Mom, Dad, and that boring home town. These selections depict the effects the war of my generation, the Vietnam generation, had on those people who stayed home. Originally this was to be an anthology of fiction, but somehow poetry and personal narrative found its way here too. I wanted to recapture the many viewpoints and antiwar voices of the home front. Although each war is different and each trouble spot has its own history, the lesson of Vietnam should not be forgotten: We should look long and hard at ourselves before firing the first shot. We also need to remember the illusions of youth. Journalist Sara Davidson reflects that the ideals of the young, though sometimes naive, are bom out of courage and conviction: W e thought life was free and would never run out.