Revisiting the Vietnam War: Chris Lynch’S Vietnam Series and the Morality of War
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Hilary Crew Revisiting the Vietnam War: Chris Lynch’s Vietnam Series and the Morality of War s the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War is draft letter, his friends honor their pledge. Each young being commemorated, there is renewed debate man tells about his combat experiences in Vietnam in A around the moral justification for the United one of the novels in the series. States’ armed intervention in Vietnam and the ethi- In the first, I Pledge Allegiance (Lynch, 2011), cal issues relating to the conduct of military person- Morris describes his first assignment as an aviation nel. Chris Lynch has revisited the Vietnam War for electrician’s mate on the missile cruiser USS Boston. young adult readers in his five-novel series: Vietnam: I He witnesses the superior firepower of the American Pledge Allegiance (Lynch, 2011), Sharpshooter (Lynch, Navy bombard the Vietnamese coast before the ship 2012a), Free-Fire Zone (Lynch, 2012b), Casualties of is damaged by friendly fire and must return to Boston. War (Lynch 2013), and Walking Wounded (Lynch, When Morris returns to Vietnam, he is reassigned as 2014). Teaching about war, argues Paul L. Atwood a radioman on a heavily armed Riverine Assault Force (2005), involves exploding the myths associated vessel on the Mekong River. Morris’s experiences are with war and helping students critically examine the key to discussions of the ethics of a guerilla warfare rationales and justifications for going to war, including waged by a superpower using technologically ad- the concepts of patriotism and heroism. Lynch’s series vanced weapons. can engage young adults in critical thinking about the Ivan, the narrator of the second novel, Sharp- Vietnam War through the experiences of four young shooter (Lynch, 2012a), is a superior marksman soldier protagonists who serve in the US Navy, Army, assigned to the Ninth Infantry where he undergoes Marines, and Air Force. Drawing upon just war theory extensive training as a sniper. Coming from a military and writings on the ethics of war, I examine how family, Ivan willingly honors the pledge to serve in Lynch’s series addresses moral and ethical issues that Vietnam. He shares his thoughts as he is tested on have been raised post-Vietnam and use examples from his ability to be a sniper in the field, shoots his first Lynch’s novels to suggest topics for classroom discus- Viet Cong sniper, survives a deadly ambush, and sion. participates in a Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol operation before volunteering for the Ninth Division’s Summaries of Novels Sniper School. Rudi, the narrator of Free-Fire Zone (Lynch, Lynch’s novels trace the friendship and service careers 2012b), the third novel in the series, struggled in of Morris, Ivan, Rudi, and Beck, four young men from school but thrives in the Marines because he can obey Boston who pledged friendship in fourth grade and orders without having to think for himself. Rudi de- agreed not to sign up for the Vietnam War unless one scribes the patrols, the booby-trap in a deserted Viet- of them received a draft notice, in which case they namese village that injures his leg, and his experienc- would all sign up. When 19-year-old Rudi receives his 59 HE EVIEW T ALAN R Winter 2017 J59-67-ALAN-Winter16/17.indd 59 2/4/17 11:00 AM es of combat and killing individual Viet Cong soldiers. Just War Theory From Rudi’s story, readers gain an understanding of the moral and ethical issues faced by soldiers, includ- Political philosopher Michael Walzer (2002) states ing the murder of officers and the implementation of that it was the opposition to American intervention in American war policies. Vietnam that prompted him and others to think seri- Beck, the narrator of the fourth novel, Casual- ously about the moral argument for war and how, in ties of War (Lynch, 2013), delays his scholarship to looking for a “moral language,” they focused on the the University of Wiscon- concept of a just war (pp. 928–929). In his seminal sin–Madison against his work, Just and Unjust Wars (1977), Walzer explains Lynch’s novels draw parents’ wishes and joins that his definition of the “moral reality of war” con- the Air Force. The crew sists of jus ad bellum, which refers to whether a “par- attention to policies in the of the plane to which he ticular war is just or unjust,” and jus in bello, which refers to how a war is fought, such as the “observance Vietnam War that seem is assigned sprays Agent Orange on the Vietnamese or violation of the customary and positive rules of engagement” (p. 21). For a war to be considered just, to violate “the principle forests, an act with which he disagrees and one that it must be declared by a legitimate authority, involve of proportionality,” or the later informs his pacifist self-defense against aggression, demonstrate propor- stance. After a group of tionality between the good it achieves and the harm it balance between the good service men is killed in an does, and have a reasonable chance for success (Lee, 2012, p. 70). Walzer (1977) argues that the Ameri- a war achieves and the explosion while loading bombs, Beck is shaken, can war in Vietnam was unjustified because the US harm it does, required for but despite his Captain’s was “propping up a government . without a local reservations, he insists political base” (p. 99) and that “it was an American a just war (Walzer, 1977, that he continue flying war, fought for American purposes, in someone else’s country” (p. 101). p. 192). missions. When his plane crashes in the jungle, his The justness of a war fought on behalf of Ameri- life is spared by a Christian can interests is questioned by Lynch’s soldier protago- Viet Cong soldier. Return- nists who express limited understanding of what they ing to Vietnam after retraining, he serves on an AC-47 are fighting for in Vietnam. Ivan, for example, states gunship and struggles with his pacifist leanings when in Walking Wounded that no American GI that he has ordered to fire a gun. Beck’s story is key to discussion met understands the mission in Vietnam. An acknowl- of the tension between pacifism and patriotism. edgment that the Americans may be fighting an unjust In the fifth novel, Walking Wounded (Lynch, war is heard in Ivan’s admission that the Vietnamese 2014), the voices of the four friends are brought are on “their home field” (p. 63); if their positions together after the death of Rudi, who speaks from be- were reversed, and the Vietcong had come to his yond the grave. Morris describes his journey accompa- country “looking to shoot up the place,” he would nying Rudi’s coffin back to Boston and his decision to be just as vicious in defending his home ground (p. return to Vietnam as a mortician. Beck writes to Mor- 64). The following sections focus on specific moral ris to explain that he plans to join a veterans’ anti-war and ethical issues confronted by Lynch’s protagonists, group once his tour is over. Ivan must make a deci- issues that contribute toward an exploration of the sion after he is awarded medals for his heroic actions justness of the Vietnam War and how it was fought. in helping a convoy through enemy fire—a convoy he was using for escape following his shooting of Rudi in Ethics of the American War Machine friendly fire. Morris persuades Ivan, holed up in his Lynch’s novels draw attention to policies in the family’s cabin, to do the right thing and give himself Vietnam War that seem to violate “the principle of up. This novel places value on forgiveness and the proportionality,” or the balance between the good a moral responsibility of the individual. war achieves and the harm it does, required for a just war (Walzer, 1977, p. 192). America’s military might, 60 HE EVIEW T ALAN R Winter 2017 J59-67-ALAN-Winter16/17.indd 60 2/4/17 11:00 AM viewed through Morris’s observations in I Pledge stand, that is only because these “don’t tend to shell Allegiance, is particularly pertinent to discussing the you back” (p. 70). morality of a war in which the possession of a sophis- ticated weaponry by one side far exceeds the military Ethics of a Guerilla War capability of an adversary. Morris tells how he and his Moral and ethical issues are raised especially in a war fellow recruits on the USS Boston touch with rever- like the Vietnam War—a guerrilla war in which mili- ence the Navy’s cannons that are going to “unleash” tary action occurs in the the “awesome power” to “change lives” (p. 50). Mor- midst of a civilian popula- ris later describes the bombardment of the Vietnam tion. War violates inten- Moral and ethical issues coast from the USS Boston at the Gulf of Tonkin as he tionally, or unintentionally, are raised especially in watches the bombing and shelling, the explosions and the basic rights of civilians the columns of fire, and a sky filled with smoke, ash, (Lee, 2012, p. 137). In the a war like the Vietnam and chemicals that represent, as Morris’s crewmate Vietnam War, American puts it, “institutional, industrial-strength violence” (p. policies resulted in the War—a guerrilla war in 60). Steven P. Lee (2012) points out that new weap- destruction of villages, the ons technology, such as precision-guided cruise mis- death of many civilians, which military action siles, was developed for “military effectiveness” and and the displacement of occurs in the midst of a not for “moral effectiveness” (p.