DOCSLIB.ORG

The Culture of American Soldiers in the Vietnam War, 1965-1973

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Culture of American Soldiers in the Vietnam War, 1965-1973 STRADDLING THE THRESHOLD OF TWO WORLDS: THE CULTURE OF AMERICAN SOLDIERS IN THE VIETNAM WAR, 1965-1973 Joshua Kyle Akers A dissertation submitted to the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of History in the School of Arts and Sciences. Chapel Hill 2018 Approved By W. Fitzhugh Brundage Joseph T. Glatthaar Jerma Jackson Wayne E. Lee Kathleen DuVal Heather Marie Stur ©2018 Joshua Kyle Akers ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT Joshua Kyle Akers: Straddling the Threshold of Two Worlds: The Culture of American Soldiers in the Vietnam War, 1965-1973 (Under the direction of W. Fitzhugh Brundage) The Vietnam War is often portrayed in postwar popular culture as a conflict fought primarily by reluctant draftees who, donning peace symbols, listening to Rock, and smoking marijuana, held values incompatible with achieving military success there. These generalizations point to the entanglement of societal and soldier culture during the Vietnam War. This dissertation argues that rapid communications and travel collapsed the timeframe for people, news, cultural trends, and popular culture to reach the war zone and penetrate the rank-and-file mass culture, thereby making possible the entanglement between American society and American soldiers in Vietnam. The “soldier culture” that evolved in Vietnam was shaped not only by soldiers’ immersion in mass culture, but also by the twin priorities of surviving a one- year tour of duty and returning to civilian life. The troubling behaviors that military commanders noticed in Vietnam’s final years—“fraggings,” combat refusals, and drug abuse—were logical conclusions of a rank-and-file whose intent on surviving merited an entirely different set of norms, values, and behaviors from those who were alternatively focused on securing success. This dissertation is organized into two parts that emphasize an ethnographic approach to understanding soldiers’ culture. The first half of this dissertation traces how and why soldiers fashioned their own cultures during the war. The second half describes how soldier culture was not singularly determinative of what soldiers thought or how they acted. Two chapters focus on black soldiers, explaining that as they consumed mass culture and read letters from home, their iii worldview was influenced by their constant negotiation and renegotiation of their liminal position between societal and soldier culture. Vietnam-era soldier culture continues to have enduring power in American popular culture and was also emulated by future generations who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan during the twenty-first century. As veterans communicate elements of soldier culture to civilians in the postwar period, they become the connective tissue that allows the so-called reality of warfare to shape how societies subsequently create or modify discourses about war. iv To Ashley, Oliver, and Emerson v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There were many people and organizations who provided crucial help to see this project completed. First and foremost, I would like to thank UNC’s Graduate School for providing a year-long Dissertation Completion Fellowship that gave me needed time away from teaching to finish writing the manuscript. I would also like to thank the U.S. Army’s Military History Institute for providing a generous General and Mrs. Matthew B. Ridgway Military History Research Grant to plumb the archives in Carlisle, PA. UNC’s Faherty Fund, UNC’s History Department, and UNC’s Southern Oral History Program also provided funding to complete certain aspects of this dissertation. Many of the core ideas in this dissertation were tested and refined thanks to organizations who put on conferences, including the Triangle Institute for Security Studies and the Society for Military History. Several professors read parts of this dissertation, but my adviser W. Fitzhugh Brundage deserves special recognition for reading and rereading the entire manuscript during “crunch” time and providing substantive and timely feedback that made final revisions possible. I also had the privilege to work for Professor Brundage as a research assistant for 15 months that provided my family with extra income and allowed me to step back from a part-time job that I held throughout my graduate school career. I was truly fortunate to be his advisee. The rest of my committee provided insights and keen revisions for parts of the dissertation, including Jerma Jackson, Wayne Lee, and Heather Marie Stur. I am also grateful to John Kasson, Harry Watson, and Jacquelyn Dowd Hall for their intellectually stimulating seminars that fostered many of the ideas that matured during the course of writing this dissertation. vi I am also indebted to Eric Michael Burke, a fellow graduate student with whom I had countless conversations about this topic for three years, including a sixteen hour round trip driving from Chapel Hill to Louisville. His insights on organizational culture, human behavior, and his willingness to share stories about his own experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan were extraordinarily helpful when writing about the Vietnam War. I would also like to thank Joshua Tait, Joseph Stieb, Daniel Morgan, Robert Colby, and other graduate students who listened patiently to my ideas and gave me useful feedback and leads on sources. The History Department staff were also encouraging and helpful as I navigated the many hurdles of graduate school. A special thanks to Joy Jones, Diana Chase, and Renee Mcintire for their timely assistance with printing teaching materials, preparing paperwork, and generally making life a little easier. Finally, and most importantly, I must thank my family for their patience, emotional support, and assistance during my arduous journey in graduate school. My wife, Ashley, worked full-time for years so that I could focus solely on school and, then, when we had children worked tirelessly to ensure the home fires were always burning despite my many absences during research trips and writing marathons. I am also grateful for the emotional support that my two children, Oliver and Emerson, provided in only the ways that a toddler and infant could. I also could not have completed graduate school without the support of my parents, Jeff and Becky, and my in-laws, Charles and Betty. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER ONE: “WAR IN THE HEAD”: SOLDIERS’ PRECONCEPTIONS OF VIETNAM AND THE GENESIS OF SOLDIER CULTURE ............................................... 26 CHAPTER TWO: STRADDLING THE THRESHOLD: THE PROCESS FOR REPLACEMENTS TO EMBRACE SOLDIER CULTURE IN VIETNAM, 1965- 1972............................................................................................................................................... 67 CHAPTER THREE: THE BOUNDARIES OF SOLDIER CULTURE: INHERITED CULTURE AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF ALFRED FOWLER, JR. IN VIETNAM, 1968-1969 ................................................................................. 114 CHAPTER FOUR: EPHEMERAL BROTHERHOOD: SOLDIER CULTURE, THE INTEGRATED ARMY, AND THE EMERGENCE OF BLACK CONSCIOUSNESS IN VIETNAM, 1965-1973 ........................................................................ 163 CHAPTER FIVE: SOLDIER CULTURE EVOLVES: VIETNAMIZATION AND THE RISE OF AN ANTI-AUTHORITARIAN ETHOS AMONG THE RANK-AND-FILE, 1969-1973 .................................................................................................. 214 CONCLUSION: THE PERSISTENCE OF VIETNAM-ERA SOLDIER CULTURE, 1973-2011 ............................................................................................................... 262 BIBLIOGRAPHY ....................................................................................................................... 270 viii INTRODUCTION In Tim O’Brien’s novel of the Vietnam War, Going After Cacciato, Lieutenant Sidney Martin is a platoon leader who recently graduated from the United States Military Academy. He is overconfident and too draconian in his enforcement of orders that the soldiers in his platoon perceive as unnecessarily risky. Even worse, Martin replaces a well-liked lieutenant whom the men trust. While traversing rugged terrain, the platoon discovers the entrance to a Viet Cong tunnel complex. Martin, following orders from his battalion commander, orders two men to enter the tunnels and search for the enemy. However, the men had long before collectively decided that they would not undertake the supremely dangerous task of searching and clearing tunnels. Instead, they agreed to simply drop fragmentation grenades into the entrance, blow it shut, and move on. However, Martin insists and two soldiers obey his orders and shimmy into the tunnel. Within moments gunfire erupts and both Americans are killed. The following day, men in the platoon gathered and decide to murder Martin by tossing a hand grenade into his quarters at night.1 In O’Brien’s fictional account, Martin attempts to govern his platoon through a set of “Standard Operating Procedures” that establish officially prescribed actions for solving problems encountered in the field, including how to handle enemy tunnel and bunker complexes. While these “formal SOPs” were disseminated by higher commands, O’Brien's narrative reveals another set of rules, “informal SOPs,” that became more important than the Army “Code of 1 Tim O’Brien, Going After
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Joy Division and Cultural Collaborators in Popular Music Briana E
    Western University Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository August 2016 Not In "Isolation": Joy Division and Cultural Collaborators in Popular Music Briana E. Morley The University of Western Ontario Supervisor Dr. Keir Keightley The University of Western Ontario Graduate Program in Popular Music and Culture A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree in Master of Arts © Briana E. Morley 2016 Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd Part of the Other Music Commons Recommended Citation Morley, Briana E., "Not In "Isolation": Joy Division and Cultural Collaborators in Popular Music" (2016). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 3991. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/3991 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. Abstract There is a dark mythology surrounding the post-punk band Joy Division that tends to foreground the personal history of lead singer Ian Curtis. However, when evaluating the construction of Joy Division’s public image, the contributions of several other important figures must be addressed. This thesis shifts focus onto the peripheral figures who played key roles in the construction and perpetuation of Joy Division’s image. The roles of graphic designer Peter Saville, of television presenter and Factory Records founder Tony Wilson, and of photographers Kevin Cummins and Anton Corbijn will stand as examples in this discussion of cultural intermediaries and collaborators in popular music.
    [Show full text]
  • The Vietnam War in the American Mind, 1975-1985 Mark W
    University of Richmond UR Scholarship Repository Master's Theses Student Research 8-1989 Half a memory : the Vietnam War in the American mind, 1975-1985 Mark W. Jackley Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.richmond.edu/masters-theses Recommended Citation Jackley, Mark W., "Half a memory : the Vietnam War in the American mind, 1975-1985" (1989). Master's Theses. Paper 520. This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Research at UR Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of UR Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Half A Memory: The Vietnam War In The American Mind, 1975 - 1985 Mark W. Jackley Submitted for the Degree of Master of Arts in History University of Richmond, 1989 Dr. Barry Westin, Thesis Director This study attempts to show how Americans in general remembered the Vietnam War from 1975 to 1985, the decade after it ended. A kind of social history, the study concentrates on the war as remembered in the popular realm, examining novels as well as nonfiction, poetry, plays, movies, articles in political journals, songs, memorials, public opinion polls and more. Most everything but academic history is discussed. The study notes how the war's political historY. was not much remembered; the warrior, not the war, became the focus of national memory. The study argues that personal memory predominated over political memory for a number of reasons, the most important being the relative unimportance of the nation of Vietnam to most Americans.
    [Show full text]
  • Vietnam War Literature and the Vietnam
    Searching for Closure: Vietnam War Literature and the Veterans Memorial by Charles J. Gaspar That many soldiers returned home from the battlefields of Vietnam only to find themselves mired in another battle in their own country is well recognized now. A vignette which opens the Preface to Frederick Downs' compelling memoir, The Killing Zone, makes this point dramatically: In the fall of 1968, as I stopped at a traffic light on my walk to class across the campus of the University of 3enver, a man stepped up to me and said "Hi." Without waiting for my reply to his greeting, he pointed to the hook sticking out of my left sleeve. "Get that in Vietnam?" I said, "Yeah, up near Tam Ky, in I Corps." "Serves you right." As the man walked away, I stood rooted, too confused with hurt, shame, and anger to react. (n.pag. [vii]) This theme - that there was no easy closure for the trauma of the war experience for the individual soldier - recurs throughout many Vietnam War narratives. "Senator," a wounded veteran in James Webb's Fields of Fire, knows this truth and rebukes his father's cajolery with the assertion that "It'll never be over, Dad. Most of it hasn't even started yet" (392). Similarly, Tim O'Brien's hero in his first novel, Northern Lights, tells his brother only half jokingly, "Glad I didn't wear my uniform. Look plain silly coming home in a uniform and no parade" (24). Indeed, powerful recent narratives such as Larry Heinemann's Paco's Story and Philip Caputo's Indian Country have shifted the focus from the soldier in combat to the soldier as he attempts to reconnect with the mainstream of American society.
    [Show full text]
  • W Vietnam Service Report
    Honoring Our Vietnam War and Vietnam Era Veterans February 28, 1961 - May 7, 1975 Town of West Seneca, New York Name: WAILAND Hometown: CHEEKTOWAGA FRANK J. Address: Vietnam Era Vietnam War Veteran Year Entered: 1968 Service Branch:ARMY Rank: SP-5 Year Discharged: 1971 Unit / Squadron: 1ST INFANTRY DIVISION 1ST ENGINEER BATTALION Medals / Citations: NATIONAL DEFENSE SERVICE RIBBON VIETNAM SERVICE MEDAL VIETNAM CAMPAIGN MEDAL WITH '60 DEVICE ARMY COMMENDATION MEDAL 2 OVERSEAS SERVICE BARS SHARPSHOOTER BADGE: M-16 RIFLE EXPERT BADGE: M-14 RIFLE Served in War Zone Theater of Operations / Assignment: VIETNAM Service Notes: Base Assignments: Fort Belvoir, Virginia - The base was founded during World War I as Camp A. A. Humphreys, named for Union Civil War general Andrew A. Humphreys, who was also Chief of Engineers / The post was renamed Fort Belvoir in the 1930s in recognition of the Belvoir plantation that once occupied the site, but the adjacent United States Army Corps of Engineers Humphreys Engineer Center retains part of the original name / Fort Belvoir was initially the home of the Army Engineer School prior to its relocation in the 1980s to Fort Leonard Wood, in Missouri / Fort Belvoir serves as the headquarters for the Defense Logistics Agency, the Defense Acquisition University, the Defense Contract Audit Agency, the Defense Technical Information Center, the United States Army Intelligence and Security Command, the United States Army Military Intelligence Readiness Command, the Missile Defense Agency, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, all agencies of the United States Department of Defense Lai Khe, Vietnam - Also known as Lai Khê Base, Lai Khe was a former Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) and U.S.
    [Show full text]
  • Intimate Perspectives from the Battlefields of Iraq
    'The Best Covered War in History': Intimate Perspectives from the Battlefields of Iraq by Andrew J. McLaughlin A thesis presented to the University Of Waterloo in fulfilment of the thesis requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, 2017 © Andrew J. McLaughlin 2017 Examining Committee Membership The following served on the Examining Committee for this thesis. The decision of the Examining Committee is by majority vote. External Examiner Marco Rimanelli Professor, St. Leo University Supervisor(s) Andrew Hunt Professor, University of Waterloo Internal Member Jasmin Habib Associate Professor, University of Waterloo Internal Member Roger Sarty Professor, Wilfrid Laurier University Internal-external Member Brian Orend Professor, University of Waterloo ii Author's Declaration I hereby declare that I am the sole author of this thesis. This is a true copy of the thesis, including any required final revisions, as accepted by my examiners. I understand that my thesis may be made electronically available to the public. iii Abstract This study examines combat operations from the 2003 invasion of Iraq War from the “ground up.” It utilizes unique first-person accounts that offer insights into the realities of modern warfare which include effects on soldiers, the local population, and journalists who were tasked with reporting on the action. It affirms the value of media embedding to the historian, as hundreds of journalists witnessed major combat operations firsthand. This line of argument stands in stark contrast to other academic assessments of the embedding program, which have criticized it by claiming media bias and military censorship. Here, an examination of the cultural and social dynamics of an army at war provides agency to soldiers, combat reporters, and innocent civilians caught in the crossfire.
    [Show full text]
  • Proquest Dissertations
    MAKING WAR: EMBODIED INTERACTIONS, MEANING-MAKING AND THE WAR IN IRAQ By Jesse Paul Crane-Seeber Submitted to the Faculty of the School of International Service of American University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in International Relations Chair: tU iJUM- LL Patrick Thaddeus Jackson llllv-y/ 1 \ srf <eline-A/Iarie Pascale / - ^ f* Raymond Duvall kJUM) C9^ruA^ Dean of the School of International Service if 3 Qo Date (J 2009 America University Washington, D.C. 20016 -AMERICAN UNIVERSITY LIBRARY UMI Number: 3410326 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UNIT Dissertation Publishing UMI 3410326 Copyright 2010 by ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This edition of the work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. uestA ® ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 © COPYRIGHT by Jesse Paul Crane-Seeber 2009 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED For the better world we all long for and those who need it most MAKING WAR: EMBODIED INTERACTIONS, MEANING-MAKING, AND THE WAR IN IRAQ BY Jesse Paul Crane-Seeber ABSTRACT The invasion and occupation of Iraq has been the center of numerous political and theoretical disputes, and as the war heads into its seventh year, U.S.
    [Show full text]
  • Vietnam: Tet Offensive Resource Packet
    Virginians at War Vietnam: Tet Offensive Resource Packet Contains: Glossary, Timeline, Images, Discussion Questions, Additional Resources Program Description: Virginians at War: The Tet Offensive explores the experience of Virginians that fought during the critical Tet Offensive in 1968, a turning point of the Vietnam War. Launched by the North Vietnamese Army on 30 January, the coordinated attack against thirteen different provincial capitals throughout South Vietnam took Americans and South Vietnamese by surprise. The result was a costly, long campaign that ended in a hard –fought military victory for the United States and South Vietnamese. However, the outcome of the campaign had a significantly negative impact on support for the war in the United States, from which the nation would not fully recover. Copyright: Virginia War Memorial Foundation, 2006 Length: 18:59 Streaming link: https://vimeo.com/367038067 Featured Speakers: MSG Lonnie S. Ashton, Montross SPC Orthea Harcum, Richmond MSG Lauren P. Bands, Colonial Heights LT Hugh D. Keogh, Midlothian COL Robert C. Barrett, Jr., Colonial Heights SGT Prentis Lee, Clifton LT COL Frank S. Blair, Richmond SP/4 Powhatan “Red Cloud” Owen, Charles City MSG Charles M. Carter, Warsaw SGM Douglass I. Randolph, Charlotte Court House SGT Earl E. Cousins, Ashland MAJ John A. Rawls, M.D., Mechanicsville CPT James H. Dement, Jr., Richmond 1st LT Cathie Lynn Solomonson, R.N., Woodbridge 1st LT Daniel G. Doyle, Richmond 1st LT James F. Walker, Roanoke LT COL John D. Edgerton, Williamsburg For a transcript of this program and more information on the Vietnam War, please visit vawarmemorial.org/learn/resources/vietnam.
    [Show full text]
  • 1A May 10 Final.Indd
    INSIDE Outlook.....................2A News briefs..............15A picking Community briefs.....2B Screaming Eaglets...3B Entertainment............2C Sports.........................4C VOLUMEME 48, NUMBERNUMBER 119 THURSDAY, MAY 10, 2012 WWW.FORTCAMPBELLCOURIER.COM Call of duty: 101st veteran recalls Hamburger Hill by Michele Vowell in Vietnam,” he said. “That’s Courier assistant editor where everybody was going.” It was January 1969. Forty-three years ago Cochran, 20, was headed today, Soldiers from the 3rd halfway across the world to Battalion, 187th Infantry fi ght. Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 101st “All of the training we got in Airborne Division, started basic and AIT were aimed at fi ghting the Battle of Ham- Vietnam,” he said. “In reality, burger Hill. we had a sense of what was Private Dan Cochran was going on, but until you really one of them. got there and got involved, it The 12-day battle occurred was quite different.” May 10-21, 1969, in the When he arrived in coun- northern part of South Viet- try, Cochran was one of nam near the A Shau Valley. endary Screaming Eagles. His about 150 Soldiers in A Co., An “Iron Rakkasan” with grandfather, Frank Edwards, who served under Company Alpha Company, Cochran also served as a paratrooper Commander Capt. Bob Har- was only 20 when U.S. and with the 101st during World kins. South Vietnamese forces War II. “Dan, like many of the commenced Operation “My grandpa jumped in Soldiers, he was a young Apache Snow, to clear the Normandy with the 101st,” kid, bright-eyed and bushy North Vietnamese from he said. “The 101st was the tailed,” Harkins said.
    [Show full text]
  • Iggy Pop Kill City Mp3, Flac, Wma
    Iggy Pop Kill City mp3, flac, wma DOWNLOAD LINKS (Clickable) Genre: Rock Album: Kill City Country: Spain Released: 1978 Style: Punk MP3 version RAR size: 1724 mb FLAC version RAR size: 1249 mb WMA version RAR size: 1430 mb Rating: 4.5 Votes: 679 Other Formats: AA VOC DTS VQF AU VOX AHX Tracklist A1 Kill City 2:20 A2 Sell Your Love 3:36 A3 Beyond The Law 3:00 A4 I Got Nothin' 3:22 B1 Johanna 3:03 B2 Consolation Prizes 3:17 B3 No Sense Of Crime 3:43 B4 Lucky Monkeys 3:37 Companies, etc. Phonographic Copyright (p) – Bomp Records Copyright (c) – Bomp Records Credits Backing Vocals – Tony "Fox" Sales* (tracks: B4) Backing Vocals, Drums – Hunt Sales (tracks: B4) Backing Vocals, Harmonica, Effects – Scott "Troy" Thurston* Bass – Scott "Troy" Thurston* (tracks: A1, A3, B1, B2), Steve (From Out Of Nowhere)* (tracks: A2, A4, B3) Design [Album Design] – David Allen Drums, Congas, Backing Vocals, Guiro, Percussion [African Beaters] – Brian Glascock Engineer [Assistant] – Peter Haden, Tony Gottlieb Guitar – "Strait" James Williamson* Keyboards – Scott "Troy" Thurston* (tracks: A1, A3, B1, B2) Producer, Mixed By – James Williamson Saxophone – John "The Rookie" Harden* Vocals – Iggy Pop Written-By – Iggy Pop, James Williamson Notes Special collector's edition! Featuring the original 1977 LP artwork and the best tracks from Iggy's first solo album (Available on Bomp CD 4042 with additional tracks, lavish booklet, unpublished photos, etc.) Barcode and Other Identifiers Matrix / Runout: BLP 4042/10-B S-36705 Other versions Category Artist Title (Format)
    [Show full text]
  • Through the Hollywood Lens: the Vietnam War 3
    Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at W&M Summer 2020 Through the Hollywood Lens: The Vietnam War Scott A. Langhorst, Ph.D. First Lieutenant 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment 25th Division Tay Ninh, Vietnam (1969-70) Using Zoom tools - reminder • Use the menu bar (mouse over bottom/top of screen) to appear • Use icons to on menu bar open tools (click “on” click “off”) • Use “chat box” to ask questions or make comments • Use “participant” list for raising hand or other gestures • Make the session interactive by using the Zoom tools © Scott A. Langhorst, Ph.D. 1 Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at W&M Summer 2020 Questions or comments from last week? 1Lt Langhorst at FSB Rhode Island Forrest Gump (1994) • Directed by Robert Zemeckis • Won 6 Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Actor • Nominated for 7 other Oscars • Vietnam sequences filmed on Fripp Island, SC • Storyline: After many 1960’s adventures, Forrest joins the Army and goes to Vietnam. He makes a new friend, Bubba, who dies in his arms after an violent ambush. Forrest is able to save the rest of his squad and a reluctant Lt. Dan. Forrest comes home to an America that is divided, and saves a paraplegic Lt. Dan once again. He is a witness to the aftermath of Vietnam and the healing of America. © Scott A. Langhorst, Ph.D. 2 Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at W&M Summer 2020 What the movie got right • (Why “Forrest Gump” in a course about the Vietnam War?) • One film segment is about Forrest as a soldier in Vietnam (2/47 Inf.
    [Show full text]
  • Chapter 6 the EARLY MODERN BRIGADE, 1958-1972 Pentomic
    Chapter 6 THE EARLY MODERN BRIGADE, 1958-1972 Pentomic Era Following World War II, the US Army retained the organizational structures, with minor modifications, which had won that war. This organization—which did not include a maneuver unit called the brigade after the two brigades in the 1st Cavalry Division were eliminated in 1949—was also used to fight the Korean War in 1950-1953. Despite the success of the triangular infantry division in two wars, the Army radically changed the structure in 1958 by converting the infantry division to what became known as the Pentomic Division. Ostensively, the Pentomic structure was designed to allow infantry units to survive and fight on an atomic battlefield. Structurally it eliminated the regiment and battalion, replacing both with five self- contained “battlegroups,” each of which were larger than an old style battalion, but smaller than a regiment. A full colonel commanded the battlegroup and his captains commanded four, later five, subordinate rifle companies. The Pentomic Division structurally reflected that of the World War II European theater airborne divisions. This was no surprise since three European airborne commanders dominated the Army’s strategic thinking after the Korean War: Army Chief of Staff General Matthew Ridgway, Eighth Army commander General Maxwell Taylor, and VII Corps commander Lieutenant General James Gavin. Though theoretically triangular in design, the two airborne divisions Ridgway, Taylor, and Gavin commanded in the war, the 82d and 101st, fought as division task forces reinforced with additional parachute regiments and separate battalions. For most of the Northern European campaign, both divisions had two additional parachute regiments attached to them, giving them five subordinate regiments, each commanded by colonels.
    [Show full text]
  • Vietnam War Veterans and the Literature of Catharsis
    “But in a story, I can steal [its] soul”: Vietnam War Veterans and the Literature of Catharsis By Gina P. E. Marks A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the University Honors Program University of South Florida, St. Petersburg December 4th, 2019 Thesis Director: Julie Buckner Armstrong, Ph.D. Professor, College of Arts and Sciences Table of Contents “It was very sad, he thought. The things men carried inside. The things men did or felt they had to do.” – The Vietnam War and the American Veteran’s Literature --------------------------- page 3 “It was all absurd, without reason or meaning. People who didn't know each other were going to kill each other over a hill none of them cared about.” – Matterhorn, Karl Marlantes ----- page 16 “I had escaped Vietnam[…], but I had not escaped my memories.” – Chickenhawk, Robert Mason ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- page 27 “The bad stuff never stops happening: it lives in its own dimension, replaying itself over and over.” – The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien ----------------------------------------------- page 38 “I survived, but it’s not a happy ending” – The Literature of Vietnam Veterans and Trauma Studies ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ page 49 Appendix I: Vietnam War Literature and American History: A Timeline ------------------ page 55 Works Cited ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    [Show full text]