The Truth of War Project
Isaac Korce
The Contradiction
People always go through experiences considered horrible, but keep going and don’t question authority. After every war there are always people who will forever be changed and never be able to talk about why they feel and the reasons why. After observing the affects that war has on people through Slaughterhouse Five and All Quiet on the Western Front you realize what war does to someone. The experience by far the most moving was the one with my great grandfather Andy, this experience is something you can’t forget. Listening to an old man sob while he talks about how many people he watched die. Through all this you realize what really happens in war. The way things happen for the good of a few when the good of millions is at stake.
War isn’t always chosen, but forced upon those who don’t wish it. There is always an attitude about the soldiers involvement in war “well you should have expected that when you signed up for war”. I feel as though this is true to an existent but can’t be a reason not to respect soldiers who go through the events that make a war. One quote I found in Slaughterhouse Five that really helped me understand the remorse soldiers fell after war, "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to always tell the difference."(Kurt Vonnegut pg. 60) The reason why Billy had this quote hanging on his wall was because he realized how this would have benefited him during the war when he was making crucial decisions and how much better his life would have been if he had lived his life with this motto. So after the war Billy realizes how this would have helped him and regrets the fact that he wasn’t able to use this quote to create a better life for him. Billy could have done something instead of always going with the flow and allowing himself to be destroyed by a fate he himself could change.
After reading Slaughterhouse-Five and All Quiet on the Western Front I realized that if I had a personal example I could make a better connection. My great Grandfather Andy was a tank driver in world war two. He was the first set of heavy weaponry on the Normandy beaches after it had been stormed. The first time he stepped out of his tank his foot went right into a rotting corpse. He was only 20 years old and had no experience with things of this nature. More inland he was engaged on an enemy patrol and the cannon inside the tank misfired slicing my grandfather’s best friends head 4 inches in. It took the man forty-five minutes to die in my grandpas arms. In the battle of the Buldge my grandfather’s tank got stuck in a marsh. And he had to hide from Nazis in a frozen swamp for weeks on end. When he went to the doctor they looked at his feet which were badly frostbitten and poked them with needles and he could never feel it. So they told him they would have to amputate his feet. So the next time they poked him with the needles he faked it and yelled. To this day his feet are still black on the bottoms and numb to the touch.
War affects all of us from the General to the private to the lady who can’t afford food for her family. Nobody enjoys war nobody gains anything from, so why must we endure a sacrifice that seems to be unavoidable. “In All Quiet on the Western Front”, the author makes an explanatory statement about whom the war is good for, and “Then what exactly is the war for? Asks Tjaden.”Kat shrugs his shoulders. "There must be some people to whom the war is useful. “Well, I'm not one of them," grins Tjaden. "Not you, nor anybody else here." This quote even shows the soldiers hate of war from an opposing force. This quote shows how nobody can escape the wrath of war yet no one gets anything out of it. What allows a soldier to comply to a generals orders even though they it is morally wrong? What crosses the line between duty and being morally conscious? Why most those who gain nothing from war lose everything for those who make no sacrifices?
The line between morals and duty is an argument that goes on deep down inside of a soldier’s conscience. When this line is crossed and demolished the truth of war becomes one long and barren wasteland where your regrets harvest and linger. In Erich Maria Remarque’s book, “All Quiet on the Western Front,” Paul states I will, “write to your wife, she must hear it from me. I will tell her everything I have told you, she shall not suffer, I will help her, and your parents too, and your child” This shows what happens when Paul’s line is crossed. He makes promises to himself that are ridicules. This happens because he kills a French soldier with his knife because he was scared. This really gave Paul a different mentality instead of trying to stay alive he becomes distracted with this event. Paul ends up dying and his truth of war becomes death.
Throughout war people die and suffer and the real pain is the memories that are the truths of war. War will never go away; it will be fought with different weapons and new technology. War will always remain the same, same boundaries, same conflicts, and same horrors. The truth of war is found when you look into the face of war and see the damage it causes. The damage is done by those who it doesn’t affect. When internal boundaries are crossed soldiers find their true self and serenity is a path that few are allowed to choose.
Project Reflection
The assignment that we were assigned included talking about both books we read, Slaughterhouse- Five and All Quiet on the Western Front. The assignment was finding the truth of war for a soldier that has gone through a war. This includes talking about what their thinking and what war means for a soldier. My project was bases on the lies that are formed between soldier and superior and who gains something from war. We have had two seminars on each book we have read to create more in depth thought and reflection about the novels. We have done lots of work with this subject and have explored the ideas about the truth of war quite well.
The habit of heart and mind that I used most in this project was perspective by far. I used it in everything I did every time you ever wrote anything it was never a yes or no question it was your perspective. My perspective is the one thing that I could always build my writing off of. Whenever I had trouble writing or got stuck I would look at my opinions and perspective on the matter and follow it. For example on my poster I had several people that I had to categorize from “Make Money on War” and “Lose Your Life for War”. I used people that I could connect with on a personal level that I could easily talk about and give examples. This poster wouldn’t work without perspective.
My first draft of my essay was not very good; it took me a while to really decide what direction I wanted to go on my project. Once I figured out what I had to do I had to reformat my entire essay and start with new paragraphs from scratch again. This made a much more clear and formatted essay to read. The next massive revision I made was finding all of my grammatical errors such as underlining, capitalization, and corrects citations. This makes my writing easier to read and correct.
If I had one more week I would make another paragraph to talk about the lies that the soldiers listen to. The lies that no one ever talks about out loud are the ones that soldiers have to follow. This causes a lot of confusion and mayhem. This would add to my essay greatly because of the fact that I don’t go into detail about this as much as I wanted to. One revision for my poster would be finding a couple more people to put on the make money side. Also just spend more time making everything look beautiful.
Veteran's History Project
This veteran's history project was one where we had to conduct an interview with a Vietnam veteran who was willing to be video recorded for a library of congress video submission. This includes filling out wavers a complete bio sheet done, as well as a half and hour or longer video taped interview. In order to conduct a successful interview we had to create questions that would allow the veteran to tell his side of the story about Vietnam. So we had to create 30 or so well organized questions to ask our veteran. During the project we also had to do a lot of research about the questions we were creating so that they were accurate to historical truth. Overall this project was a very memorable learning expedience.
Project Reflection
The interview was a very important part of my understanding about Vietnam veterans. The perspective that my veteran shared with me about his war experience definitely affirmed my perspective about the truth of war. The veteran who I interviewed was extremely proud of the things he did and seemed to have no regrets. The truth of war that this veteran affirmed was the fact that soldiers do things all the time they regret for the rest of their lives, and soldiers who figure out the truth of war know both why it was justified and wrong. My veteran was confident that he did the right thing so I have full confidence that this veteran was affirming my theory.
The most interesting thing I learned in the veteran interview was how dangerous it could be for someone who took pictures. The guy whom we interviewed was a photographer in the Vietnam War. He flew in a plane that went over the northern part of Vietnam in less than ten minutes. During his job he was put through many risks one of them having Vietnam enemy artillery fired at them while they flew over Vietnam. The other dangerous thing they had to deal with was taking off and landing on the aircraft carrier. The one thing our veteran shared with us though is that he always tried living life to the fullest when he could because he never knew if he would be getting up again the next day. I felt like my veteran took a lot of time to go over things that happen during his time in Vietnam he explained this particular part in the most detail. So the dangers that airmen go through as well as how they deal with it is what I learned.
Well as a veteran there would be many questions I would ask myself and find more information before I use the interview for anything. I would want to know more about the job that my veteran had in the navy so I could understand better the duties that were required. I would also want to know more about what the people thought of the draft, as well as the soldiers. However I would use this interview as a liable recording of what a soldier’s perspective is after they are done being in war if I was a historian. The veteran interviews show many things about the character of a Vietnam veteran. If I was a historian I would record the reactions and common beliefs that are shared between Vietnam veterans.
The most valuable part of the project in regards of preparation was group communication for sure. Communication is generally not that hard however with this project so much rested on what one person had to contribute to the group. For example if I forget to bring my questions in on the day that we agreed I am rendering my partners ability to get work done as well as mine. So working together with someone else requires a lot of communication as well as following through on what was agreed upon. So I know in my group there were days when both of us were sick and we had to email and text each other in order to find out what was going on. So my partner and I did use quite well communicating skills.
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| My great-grandfather Andrew Korce- World War II Vet |
Gulf of Tonkin Writing
Thesis- Even though the United States government claims that their ship was attacked in neutral waters, there is more at work here than what the government will tell us.
1964, A United States ship is attacked in neutral waters by hostile Vietnam artillery. The ship was not sunk but was surprised by the attack of supposedly safe and neutral place. “whereas naval units of the communist regime in Vietnam, in violation of the principles of the Charter of the United Nations and of international law, have deliberately and repeatedly attacked United States naval vessels lawfully present in international waters, and have thereby created a serious threat to international peace.”(Quoted from document 1 of the Tonkin documents). This attack showed the aggression of this rising communist power in south East Asia. It’s hard to understand why they attacked, however the secretary of state has his opinions on the matter” And the essential fact was that our vessels were being attacked on the high seas by these boats and we had to do something about it.” This was the event that more or less started the war in Vietnam there were many things that led up to this but no violent attacks on any U.S. personal.
The United States government did some interesting things in the Black Ops era, giving their truthfulness and respects a little doubt. The United States at this point is the most powerful noncommunist country in the world. With most of the world turning into communist powers it was upon the United States to try to at least assist the countries on the brink of a communist government. They did this with economical support and the promise of a better way of life that what the communist government could give them. However sometimes the pressure of being a communist country was too high and Vietnam had definitely chosen the communist path. So there is a theory that is backed up by sketchy proof that the government planned these attacks upon themselves so they could have a reason to go to war with Vietnam, their ultimate goal was to repel the communist threat. Recorded messages by the captain of the attacked ship,” The first boat to close the Maddox probably launched a torpedo at the Maddox which was heard but not seen. All subsequent Maddox torpedo reports are doubtful in that it is suspected that sonar man was hearing the ship’s own propeller beat”. This is a message from the captain of the ship so it makes me very doubtful that attacks occurred in the Gulf of Tonkin.
In my opinion there were a lot unsure things that occurred before the war in Vietnam. However if you look at what supposedly happened compared to what people inference it’s obvious to me at least which one makes more sense. To me the idea that the United States government needed a reason to begin their campaign in Vietnam makes way more sense than random attacks on a ship in neutral waters. The people of Vietnam know that these attacks would cause, so there no doubt in my mind that the attacks were staged by the United States. Personally I can understand why the United States government wanted to invade Vietnam and neutralize another threatening communist country. However in the war at Vietnam we didn’t do so well and it didn’t really help that much and I think in this span of time we could have used our resources and manpower in more beneficial ways.
In conclusion I would like to round up my ideas about why the United States went to war with Vietnam. During the Cold War several huge steps for mankind occurred, the making of the most powerful weapons the world has ever seen, the first ever satellite to be put in earth’s orbit, the first man ever on the moon. All of these events have been neck and neck races between the United States of America and The powerful Soviet Union. During this time a lot of tension grew between the countries climaxing during the Cuban missile crisis.” It’s amazing to think that just one different decision and the world would have been engulfed in nuclear war”. The Soviet Union at this time being at the height of its power before its economical downfall was quite a threat to the capitalist countries of the world. The soviets influenced many countries to become communist, especially the ones that were already faltering with economic woes. So the war in Vietnam was the perfect way for the United States to indirectly strike at the Soviet Union seeing how they were supplying the people of Vietnam. The Gulf of Tonkin incident was exactly what the United States needed to gain the support of the country to go to war with Vietnam. The events occurring in the Gulf of Tonkin true or not was exactly what allowed the war to occur in Vietnam.
