Achilles in Vietnam

Welche seelischen Verwüstungen richtet der moderne Krieg an.
Jonathan Shays kluges, einfühlsames Buch zeigt, dass Krieg eine fortdauernde individuelle Pathologie sein kann; es zeigt, dass die dabei durchlaufene psychische Transformation universell ist, den klassischen Krieger mit dem modernen Soldaten verbindet; und es zeigt nicht zuletzt, welch permanente Zerstörungen der Krieg in jedem Zeitalter hervorruft. Der Krieg ist nicht die Fortsetzung der Politik mit anderen Mitteln, wohl aber ist die Politik einer Nachkriegszeit in manchen Aspekten die Fortsetzung des Krieges.

Zusatztext Herbert Mitgang The New York Times A transcendent literary adventure. His compassionate book deserves a place in the lasting literature of the Vietnam War. Informationen zum Autor Jonathan Shay Klappentext Using vivid narratives of Vietnam veterans afflicted with posttraumatic stress disorder, his own discoveries in treating these men, and the profound poetic truths of the Iliad, Shay reveals the devastating effects of catastrophic war experiences on the minds and spirits of soldiers. CHAPTER I Betrayal of "What´s Right" Every instance of severe traumatic psychological injury is a standing challenge to the rightness of the social order. Judith Lewis Herman, 1990 Harvard Trauma Conference We begin in the moral world of the soldier -- what his culture understands to be right -- and betrayal of that moral order by a commander. This is how Homer opens the Iliad. Agamémnon, Achilles´ commander, wrongfully seizes the prize of honor voted to Achilles by the troops. Achilles´ experience of betrayal of "what´s right," and his reactions to it, are identical to those of American soldiers in Vietnam. I shall describe some of the many violations of what American soldiers understood to be right by holders of responsibility and trust. Now, there was a LURP [Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol] team from the First Brigade off of Highway One, that looked over the South China Sea. There was a bay there....Now, they saw boats come in. And they suspected, now, uh -- the word came down [that] they were unloading weapons off them. Three boats. At that time we moved. It was about ten o´clock at night. We moved down, across Highway One along the beach line, and it took us [until] about three or four o´clock in the morning to get on line while these people are unloading their boats. And we opened up on them -- aaah. And the fucking firepower was unreal, the firepower that we put into them boats. It was just a constant, constant firepower. It seemed like no one ever ran out of ammo. Daylight came [long pause], and we found out we killed a lot of fishermen and kids. What got us thoroughly fucking confused is, at that time you turn to the team and you say to the team, "Don´t worry about it. Everything´s fucking fine." Because that´s what you´re getting from upstairs. The fucking colonel says, "Don´t worry about it. We´ll take care of it." Y´know, uh, "We got body count!" "We have body count!" So it starts working on your head. So you know in your heart it´s wrong, but at the time, here´s your superiors telling you that it was okay. So, I mean, that´s okay then, right? This is part of war. Y´know? Gung-HO! Y´know? "AirBORNE! AirBORNE! Let´s go!" So we packed up and we moved out. They wanted to give us a fucking Unit Citation -- them fucking maggots. A lot of medals came down from it. The lieutenants got medals, and I know the colonel got his fucking medal. And they would have award ceremonies, y´know, I´d be standing like a fucking jerk and they´d be handing out fucking medals for killing civilians. This veteran received his Combat Infantry Badge for participating in this action. The CIB was one of the most prized U.S. Army awards, supposed to be awarded for actual engagement in ground combat. He subsequently earned his CIB a thousand times over in four combat tours. Nonetheless, he still feels deeply dishonored by the circumstances of its official award for killing unarmed civilians on an intelligence error. He declares that the day it happened, Christmas Eve, should be stricken from the calendar. We shall hear this man´s voice and the voices of other combat veterans many times in these pages. I shall argue throughout this book that healing from trauma depends upon communalization of the trauma -- being able safely to tell the story to someone who is listeni...

Herbert Mitgang The New York Times A transcendent literary adventure. His compassionate book deserves a place in the lasting literature of the Vietnam War.

Auteur

Jonathan Shay

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Using vivid narratives of Vietnam veterans afflicted with posttraumatic stress disorder, his own discoveries in treating these men, and the profound poetic truths of the Iliad, Shay reveals the devastating effects of catastrophic war experiences on the minds and spirits of soldiers.

Résumé
Compares the experiences of soldiers in the Vietnam war with those in the Trojan War, and examines how the stresses of combat affect the individual soldier.

Échantillon de lecture
CHAPTER I

Betrayal of "What´s Right"

Every instance of severe traumatic psychological injury is a standing challenge to the rightness of the social order.

Judith Lewis Herman,

1990 Harvard Trauma Conference

We begin in the moral world of the soldier -- what his culture understands to be right -- and betrayal of that moral order by a commander. This is how Homer opens the Iliad. Agamémnon, Achilles´ commander, wrongfully seizes the prize of honor voted to Achilles by the troops. Achilles´ experience of betrayal of "what´s right," and his reactions to it, are identical to those of American soldiers in Vietnam. I shall describe some of the many violations of what American soldiers understood to be right by holders of responsibility and trust.

Now, there was a LURP [Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol] team from the First Brigade off of Highway One, that looked over the South China Sea. There was a bay there....Now, they saw boats come in. And they suspected, now, uh -- the word came down [that] they were unloading weapons off them. Three boats.

At that time we moved. It was about ten o´clock at night. We moved down, across Highway One along the beach line, and it took us [until] about three or four o´clock in the morning to get on line while these people are unloading their boats. And we opened up on them -- aaah.

And the fucking firepower was unreal, the firepower that we put into them boats. It was just a constant, constant firepower. It seemed like no one ever ran out of ammo.

Daylight came [long pause], and we found out we killed a lot of fishermen and kids.

What got us thoroughly fucking confused is, at that time you turn to the team and you say to the team, "Don´t worry about it. Everything´s fucking fine." Because that´s what you´re getting from upstairs.

The fucking colonel says, "Don´t worry about it. We´ll take care of it." Y´know, uh, "We got body count!" "We have body count!" So it starts working on your head.

So you know in your heart it´s wrong, but at the time, here´s your superiors telling you that it was okay. So, I mean, that´s okay then, right? This is part of war. Y´know? Gung-HO! Y´know? "AirBORNE! AirBORNE! Let´s go!"

So we packed up and we moved out.

They wanted to give us a fucking Unit Citation -- them fucking maggots. A lot of medals came down from it. The lieutenants got medals, and I know the colonel got his fucking medal. And they would have award ceremonies, y´know, I´d be standing like a fucking jerk and they´d be handing out fucking medals for killing civilians.

This veteran received his Combat Infantry Badge for participating in this action. The CIB was one of the most prized U.S. Army awards, supposed to be awarded for actual engagement in ground combat. He subsequently earned his CIB a thousand times over in f…