Authors give voice to soldiers of Vietnam

Authors give voice to soldiers of Vietnam
                        

I have long been a fan of good storytelling, even when that storytelling is raw or violent or even visceral. As readers join DEA agent Art Keller attempting to take down cartel drug lord Adán Barrera, gifted authors, like Don Winslow, can place you in the middle of a Central American drug cartel and make you feel as if it is your life on the line.

Karl Marlantes achieved a similar effect with his 2011 Vietnam War book, “Matterhorn.” Every book on the Vietnam War that I have since read is judged by Marlantes’ epic but intimate story of Lt. Waino Mellas and his brothers in Bravo Company after they are dropped into the mountain jungles of Vietnam. Maintaining a vestige of one’s humanity in an inhumane environment becomes the central theme of the novel, and it is a powerful one. As cliché as the phrase is, “Matterhorn” is a book that will stay with you long after you have flipped the final page and placed the book on your great books bookshelf.

I recently finished reading Kent Anderson’s “Sympathy for the Devil,” a Vietnam War book that is every bit as much about the lingering effects war has on its soldiers as they try to reacclimate themselves back into society as it is the war itself. His ear for dialogue, shared amongst soldiers both inside and outside of battle, will make you feel as if you are listening to a live recording rather than reading a book.

After reading, I thought a lot about the book’s protagonist and his real-life Vietnam veteran creator. Deep admiration must be shown for anyone to have experienced the atrocities of war and then be able to write about it so eloquently, yet unsparing in candor.

If one puts any stock in the “write what you know” belief, then both Anderson and Marlantes are some of its best examples. Searching for even more details, this notion and subject led me to reach out to a former teaching colleague and friend.

A great storyteller in his own right, former Wooster High German teacher Jim Caputo served with the 7/9 Artillery as a forward observer in Vietnam. Just 22 at the time of his deployment, most of his two years spent in Vietnam were along the Cambodian border and in Bien Hoa and Tay Ninh. Naturally, Caputo has some opinions on the literary and film depictions of the war he experienced firsthand.

“‘Platoon,’” he quickly answered when asked if there was a film that captured what the experience was really like. “(Just like the picture depicts), its realism is spot on; no one knew what the (heck) was going on.”

“Platoon,” the 1986 film directed by Oliver Stone, won four academy awards including Best Picture.

Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried” ranks amongst his literary favorites, but Caputo is quick to point out that sometimes the most effective way to experience something through the literary scope may not come in the form of a book.

“The poem, ‘Song of Napalm,’ is real,” Caputo said. “Sometimes, you can learn more about an experience from a poem. I especially like this one.”

The poem, written by Vietnam Army veteran Bruce Weigl, in part, speaks to the truth of violence witnessed by the poem’s first-person narrator and its lasting impact, one being the death of a girl due to a napalm drop. A stanza from the poem reads:

“So I can keep on living,

So I can stay here beside you,

I try to imagine she runs down the road and wings

Beat inside her until she rises

Above the stinking jungle and her pain

Eases, and your pain, and mine.”

The narrator longs for an imagined answer and resolution to the horrors of war but knows the escape is only temporary. The poem concludes:

“She is burned behind my eyes

And not your good love and not the rain-swept air

And not the jungle green

Pasture unfolding before us can deny it.”

There is no doubt historical fiction becomes all the more valid when written from those who experienced the history firsthand. The authenticity they bring with their words fills the piece with vivid detail.

For some authors, I am sure the writing provides a catharsis of sorts, as they try to work through memories, some most assuredly painful. Their ability to do so, while being great writers, while providing a voice for soldiers like Jim Caputo, helps us understand, just a bit, the sacrifices so many made in the Vietnam War.

Maybe Weigl, himself, said it best in his best-selling prose memoir, “The Circle of Hanh”: “The paradox of my life as a writer is that the war ruined my life and in return gave me my voice.”

Brett Hiner is in his 24th year of teaching English/language arts at Wooster High School, where he also serves as the yearbook advisor and Drama Club advisor/director. He can be emailed at workinprogressWWN@gmail.com.


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