(Here's a link to the actual article.)
The Vietnam War gets a bad rap. America was once again messing around in things that were questionably our business, sending off young people to the jungles and wilderness to die and still losing in the end. But most people forget that this wasn't just some distant, bloodless war. Thousands of American soldiers died in this war, thousands of people whose sacrifice many citizens didn't even appreciate.
In AP US History, we get a pretty detached recount of all the wars and such, so this personal account really added a new layer to the event for me. It provides a different take on the typical story - engaging and emotional, touching and relatable. Reading over it, I felt like I could truly understand the author, as both him and I are young people starting our adult life and struggling with figuring out where we fit in this big world.
But Magner also makes a very interesting point that I've never really considered before. He tells the story of how another soldier lit a cigarette in the middle of the night (a very bad idea for anyone who doesn't know) and describes how furious the sergeant was in the morning, saying, "You are the enemy of the platoon, and you must be killed before you kill us!" Magner then goes on to say an important statement: "It was the primitive truth of clan survival. Our lives belonged to the clan; its survival depended on each of us. Individual foolishness was a luxury afforded to those societies too powerful to be threatened."
I think this is a really unique take on the whole situation. In times of war and distress, it's all really about the survival of the group, the survival of humanity, really. The individual characteristics and needs of each person don't matter anymore; everything goes towards protecting the group. This all just trails back to the idea Magner puts across, that we're all just a bunch of mindless sheep following directions, "fools in a hierarchy of fools." During times of conflict, it's good to trust your leaders and government, but like Magner says, it's also good to keep some control over yourself.
The Vietnam War gets a bad rap. America was once again messing around in things that were questionably our business, sending off young people to the jungles and wilderness to die and still losing in the end. But most people forget that this wasn't just some distant, bloodless war. Thousands of American soldiers died in this war, thousands of people whose sacrifice many citizens didn't even appreciate.
In AP US History, we get a pretty detached recount of all the wars and such, so this personal account really added a new layer to the event for me. It provides a different take on the typical story - engaging and emotional, touching and relatable. Reading over it, I felt like I could truly understand the author, as both him and I are young people starting our adult life and struggling with figuring out where we fit in this big world.
But Magner also makes a very interesting point that I've never really considered before. He tells the story of how another soldier lit a cigarette in the middle of the night (a very bad idea for anyone who doesn't know) and describes how furious the sergeant was in the morning, saying, "You are the enemy of the platoon, and you must be killed before you kill us!" Magner then goes on to say an important statement: "It was the primitive truth of clan survival. Our lives belonged to the clan; its survival depended on each of us. Individual foolishness was a luxury afforded to those societies too powerful to be threatened."
I think this is a really unique take on the whole situation. In times of war and distress, it's all really about the survival of the group, the survival of humanity, really. The individual characteristics and needs of each person don't matter anymore; everything goes towards protecting the group. This all just trails back to the idea Magner puts across, that we're all just a bunch of mindless sheep following directions, "fools in a hierarchy of fools." During times of conflict, it's good to trust your leaders and government, but like Magner says, it's also good to keep some control over yourself.