American Personal Narrative of the War in Vietnam Author(s): Gordon O. Taylor Reviewed work(s): Source: American Literature, Vol.

52, No. 2 (May, 1980), pp. 294-308 Published by: Duke University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2924818 . Accessed: 02/10/2012 19:58
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Duke University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to American Literature.

http://www.jstor.org

American Personal Narrative of the War in Vietnam

GORDON 0. TAYLOR University of Tulsa

what was goingto happen there, everything." told novel, us nearly small quiet and andin that with interview of in Thus GloriaEmerson, heraccount a recent American which has a view TheQuiet of Graham Greene,' reiterates in American publication I956. the since novel's prevailed generally States initial of in United and fading the With passage time, the of the with as of criticism The QuietAmerican anti-American2-and the phases prophetithrough war of passage theAmerican in Vietnam an book of portrayal Pyle--the hasbecome in cally implied Greene's of in for interestedproblems literestablished ofreference those point if images, notofelaboto ary response thewar.As a setofdefining American of the arguments, entered "record" an unquiet ithas rated from withdrawal Saigon by terminatedAmerican era, necessarily not dispatches theperiod from Greene's I952-55, or with in I975. Along reports from of distillation these and aesthetic rather themoral as as to is American as likely be cited "evidence" The Indochina, Quiet by and as byhistorians reporters to be laudedas exemplary literary
?6
E HAD ALWAYS UNDERSTOOD

critics.'

? Volume LII, Number 2, May 1980. Copyright 1980 by Duke AmericanLiterature, University Press. 1 Gloria Emerson,"Our Man in Antibes: Graham Greene," Rolling Stone, 9 Mar. I978, pp. 45-49. 2 Speaking strictly record (which was not the only arena in of the literary-critical initial responsewas far less negativethan has which the novel elicitedsuch criticism), with more warmthin England,and savaged oftenbeen assumed.The book was received reviews(a "nastylittleplasticbomb" in the words of one). But more in some American Greene'scraft, offered qualified praise,admiring reviewers American often thannot the first calls "mild [in the Emersonin her interview and seeinghis "anti-Americanism"-which to to novel] compared the [morerecent]real thing"-as an issueintegral thework'ssubject. 3 Frances in and FitzGerald's Fire in the Lake: The Vietnamese the Americans Vietnam Greene in termscalling for the reader's Brown,I972) mentions (Boston: Atlantic-Little, bibliogwhichappearsin her formal of of recognition his authorship The Quiet American, raphy.In Giai Phong! (New York: St. Martin's,I976), an account of Saigon's I975 Tiziano Terzani cites "the eternal Quiet American" as an indispensable "liberation," of A in documentin the recordof eventsculminating Americanwithdrawal. reviewer set I974), a novel onlypartially in Stone'sDog Soldiers(Boston:HoughtonMifflin, Robert

Personal Narrativefrom Vietnam

295

Itsbrevity lightness touch, thefact and of and that is as often it invoked withnostalgia withpointed as have not kept analysis, Greene's novel from And acquiring authority. itisnotonly this what Ms. Emerson callsthe"first great American inwarning" against volvement in contained The Quiet American which authority on its rests. itscapacity seem In to nowtohavequietly us nearly told everything I956, thebookappeals in due or (despite, perhaps to,British authorship) a collective to American for yearning a prior of point moral clarity, which developments I956 seemed since until recently tohave taken ofAmerican out reach. literary Overthepasttenyears, however, American writers increasing in numbers attempteddistill have to images the of war's private well as as public meanings, images which might those fix meanings the in national consciousness theforce artas wellas entering with of them in thedocumentary record. Theirefforts cometo constitute have a process ongoing of inquiry to theappropriate as terms literary of treatment. Whether experience Vietnam, the of viewed personal as encounter as cultural or collision, so extreme to enforce was as revisedangles literary of or approach; whether literary experimentations already under wayin theI96os werebound anycaseto be in applied theexperience Vietnam; problem means relato of the of in tionto ends,of literary method relation a subject in to resisting definition literary by precedent, as emerges an aspect thesubject of itself. American novels thewarbynowinclude of such works David as One Halberstam's Very Hot Day (I968), WilliamEastlake's The Bamboo Bed (I969), James ParkSloan'sWar Games(1971), Joe W. Haldeman's WarYear (I972), Josiah Bunting's Lionheads The (1972), WilliamTurnerHuggett's Body Count (I973), Robert Roth's SandintheWind(I973), Robert Stone's Soldiers Dog (I974), Winston Groom's Better TimesThanThese(1978), Tim O'Brien's Going after Cacciato (1978), andGustav Hasford's Short-Timers The challenger Graham to Greene's agingnovel"in American fiction withVietnam American dealing critic hereconveyingsense a (an ofsimultaneous reliance andrejection Greene's on of these model),4
Vietnambut profoundly "about" the war, speaks of the protagonist driven by "the as fear thattraditionally afflicts QuietAmericans South-East in Asia." 4 Zalin Grant,"Vietnamas Fable," The New Republic,25 Mar. I978, p. 24. (I979).

Despite recurrent that the claim "there beenno real has

296

American Literature

themselves from books findtheirown ways of differentiating As a group, they present Greene's example, from another. and one as without overt insisthemselves or lesstraditionallynovels, more Withdiffering degrees of tence theissueof appropriate on genre. collectively suggest different a apparent awareness Greene, of they authors ranging from standard comparison-with of American and extent that Stephen Crane Hemingway, to Mailer Heller-tothe a enterprise between war in the they assume continuity literary of To they Vietnam earlier and American conflicts. thesameextent, expression those to aspects of struggle define givedistinctive to and from other American theVietnam experience whichare distinct wars. The novelsaccumulate little (while stillrelatively read),' and thenovelists inrelatively literary new terrain. continue reconnoiter to ambiguously both on acknowlButthe "challenge" Greene-based to as edgement disavowal The QuietAmerican in somesense and of in meanwhile "definitive" American of experience Vietnam-has of narratives involvepersonal become more apparent American in for ment orexposure thewar.So alsohasthequest alternative in to Schell's in as form more become pronounced suchworks Jonathan The Village BenSuc (I967), Susan Sontag's toHanoi(I968), Trip of Vietnam (I972, Mary McCarthy's (I967), Hanoi(I968), andMedina in Degree), all three later collected expanded The Seventeenth and

and Winners Emerson's Ronald Glasser's Days(1972), Gloria 365

Losers(1976), Ron Kovic'sBornon theFourthofJuly (I976), C. D.
(i977),

A B. Bryan's Fire of Friendly (1976), PhilipCaputo's Rumor War

it that employed was notthenaturally gested thenovelas Greene I these as appropriate meansto his ends.Just naturally,suggest, of in of American fan books outradially search newforms literary a seems once at Greene on from center leverage resistant material, and to still occupy nolonger to usefully provide. and as in Whilevarying interests attitudes well as in literary
5 National Book Awards to Dog Soldiers and Tim O'Brien's Going after Cacciato Yet (New York: Delacorte,I978) would seem evidenceto the contrary. theyacknowledge of by confrontation thesewriters a subjectstill not fullyengagedby Americannovelists, for eitherwork. AcademyAwards for recentfilms withoutassuringlasting readership controversy Apocalypse over as suchas ComingHome and The Deer Hunter, well as critical to culturaleffort engage the subjectof moreeloquentas to unresolved Now, are similarly cinematicinterpretation. Vietnam,than to lasting acceptanceof a particular

Herr's (1977). andMichael Dispatches

No onehas sug-

Personal Narrativefrom Vietnam

297

on clarity thanin retrospection a "prior" or "beyond" war,rather the such from novel.Perhaps suchas thatafforded Greene's by ofinsight concernfiction American the clarifications mostimportant achieved critical future or emerge, be seenfrom ing Vietnamwill eventually colThe impression distance alreadynow to have been produced.6 is however, pernarratives, createdby thesenonfictional lectively relations intostill-shifting one still vasively of self-inquiry in process, unand purposeenforced-often between identity literary personal to degree-by exposure the war. "I or expectedly to an unexpected went to coverthe war and the war coveredme," writesHerr in as a Dispatches, book graduallywroughtfromhis experiences a magazinepieceson in reporter Vietnamduringi967-68, theearlier trail along an interior whichit is based7now like routemarkings to work triescomprehensively trace; "an old story, the completed
6 BernardBergonzi,in "VietnamNovels: First Draft," Commonweal, Oct. I972, 27 perspecin treatment relationto historical fictional the questionof "definitive" discusses dealingwith variousotherwars. tiveswhichnow seem to have been requiredforwriters 7 Publishedin New American Review #7, Esquire, and RollingStone.

by to are narratives boundtogether a degree their these quality, of their purpose, fusions with of mixtures documentary imaginative the to their concern, efforts recombine resources with private public intoestablished thansettle prosepatterns. rather genres of several origito over anxious thethreat their are indeed, excessively (Some, ironimodes, posedbyconventional to nality fidelity thesubject or Sooneror own experimentation.) of callyto thedetriment their on internally probthey topics, reflect in of later, pursuit particular by presented new socialand psychic lemsof literary procedure of by generated thewar,and by reimportationthe "information" of Questions relationStates. tothe environment United war's moral historiographireportorial, autobiographical, among and ship priority difhowever invariably, and purposes techniques cal and novelistic Sometimes, addressed. issues of as aspects thespecific arise ferently, literary into are such surfaced, questions resolved distinctive having resolution the they Sometimes resubmerge, lack of formal form. of reflection thewaysin which formal an often appropriate itself altogether. treatment war literary the canresist for of questing perThesebooksalso tendto consist an inward and in subject. is sonal clarification that confusing chaotic their ofall "through" of a in reconstitutions journey This is sought narrative

298

American Literature

in best, often as heardit." At their youhaven't of unless course of clarification inward mutual toward suchprobings Dispatches, of to faithful thesimultaneity a acquire form events and outward of helixes Theyspindouble concern. and introspective documentary and books observation, necessarily inextricably and inward outward and to seeks Suchnarrative both diagnose toregenerate books. within repredegree to the tissue, personal some and mental moral damaged And for woundand prospect recovery. to of sentative thenational regeneration *narrative is thatsuchinjury irreversible, the extent "geand morally as generic, well as mentally alongaltered occurs these in rarely Dispatches, imas worst, only netic," lines.(At their withmeans narrative atmospherics, into degenerate personal pulses and is subject diffused trivialized.) the outends, which ostensible into of "literature" Vietin of stage theformation an American At this the with dealing and poetry drama that nam-andgranting fiction, which overall issue-abooklikeDispatches, waralsoform ofthe part American calls narratives, The Quiet here the may stand for personal Ameriwhich base as literary linefrom clearly question the into most of the triangulate subject thewar. might can writers noveland acknowledging Greene's by Herr himself, invoking different on presence thewayto his own violently its"definitive" of invites consideration of case definition theAmerican in Vietnam, a He provides of hisbookagainst background Greene's. alsothus the to response thewarin terms literary of model study American for strategies: literary ofalternative
You couldn't findtwo peoplewho agreedaboutwhenit began,how like intellectuals I954 as Mission off? going couldyousaywhenit began octhereference ifyousawas farbackas War II and theJapanese date; it said "Realists" that visionary. a historical practically you cupation were on flack insisted run beganforus in I96I, and thecommon of Mission thathad gone all as Resolution, though the killing I965, post-Tonkin to methods use you war.Anyway, couldn't standard really before wasn't Vietnam where Trailof the was as datethedoom;might wellsaythat it the point all Tearswas headed along, turnaround where wouldtouch a might as welllayit just perimeter; and comebackto form containing woodstoo rawand the who on theproto-Gringos found New England devils. their ownimported them with up for peaceand filled empty their whenAldenPyle's body overforus in Indochina Maybe was already it the at washed under bridge Dakao,hislungsall fullofmud; maybe up

Personal Narrativefrom Vietnam

299

and in happened a novel, it cavedin withDien BienPhu. Butthefirst and to it on happened theground happened theFrench, while second the Greene made had than substance ifGraham gave Washington itno more itup too.8

Puritanperception into century, the seventeenth-century nineteenth onlyfortherhetoriand done to Extravagant, be sure, ofwilderness.9 but explanation, notwithout of to cal moment shakefree "standard" when"realistic" propobelief intuitive powerto compela moment's shownto be so in partby Greene's are self-servingly absurd, sitions novelofI956. not of element thepassage, a The QuietAmerican thusan active is Pyle'sbodywashesup herewith influence. acknowledged passively in detailas contained of thesame specificity place and pathological thenovel."But [it] happenedin a novel,"and while it is therefore ignoredthe as to apparently be as easilydisregarded Washington deathis the most of portent Dien Bien Phu, in factPyle'sfictional of "evidence"in the passage for the fatality American persuasive to commitment the war. It did "happen"in the sensethatmatters here,it was in the same sense"alreadyoverforus" then; in Pyle's of in, enda true imageof,ifnotan actualevent thebeginning Ameriin can self-entrapment Vietnam.On the one hand Herr dismisses (which he assumes thenovelform, Greene'snovelin particular and and imaginarily in hisreaders haveread), as too "standard" method in the late I96os. On the of detached fromthe reality the situation of to otherhe allows Greene'sfiction standas reliablehistory the situation. of origins that truth for Herr to set down a is To recordthe moreimmediate crossfire" the a concealedbeneath "fact-figure "secret history," story and information thus to be soughtamong the Marine of official
8

and of moment violation entanglement the Herrpushes symbolic contending also he of the backthrough year thenovel cites, through of Indianrelocations the history, theforced to of versions official

p. 49. I977), (New York: Knopf, MichaelHerr,Dispatches 9 More than one novelist the war has drawn on the notionthat nineteenth-century of and Indian policies are resonantwhen juxtaposedwith of intertwinings U.S. military in of undercurrents Americaninvolvement Vietnam.Custer,for the racial and territorial Groom the of CavalryforwhichWinston example, once commanded regiment the Seventh Times Than These (New York: Summit,I978). The in battalion Better invents mythical a alert Indian soldier,preternaturally in the bush and thus oftenused as the vulnerable fiction. in is figure Vietnam pointmanon patrol, a recurrent

300

American Literature

assignhis journalistic "grunts" whose with units pursued original he secret of volume, however, ments. Within context theeventual the in through self-encounters enforced, history alsoto be researched is ofwar.In compiling landscapes themind, theenvironments of by from such"history," writes kindof "novel" a very different Herr more than Greene's, himself protagonist as witness as hero. Herr the for you What sees("youwere responsible everything sawas you he as withthe wereforeverything did"); whathe hears(listening you as as sameresponsibilitythe"smalllanguage," subtly monototo and nously profane, menat war); thesefilter, are themselves of and of inward journey, filtered through, sights sounds Herr's the and whichhe "acts"as narrator-protagonist. inform voicethrough the turns in silences movements sudden jungle Straining hearenemy to was fill everything thought you stillness "a space you'd with into that conforms theshifting to quietin you." Textual spacein Dispatches The their uneasily containing unquietness. contours such of responses, come situations through of bursts combat nervous andadrenaline jags with are in whipcord whosecadences threaded the loopsofwords of of rhythms rockand jazz, lacedalsowiththeterminologyelecrendered facts theauthentically and to by tronics, stitched human of or or speech thegrunts. of Intervals boredom fatigue, offrustrationbyfailure obtain causeexfrom jargon, to information official yet expressed a spare in haustion itself become information, to the of Initially sweeter intervals escape "overloaded" circuitry prose. of totherelative which might sour theafterthen in luxury Saigon, of within another yet verbal frequency, math drugged of sleep, oscillate from absorbed reshaped and registering another ofobservations set to told as Greene hisreaders, muchas thefriends whomhe adhis that letter dressed prefatory in The QuietAmerican, "Thisis a thatwas truethan and less story nota pieceof history," because of a framework he because wanted bookreadwithin certain the on Herr'sdesigns conventions. literary assumed and agreed-upon assumptions aboutthestability aphis readers, well as_his as a-nd He convention, different. are plicability his subject literary to of on internalization focuses thefollowing in passage theprogressive ofhisVietnamese howOne also passage, environments. may readthe to and reader as for ever, referring a venture-obligatory writer apply: where traditional no longer rules alike-into literary terrain
within.

Personal Narrative from Vietnam

301

Between whatcontact to you and how tired did yougot,between the farout things saw or heardand whatyoupersonally out of all you lost that blownaway, warmadea placeforyouthatwas all yours. got the Finding was likelistening esoteric it to music, didn't you hearit in any essential way through the repetitions all untilyourown breath had entered and become it another instrument, by thenit wasn'tjust and gotto complete a distinct to travel, darkand hard, any it, path but not easier youknewthatyou'dput yourfooton it yourself, if deliberately and-mostroughly speaking-consciously. peopletooka fewsteps Some alongit and turned back,wisedup, withand without regrets. Many
.

musicanymore, was experience. . . [It was] a complete it . process you if

they reached placewherean inversion the expected the of orderhappened, fabulous a warpwhere youtookthejourney and thenyou first madeyour departure.10

walked on and just got blown offit. .

. And some kept going until

In thoseof The Quiet American. the first place,Greene'sVietnam whatever basisforsaying the that in is recognizably theactualworld, like createdan abstract his work has cumulatively "Greeneland," of Nabokov's Zembla,thetopography whichis finally metaphysical.1"
11 Emerson, in her interview, presents a description of "Greeneland" to create a context for noting Greene's detestationof the term.
10 Herr, pp. 64-65.

Absolute internalizationthewar meant of madness, disappearance intoa mental warpto be expected, Herrlearned, those of thrown them. deeply enough backinto themeslves whatthey around by saw A sense the"secret" and to of reality thewar, survival tellthetale of in a voicecapable telling truly, of it depend precariously one's on approaching "place"where warpoccurs, the the travelling portions ofthe"path." thewriter as those For retracing inward the route, for whomore it literally followed toofar, truth thewarawaits the of of somewhere between entrance into the esoteric experience its "music" failure return. and to Finding appropriate the literary place -finding forms commensurate theextremitytheexperience, with of a here of its yet capable transcribingatonalities-isprocess suggested as being deliberate inevitable. war"makes" more less than The for, a of thanan author inversions familiar invents, literary orders, rethe a "fabulist," onewhoalsodenies apnow porter necessarily yet war. of in sense traditional tothe plicabilityart any The representational as well as theexperiential terms, substance, different are from of the worldof Dispatches thusprofoundlv

302

Literature American

a itself world moreabsolutely Vietnamis forHerr on thecontrary In has thanthoseof whichRichardPoirier written. his "elsewhere" a roomin Saigonin I967, Herr contemplates map which,thoughit has have mightfiguratively been Greene'sof theactualcountry, beelse: a comein themeantime, mapofsomewhere
For now thatit wasn'treal anymore. especially That map was a marvel, by it one thing, was veryold. It had been leftthereyearsbefore another since the map had been made in Paris. a probably Frenchman, tenant, The paper had buckledin its frameafteryearsin the wet Saigon heat, Vietnamwas divided it layinga kindof veil overthe countries depicted. of intoits olderterritories Tonkin,Annam and CochinChina,and to the sat westpastLaos and Cambodge Siam,a kingdom.... If dead groundcould come back and hauntyou the way dead people do, they'dhave been able to mark my map CURRENT and burn the ones they'dbeen usingsince'64, but counton it, nothing like thatwas going to happen.It was late '67 now,even the mostdetailedmaps didn'treveal to much anymore;readingthem was like trying read the faces of the to and that was like trying read the wind. We knew that Vietnamese, pieces of ground different were flexible, the uses of most information stories different people. We also knewthatforyearsnow to tolddifferent herebutthewar."2 had beenno country there

and acronyms, by morepoeticbut equallyunOverlainby military during by bestowed Americans place namesinformally indigenous no current maps correspond more closelyto Herr's the fighting, on old one than mightNASA chartssuperimposing the Latin the of for of designations theastronauts themountains themoon. homely the of is Vietnam forthose whomHerrwrites darksideofthemoon, no what AlfredKazin calls "the ultimate place to be," and "the else. Fowler, for the U.S.) is anywhere World" (grunts'jargon in and spokesman The Quiet Amerinarrator intermittent Greene's like Conrad'sMarlow,in a sense"out there," can, is in a different realplace aboutwhich(as "one ofus") he tellsus,butwhichwe see Herr'snarratorcartography. literary the through "veil"ofa previous and in "in is protagonist bycontrast here," a placethehistorical topobut of reality whichhas becomehallucinatory, intowhich graphical saysin The Shortwe are obligedto enter.As Hasford'snarrator Timers, "No, back in the World is the crazy part.This, all this
12

Herr,p. 3.

Personal Narrative from Vietnam

303

is of And world shit, is real."13 whileHerrthereporter in the this reading, is Vietnam thereader tocease as to sense free leave as literal we he isthat as hisargument protagonist neither nor (nottomention be entirely, ableto depart. will theactual casualties) ever, complace of Herr's sense Vietnamese approaches moments Atrare Witha color of in with patibility Greene's, images timeless andline. his sees Fowler from car be that particularity must Greene's, visual in hats was the "where goldharvest ready, peasants their the fields of shelters curved little the likelimpets winnow[ing] riceagainst of green watches "lastcolours sunset, the and bamboo," later plaited flat over edgeofthe world."14 andgoldlike rice. . . dripping the the a above from helicopter Saigon, Herr,
ParisoftheEast,Pearl before, years had couldseewhat people seenforty over running and lined bowered bytrees oftheOrient, openavenues long a scale,all underthe softshellfrom precisioned parks, intospacious and diffusing, smokerising covering million camphor breakfast fires, like of with warmth thereturn a of veins theriver and Saigon theshining better times.15

choppers, you about "a that Butit is only projection, was thething just down hadtocome downsometime, tothemoment," as Fowler's of reverie leadsintothemoment his and Pyle'sencounter sunset Minh. with Viet the the beyond historical of The trueterrain The QuietAmerican, on is themoralground accuracy itssetting, of and cartographical That in to human. takes which Fowler eventually sides order remain of as madnessofDispatches theterrain moral well as tactical is
13 Gustav Hasford,The Short-Timers p. I04. (New York: Harper & Row, I979), Dispatchesin Esquire (i Mar. I978), objects to the fact that AlfredKazin, reviewing the "No one gets above that specificcruel environment," cosmos no larger than the the of perimeter each night'sencampment, readerthus forcedinto the same claustrophobic but political."The on this space. Kazin attributes to intentions Herr's part "not literary but for all theirobviousness of politicalimplications Dispatchesare far fromaccidental, fromHerr a literary compelling finally out generated of material theyremainimplications, cruel ratherthan a politicalact. It is not so much that no one gets above that specific (how could one, Herr succeedsin makingthe readerask), but ratherthat environment whatever through Herr is drawn (and so draws the reader) down into thatenvironment, Dispatchesin Roger Sale, reviewing of superstructures politicalpresupposition. intervening an in The New York Reviewof Books (8 Dec. I977), is correct sayingthatHerr "insists no no with no politics, certainmorality, clear outlineof uninitiated readerbe comforted history." 14 GrahamGreene,The Quiet American, Vol. XI of The CollectedEdition (London: pp. 86, 95. I973), Heinemann, 15 Herr,pp. 38-39.

304

American Literature

of uncanniness it!"-in terrain! bloody, The maddening "Oh, that every man isolating every from which moral dissolve fear into sides suracts communal onwhich routine only other, countered bythose moral ofFowler's at The moment depend. continuity vival might any periodically filaments, in nature spunout by Greene reflective is in fixed theambiguous and into retracted opiumdreams, finally being of "betrayal" Pyle.The quality moral of design Fowler's of is language" in Herrcallsthe"small and underlying expressed what smelted morethan pressure, by condensed surrounding constantly this field, fire. by tempered quiteliteral Within compressed a sort but annihilated life captured notwholly of moral goeson,energy "Good space. density a blackholein moral of bytheinconceivable in seeing to of luck," thesmalllanguage one unable keepfrom in of toward possibility his the a increment eachnewcorpse statistical But mean"Die,motherfucker." thesameman might ownsurvival, whichcould in the samemoment might enactthecomradeship for and alive, another alongwithhimself keephimhuman, others day. hour another or map his If Greene's novel (as hasbeensuggested) "personal of is than by narrative mapsouthisownguilt more Herr's innocence," But at a volunteer" times. one association-"every of us there true by guilt, of prideat beingaccepted the or of mappings personal are of to after exposure combat, notthemainobjects Herr's grunts for He intensity. carried a timea NationalGeoautobiographical told "myvanity placeswhere marking mapof Indochina, graphic like his under reviewing behavior Henry fire, through" meI'd pulled apart at in Only themapfell as Fleming TheRedBadgeofCourage. in behind me, thefolds, becoming "realonly thedistance however, mind slip and seriousdislocation, faces and places sustaining and subject profor the play," he find voice hislarger did memory dead.He mourns role: act" tagonist's a "witness forthevoiceless "wasted" also who die before eyes, theMarines his seeing in those the The thewaste lifeon all sides of overmany years. bookwithin what in as his for book, dirge himself onewounded a waybyseeing to hehasseen, only means that is end. the play"a journey through "mind and memory slip Reconstructing in of Herrspeaks fulfillment without mapsintobloodand death, horror animperative embodies a Marine Hue,"locked that in at in he in . . .whileI'd shuttled andout":

Personal Narrativefrom Vietnam

305

out of here . . . , but I mean it,you tellit! You tell it,man. If you don't it tell . . ."'16

me up he and We knew by eachother now, when caught with he grabbed me to he that so mysleeve violently I thought wasgoing accuse or,worse, His facewas all butblankwithexhaustion, going. try stopme from to you "Okay, man, go on,yougo on feeling to say, left buthe hadenough

"ongoinginformaplace where"Hell Sucks" (an itemof soldiers' heading), tion"written a flak jacketand usedbyHerras a chapter on evenstories as thestory become"small,"so condensed to contain has doesnottell.The most"resonant" aboutthewarwhichHerrhimself a war story sayshe ever heard implodesin this manner, selfhe One man came "Patrolwentup the mountain. consuming artifact: A he back.He died before could tellus whathappened." blackhole of space as well, its concentrations in moralspace is one in literary of by to chaos too pure and powerful be resisted extrusions "character" "plot." or of photographs the war, seen Saul Maloff referred certain to has with the eventsthroughthe almost simultaneously by everyone with we in and media,as "irreducible" "inescapable" a sense associate sumin A napalmedgirlrunning a road; a Viet Cong suspect art. bodiesat My Lai, a by executed an official; heapofVietnamese marily "theystrike evacuation; bodybags awaiting American or of stacked among are of "withtheforce art;they notmoments says, us,"Maloff and are of others a stream time-they self-isolating consummating, in into themabsorbing traces, burnedpermanently the memory into euphemism human meaninginviolableby official selvesessential "disof For Herr,any narrative the war, any truthful and lies."17 renarrative pointof absolute patch,"mustproceedfroma similar traction theevent: happened." "whathappened into
16 17

heardit," never you've unless course of This toois "an old story, it that has and its of and Herris aware both unutterability thefact of, testament more To times before. tellitis tomake been toldmany under pressures preHerr about, than give testimony a story expels to in with from meshing thesubject, a verbal modes traditional venting In" called "Breathing and sections rush and between opening closing and of Out."Like thespecialized language morality a "Breathing

Herr,p. 207. Saul Maloff, "Vietnam Mon Amour,"Commonweal, Feb. I978, p. 84. 3

306

Literature American

with extruded, demonstrable a is Dispatches of course narrative with A and in suchcontractionssubject method. "novel" from art, of genres subsuming core, an autobiographical in a senseactively solution in images a fluid its itresolves central and history reportage, the rebuke wishto created and resources, theimages of narrative of the It spectra. plots movement an generic separate out filter their ten through in from character a year Vietnam author-protagonist's correspondingly spaces its terrain, lexical of remapping inward years' on This a revision. is so,however, a selfthrough decade's shaped from it have who that condition: those might related fully subversive it or actual experience, evenbeenableto imagine all, "diedbefore not In lies happened." this the"challenge," couldtelluswhat [they] rein or to bookortofiction general conventional so much Greene's to itself, "tellit" for and as portage to language theactofwriting in Marine Hue. the that his indeed own bookreaffirms, in Herrwouldnotdispute, authentic a Greene filed premonitory dispatch The QuietAmerican slaughter. imaginary thanmerely in its insight intoreal rather Herr thatnapalmmakesits victims Greeneknowsas well as in although gunfire withfire," words)"wetthrough (in Greene's nearof covers Greene's novel providentially thesound Fowler's also an earsfrom saves elsewhere Pyle's mortar as fatal sneeze, a timely book. Herr's on pageof found every word" a sort of "Anglo-Saxon numa difference between given any NorwouldHerrargue moral in bar milk (killedactually I953 as wellas berofdeadin a bombed of of of "in a novel" I956) and thehundreds thousands thewar's in was as that The eventual casualties. fact Greene at least interested as engagementin theprophetic ofFowler's thecomplex metaphysics So the is innocence beside point. is thefact deadly meaning Pyle's of the emphasizing bearout thispattern, novels other thatGreene's unultimately similar Fowleragainst to crises figures of spiritual of thanthefates rather of upheaval, backgrounds political specific still The Herr's Witness allusion, QuietAmerican likePyle. figures "an found Stone's Soldiers, in Dog one of exerts force what critic the ended." on that epitaph a time hasnot and as main Greene's nationality, concerns a novelist, early age, in Asia, influence Southeast andAmerican on I950S vantage French as well in of to saynothing twenty years literary-historical as geoand wouldobviously his timebetween bookand Herr's. political

Personal Narrativefrom Vietnam

307

and in differencesapproach make unsurprisingly forfundamental of to Nor execution. is it difficult see thatHerr'smixture literary new, nothing is materials in itself with documentary imaginative interests with his or that Greene blended documentary hisfictional as the moreover,for narratorFor of tothe detrimentneither. Fowler, as the of protagonist Dispatches, mindis a battlefield real as any truth thetradithan of a surer and other, introspection source usable of duty. detached of performancejournalistic Buttoomuch tionally for happened" Herrafter happened of too thehorror, much "what prefigured overAldenPylesilently closing I956, whenthewaters vortex come. to sucking the hellishly in by Herrargues example, ways happened, Andit subsequently with forms, theforce in literary still resisting treatment established "As heart thematter. of of at by generated thevacuum themoral in in says nowit can rainbloodand shit," Converse Dog Soldiers, into backfrom Vietnam California a reaches which heroin scheme that to "I andtheSouthwest; gotnowhere go." He realizes hisexin Vietnam become whatHerrwouldcallthe"music"has perience at his A end-game. ragebeneath words of as-experiencehisheroin in effect their on the thefact their redeems banality which truth of side the comefrom other of a line,or His depends. words context never characters really a from deepwithin warp,whichGreene's the despite factthatGreenetoo knowsthe crossor enter-this a and and of Pylelives dieswithin kindofmoral obscenity war, that on crossed lineonce, hiswaydownthe"path" the warp.Converse in when his commencingthemoment ofwhich Herr speaks, journey screeching itself fire" in theform "friendly theworld"hurled of to his namesuggests failure His at andmurderous histhroat." very in point onceon thewaytothat Herr the return. crosses linetwice, and all where that is "happens" bloodand shit, againin thevortex And incompletely. to it," the narrative ofreturning"tell however act be just whatcannot undone, as storytodo so is strangely unsay to of matter thewartowhich fall the telling structures backinto dense coherence: literary seek they toimpart
the and receded settled, name timepassed and memory After enough of to codedlikeall prayer go pasttheextremes became prayer, a itself say Vietnam, again,untilthe Vietnam Vietnam and petition gratitude: guilt,nostalgia.18 horror, wordlostall its old loads of pain,pleasure,
18

Herr,p. 56.

308

American Literature

in As "religious" Fowler-Greene his senseof the mysteriousness as able to "pray"pasttheextremes Herris better of his morallocation, to thanFowlerany longertries praythrough of his need forprayer has theimpasseof his quarrelwithGod. But Herr'sprayer efficacy Back in "theWorld" but of onlyforthemoment itsown utterance. from unrecovered by of stillin theprocess being"debriefed dreams," one of likeI'd takena fragfrom his "wound"-"I was leakingtime, weaponswe had thatwereso small theycould thoseanti-personnel showup on X-rays"-hebearsongoingwitness kill a man and never not in thelastwordsof his lastpage to thestory yettold: "Vietnam we'veall beenthere." Vietnam Vietnam, wouldhavemadeoutof"a particu"ImaginewhatGrahamGreene the dismissing reviewer, wrotea British lar episodein Dispatches, missing totally of prurience a "war-freak," narrative theautoerotic as the thepointas well as thetoneof thebook within book,and in the The QuietAmerito a paying debasedcompliment Greene.'9 process to can is classic,but in its pertinence Herr's subject-indeedin its of narratives the withinHerr'sbook,and otherAmerican presence writing fromtheAmerican removed war-the novelis increasingly to in thebackground whichit continues appear.The connection of is Greene's"information" stillgood,but the distance is undeniable, like Herr's froma story in morethan timeback towardhis story informed serious, is Dispatches also "classically" is all but absolute. withwhichit deals. of byan awe at theirrevocability theexperience whichaccumulate in through For all thejive and profanity itsprose, of the esoteric repetitions the inward"music"of thewar,it is also in moreinevitable theend thanexperimental controlled, "classically" behoweverattenuated, in its style.(Is therereallyno connection, tweenthe "Picasso shapes"Fowler sees in the shadowsof Heng's a HendrixsoundsHerrhearsfrom Marine's and warehouse, theJimi in of a cassette before fire-fight, the record modernfracturings just of and reassemblings "the real"?) What Graham Greene"would writers American havemade"ofithe madein The QuietAmerican. in orderto tell thewar whatthey must, havenow begunto makeof couldnot. us whatGrahamGreene
19JamesFenton,"Nostalgiede la Guerre,"New Statesman, Apr. 1978, p. 464. 7