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Post by codystarbuck on Jan 23, 2024 23:35:14 GMT -5
ps The Burns piece that triggers the bezerker rage is "Scots Wha Hae," a ptriotic song, lyrics by Robert Burns, written in 1793. The opening stanza is the trigger:
Scots, wha hæ wi Wallace bled, Scots, wham Bruce has aften led, Welcome tæ yer gory bed, Or tæ victorie.
It's not exactly a dance tune, unless you want to dance on the graves of your enemies.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jan 25, 2024 23:27:33 GMT -5
RIP to Col Roger Donlon, first recipient of the Medal of Honor, during the Vietnam War and first (but not the last) recipient in Special Forces. Donlon had done a year at the New York Sate College of Forestry at Syracuse University, before joining the US Air force, in 1953. he then attended West Point, but had to resign, for personal reasons. He enlisted in the US Army, in 1958 and went through Officer Candidate School, before being assigned as an aid to a general. In 1963 he qualified for Special Forces and in 1964 deployed to Vietnam. His A-Team help establish a camp, near Nam Dong, about 15 miles from the border with Laos. On July 6, 1964, the camp was attacked by a reinforced VC battalion. The VC attacked with mortars, hand grenades and small arms fire and Donlon directed the defense. He moved from position to position, directing fire and eliminating threats. He was badly wounded while moving to a 60 mm mortar position, where he found the crew also badly wounded. he directed their evacuation and covered them, then removed the mortar and brought it to a new position, just before an enemy round hit the pit. A sergeant was unable to leave the pit, himself, and Donlon, despite his own wounds, dragged him to safety. He administered first aid and left the mortar with the men, then crawled to retrieve a 57 mm recoilless rifle. He crawled back to the gun pit to retrieve ammunition for the mortar and recoilless rifle, then directed their use to defend the camp, while receiving a third wound. He then crawled 175 meters to an 81 mm mortar pit and directed the fire for it, to fend off an attack on the east flank of the camp. He then moved to other positions, doing the same, bolstering the morale of the defenders and directing their efforts, over the course of the 5 hour battle. The enemy withdrew, leaving behind 54 dead and numerous weapons. Donlon then saw to the treatment of the wounds of his men. His leadership under fire and his cool direction in directing the defense of the camp was singled out as turning the tide against the attackers and saving the camp. He was awarded the Medal of Honor on December 17, 1964, presented to him by President Johnson. Donlon completed his studies, earning his bachelor's degree from the Univ of Nebraska, in 1967. He remained in the US Army and retired with the rank of Colonel, in 1988. Among his other awards were the Presidential Unit Citation, Legion of Merit, Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Meritorious Service Medal, Joint Services Commendation Medal, Army Commendation Medal with bronze oak leaf clusters (signifying second award), Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal with bronze oak leaf clusters, Vietnam Service Medal with two bronze star device (2 tours), Army Service Ribbon and Army Overseas Service Ribbon, plus the Officer of the National Order of Vietnam, Gallantry Cross with Palm, and Vietnam Campaign Medal (all three awarded by the government of South Vietnam). 235 Medals of Honor were awarded during the Vietnam War, and another 33 awarded after, for actions during the war, after review of the actions. 163 were awarded posthumously. John Wayne ain't S@#$!
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Post by codystarbuck on Feb 6, 2024 17:34:49 GMT -5
This entry is from 1993 and, again, deals with the legacy of the Vietnam War. The feature is Ms Tree Special (formerly Ms Tree Quarterly, but DC changed the publication frequency) #10, the final issue in the series. Now, for the most part, this is a typical Ms Tree hardboiled detective story, in the vein of Mickey Spillane, as Max Allan Collins and Terry Beatty, essentially, created the premise that Mike Hammer and Velda married and Mike was killed. Velda goes after revenge, for his death and then continues as a private investigator. Although never a huge commercial success, Ms Tree had a long, critically acclaimed life across several publishers, including Eclipse, Aardvark-Vanaheim, Renegade Press and DC Comics, with Titan releasing trade collections and the Hard Case Crime Library releasing a prose novel, by Collins. Within the series, it was established that Mike Tree, Ms Tree's late husband, was a Vietnam Vet (as Mike Hammer was in the Stacy Keach tv series)and one of her supporting characters, Roger Fremont, served with him, along with the brother of another associate, Dan Green. Dan's brother Vic was with Mike and Roger, in Vietnam, but was left behind, declared MIA, presumed dead. That is the topic of this story. The story begins with Roger Fremont reliving the nightmare of Vic Green sacrificing himself, in Vietnam, to provide covering fire for the medevac of Fremont and a wounded Mike Tree. Green, armed with an M-60 machine gun, keeps up a heavy rate of fire, as V move in to intercept the soldiers, as Mike is loaded in the helo. Roger tries to go back for Vic, but is stopped by a crewman.... Later, at the offices of Tree Investigations, Inc, Michael Tree (the Ms of the title) finds her partner Roger, in a heated argument with Dan Green. She notes Roger is smoking, when he usually doesn't and he says he did, "over there." He tells her of the argument, about the money Dan and his family have spent, searching for his missing brother. He details the various scams that have been perpetuated on MIA families.... Faked photographs, counterfeit dog tags, "eyewitness" sightings, money given to recon and rescue groups. Now, the latest scam is the selling of human remains, purported to be those of the dead MIA. In many cases they are animal bones, or else Vietnamese remains passed off as American. However, there have been some remains recovered, which suggest they were store above ground, in a warehouse of some kind and that this is being used as a bargaining chip in negotiations with the US government. Dan has been approached by someone claiming to provide proof of the location of his brother's remains...for a price. ms Tree visits Dan and offers to fund the meet, so long as she accompanies him to it and any subsequent meetings or travel. The meeting is arranged, at a restaurant, in Chinatown, in Chicago. There, they meet Mguyen Van Lam, a lower member of a criminal group, known as The Ring. He presents Vic Green's dog tags, in exchange for $5000. For another $5000, he can arrange for the remains to return, through his underworld and government contracts.... When he leaves the restaurant, Lam is gunned down by a blond Vietnamese (!) woman, in a red trenchcoat. The woman flees and Ms Tree gives chase. With Roger's help (he trailed them to the meeting), they locate her trail, which leads to a small, seedy apartment, which turns out to have been Lam's. The woman is there and is revealed to be Dinh Ti Lan, aka Sally Lan, international high fashionmodel. Lan was a prostitute, to survive, at age 11 and Lam had photos and pornographic films of her, which could damage or destroy her career. He blackmailed her to buy a set of prints, then the negatives. She didn't trust him to turn them over and killed him and is searching for the negatives. Roger has found them and burns them, to gain her trust. Ms Tree strikes a deal to cover for her, in exchange for getting them in contact with The Ring, in Vietnam. She agrees and Tree feeds the police a false description. The group then travels to Vietnam and Lan sets up a meeting, with an old friend, Van Le, a pimp and former member of the Mike Force. MIKE Force, or Mobile Strike Force, was a Special Forces formation, an outgrowth of the CIDG (Civilian Irregular Defense Group) program, which trained local militias to fight the VC, from fortified camps. MIKE Force was a mobile version of that, who would be a reaction force, brought in to reinforce the camps, at short notice. They were primarily ethnic minorities, particularly Chinese Nung tribesmen, who were paid as soldiers, by the CIA and Special Forces. van Le was one such soldier. Van Le knew Lam and that he was thrown out of The Ring, because of his schemes and because his gambling made him a liability. He also indicates that a rival faction from Hong Kong has been moving in on operations and he puts them in touch with a man named Johnny Wu, from the Hong Kong group. They meet him and he tells them of a meeting with the Number One, of The Ring, and foreign interests, at the International Hotel, where they are staying. Back at the hotel, the next morning, they spot Don Donnie, of the Muerta Family, in Chicago. he is supposedly taking them legt, but is tying up loose ends. Van Le tells them that their invitation to meet Number One was mysteriously withdrawn and Tree goes over and corces Don Donnie into taking her and Dan in with him, to the meeting. They accompany him to Number One's suite and receive a shocking surprise.... Vic Green is alive and is Number One, of The Ring. Roger had tried telling Tree that Vic was not a saint and he was involved in black market drug dealing, during the war and was captured and lost a leg. He gave all the information he had, but stayed in the country, because he was useful to people and rose to power, in the underworld. The reunion is interrupted by a hit team from the Hong Kong faction and Vic is killed, though Van Le, Sally Lan and Roger help wipe out the killers. Dan is able to return home and bury his brother on American soil. The story has the usual surprise twist you would expect of a hardboiled mystery and a somewhat obvious one, if you are familiar with the conventions at play here. Of course, Collins is a top name in this genre and Ms Tree features excellent writing and well developed characters. At the heart though is a plot ripped from the headlines and Collins points out a lot of the issues at play. Since 1973, there have been stories of prisoners left behind and lobbying on the behalf of MIA families, for a full accounting. This has been a political subject in negotiations with the government of Vietnam and the issue has led to Congressional hearings and investigations. More importantly, it has led to confidence schemes, by opportunists and a lot of burned families, who have mostly been sold a lie and political and financial opportunists have fed the lie, for their own purposes. As the US was withdrawing its forces and negotiations went on in Paris, the Nixon administration started reclassifying servicemembers lost in combat from Killed In Action/Body Not Recovered to the more nebulous Missing In Action. Secretary of defense Melvin Laird referred to a number between 500 and 1300 (later raised to 1400) POW/MIAs. The Nixon Administration was using the return of US POWs as a way to change the narrative of the war, for political purposes, at home, by casting the US as the victim. In references to MIAs, it used language that implied that these were 1300 actual prisoners, held in North Vietnamese POW camps and prisons, or in Laos, Cambodia, China or even the Soviet Union. There was a story that a small group of Americans were brought to Moscow, but that turned out to be American deserters. No credible evidence was given for the presence of prisoners in Laos or North Vietnam, other than those officially recorded, through the Red Cross. However, the unaccounted numbers allowed the Administration to cast North Vietnam as a cruel state that secretly tortured American prisoners, without adhering to the Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War. It ignored the 100,000 civilian prisoners in South Vietnamese prisons, mostly buddhist monks and followers, who were imprisoned after the uprising against the South Vietnamese government, who were tortured and abused, without trial. The Nixon Adminstration orchestrated Operation Homecoming, a military celebration of the return of US POWs, with televised landings of aircraft and the emergence of the freed men, met by their families and military and government VIPs. 587 POWs returned home, which led to questions about the other 1000+ (as the Nixon number had risen to 1600). Ronal Reagan used this for political hay in his first run for national office, in 1976. A whole industry grew up around the MIA issue, with wristbands being sold, with MIA names on them, purporting that they also had medicinal properties. The POW/MIA flag was created, the image trademarked and then numerous flags sold to individuals and organizations, including VFW posts and the like. The image was marketed at sporting events and fundraising appeals, on tv and in print. Other scams were perpetuated. Lt Col Jack E Bailey, a retired Air Force officer, created Operation Rescue, a group dedicated to locating and freeing US prisoners, in Southeast Asia. He kept a former smuggling boat, the SS Akuna and raised funds to carry out recon and rescue missions. During that time, the boat was routinely seen docked in Thailand, having never left port, except for a minor rescue of some Vietnamese Boat People. Operation Rescue proved adept at fundraising, using Eberle Associates, a conservative direct mailing company, used to raise funds for Conservative causes. It was revealed that 85% of funds raised by Operation Rescue went towards further fundraising. It was, essentially, a giant pyramid scheme. Former Special Forces Lt Colonel Bo Gritz carried out fundraising efforts for recon missions into Laos and Vietnam, which largely involved women selling commemorative t-shirts in border village markets and lots of unconfirmed stories. CIA officers testified before Congress about leads, gained through payment, that turned to dust when followed down the line. Politicians continued to use the issue in negotiations with the North Vietnamese, to their disbelief, as thousands of Vietnamese were lost during the war, their fates unknown. No credible evidence of Americans being held prisoner or storehouses of American remains have ever been offered, yet the US position has been for Vietnam to prove they don't hold prisoners or remains. That is like arresting someone for murder and forcing them to prove their innocence, rather than the state having to prove their guilt. In the wake of the lies surrounding the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, Watergate, the secret bombings of Laos and Cambodia, the bombing of civilians in North Vietnam, the invasion of Cambodia, the MIA issue was easily believable, as distrust of government was at an all time high. Conspiracy theories abounded, thanks, in large part, by actual criminal conspiracies, like the Watergate Break-In and cover-up, and subsequent lies told on the campaign trails, of welfare queens, October Surprises, and CIA operations in Latin America. At the heart of it are poor families who just want closure for their lost loved ones, who are most likely dead and their remains long claimed by Nature or the elements, because they went down in the China Sea or in remote areas of the Vietnam jungle. These conspiracy theories would go on to fuel other conspiracy ideas, like 9/11 Truthers and Deep State lunatics, like Q-Anon. Yet another legacy of the Vietnam War: irrational paranoia and government distrust Here, at least, Collins and Beatty deal in more logical conclusions, that Vic Green didn't want to return as may have been true of a very small number of deserters, but certainly not 1000+ or more servicemembers. Next up, we look at something from an old master and a veteran...of World War Two, as well as government publications: Will Eisner and Last Day in Vietnam.
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Post by codystarbuck on Feb 15, 2024 19:12:46 GMT -5
Will Eisner, one of the pioneers of the graphic art form, was a military veteran. Not of Vietnam, but of World War 2. After receiving his draft notice, he enlisted in the US Army and found himself at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds, in Maryland, in 1942. He was originally assigned tot he camp newspaper, but, eventually convinced his speriors to apply comic book sequential storytelling to Army manuals, for better understanding by a GI population of mixed education and reading ability. The Army liked the idea and Eisner was soon putting together training manuals and maintenance guides and was made a Chief Warrant Officer. Eisner left the service in 1945 and took back up the reins of The Spirit. In 1948, he founded the American Visuals Corporation, developing graphic projects for corporate clients, one of which was the United States Army. Eisner developed PS Monthly, a magazine devoted to preventative maintenance topics. At the time, the Army was involved in the Korean Conflict/War (take your pick), which served as a warm-up for the mess that would be Vietnam (and modern US military actions). In 1954, Eisner travelled to Korea and saw the devastation the war had brought. In 1967, Eisner was developing a project to create a maintenance manual for the M-16A rifle, the weapon of the GIs in Vietnam. The Army took him on a tour of Vietnam, just before the Tet Offensive erupted. Eisner and his staff completed the assignment, which we discussed previously. The visits to Korea and Vietnam, plus his own military experiences left an impression on Eisner; and, like most of his life experiences, they found their way into his art. The end result was Last Day in Vietnam. In his introduction, Eisner sketches his background in the military, in WW2, and his involvement both in the military and as a civilian contractor, creating illustrated maintenance manuals, including his visits to Korea and Vietnam. He talks about his tour of Vietnam, mostly in field areas, picking up maintenance stories to use, and he contrasts it with life in Saigon, with a massive US military presence, wire screens over hotel windows, to stop hand-thrown bombs, and the news of the Siege of Khe Sanh. The opening story, Last Day in Vietnam, relates that experience, through a first person perspective. The story begins with Will meeting his liason officer, a major, at Camp Bearcat.... They get in a jeep and head out to the helipad and the major makes idle chit-chat. The climb aboard the helo, buckle in and take off. The major is pleasant and excited, as he is due to rotate home, in the morning. This is his Last Day in Vietnam, which is why he has been assigned this kind of light duty. He asks Will about his service and remarks that he was managing a supermarket and joined the National Guard, when , after getting married and fathering a child, he found himself on his way to a tour of duty, in Vietnam. He comments about the countryside and offers his opinion of how the war will be over soon, as the North just can't stand up to the US military's might. They set down, in a jungle clearing, to the major's surprise and pick up a tracking team, with a dog handler. The major tries to be sociable, in deference to Will, but the men aren't very talkative.... The chopper sets down again and the team gets out and back to hunting. Will and the major press on and land at a forward operating base. The major shows will around and they check out the ordinance shack, where the small arms maintenance is carried out. A general passes by and thinks Will is a newspaper reporter, despite the major's attempts to tell him otherwise. The general presses on, telling Will to make sure his name is spelled right. The see a patrol bring in some prisoners and Will asks if they are kids or adults, as they seem so small. A soldier remarks that their trigger fingers are big enough. Suddenly, they start taking incoming fire and seek shelter. The major wants to di-di back to Bearcat, but all flights are grounded, until their perimeter is secured. The major starts panicking, saying he is going to buy it, on his last day. Will spots a chopper warming up on the pad and gestures to the major to come on. The major protests that they don't have clearance, but is less worried about that than saving hise hide and follows. The just get on board, before it lifts off and the major returns to his former self, when he learns the chopper is headed for Bearcat. Eisner illustrates the typical REMF, sitting on his rear, in a safe area, for the duration, acting like it is a big adventure and that the US is winning the war, despite having nothing to show for all of the ordinance expended and troops who have been deployed. No ground has been gained and the war is no closer to an end. The major is showing off for a civilian reporter-type, puffing himself up. However, when he encounters the real war, Eisner can see how out of his depth the man is. Eisner captures the "thousand yard stare" of the dog team and that little image and their lack of speech tells you all you need to know about combat. Later, when the defecation hits the oscillator, the major starts losing his Pollyanna disposition and suddenly the sky is falling, for him. Once he is safe aboard a chopper again, he returns to form; but, for a minute, you see just what a scared little man he is and how much he wants out of this war, after a year of it, even in the rear. Eisner then juxtaposes this with a piece about reporters, sitting in a hotel bar, in saigon, talking about what is happening up at Khe Sanh. Two field reporters return and one of them joins the rest, filling them in, while the other lights a cigarette and chugs down a beer. He doesn't say anything. Eventually, we learn that his son was there, with the Marines, and was hit by a mortar round and he identified the body. Another story, called "The Casualty," sees a heavily bandaged soldier drinking, in a street cafe. His thoughts show us what happened. He met a girl, in a bar and took her to a hotel room, where they had sex. After getting dressed, the girl left the GI a present.... The grenade went off and the man was taken for treatment of his wounds. He finishes his drink and spots a pretty girl, looking his way. Oblivious of the past, he gets up and goes to talk with her and walks away with her. These two stories illustrate the war from Saigon, with reporters sitting around waiting for stories to come in or to be spoon fed by Army information officers (Orwell would have loved Vietnam), until the real war came to them. With the field reporter, we see that he is no longer a passive observer. The war came home, for him. The second piece is a bit lighter, in a way, as the soldier is wounded because of his own stupidity and paying more attention to his lower head than using the one above his soldiers. It was bad enough one time; but he hasn't seemed to have learned his lesson and is setting himself up to learn it, permanently. It's kind of a metaphor for the whole conflict, as the US waltzed in there, oblivious to everything, thinking it was in control and dictating things, then the North Vietnamese and VC surprised them, bloodied them and yet they turned around and applied the same failed strategy, again and again. Eisner's ability with humanity, conveying emotion through facial expressions and body language works wonderfully here, as you can buy these as real people. Next follows a story from Korea, of a soldier who thinks his duty is dull and amuses himself by taking potshots at an old woman, climbing a hill to get firewood, until an officer finally stops him. The soldier remarks of the similarity between the area he is assigned, and his home in West Virginia.... The man's lack of love and praise from his father drives his petty nature and we see that he would be damaged goods, even if he wasn't in a potential combat zone. Next, Eisner gives is a glimpse of a greater humanity, as we see a big bruiser of a soldier, who is stuck working as a mechanic in the motor pool, despite wanting to be on the line, in combat, where he should be. He says he is taking the day off, that he has a "hard duty," up in the hills and invites Will to come along. Will is surprised to find out what the duty is.... The final story, "A Purple Heart for George," is a true story of something that happened at Aberdeen, while Eisner was stationed there. George is a clerk typist who gets drunk, on the weekends and rails about how he should be overseas, in combat, like his buddy, Benny, who always protected him. He also hints that he and Benny may have been more than just good buddies.... George goes into the headquarters admin office and types out a request for transfer to a demolition or mine unit and leaves it in the CO's in-box. He then crawls into his bunk to sweep it off. The next morning, we see that the other clerks have prepped the CO's mail and paperwork and his coffee. They find George's request and remove it, and destroy it. The CO arrives, drinks his coffe and signs paperwork, approving all transfer requests for combat. The other clerks have been protecting George, because he only does this when he is drunk; never sober. They corral Hal, another clerk, and tell him it is his assignment now to keep the CO from receiving George's weekend requests, as they are going off on temporary duty or school. Hal questions why and they explain about George only doing it when he is "in his cups." Things go on as a normal and the others return to find George gone. Hal was on a 3-day pass and didn't return until the middle of the week. There was no one there to destroy George's request and it was granted. Later, we see the other clerks in the bar, drowning their sorrows as a soldier from the base newspaper comes in with news of George, who was shipped off to Burma.... George was killed and was being awarded a posthumous Purple Heart. The soldier is gathering background detail for the camp newspaper. Here, we see an all too common tragedy of those who work in support units, in a time of national fervor. In 1942, if you were of age and not in the military, people looked at you suspiciously. However, for every combat soldier, there is an even greater number of support personnel, handling administration, logistics, repairing equipment, feeding them, clothing them and so on. Soldiers like to gripe about REMFs ho live the soft life; but, many of them want to be in the action, because they feel like less of a man, or that they have something to prove to themselves or the outside. In the days before gays could openly serve in the military, they had to be extremely careful about even a suspicion of their sexual orientation. In many cases, they would over-compensate by seeking dangerous and macho duty. Although it is never outright said, George's comment about "being caught in the Alley" with benny, suggests they were not just hanging out in an alley, or were chased by bullies and cornered in the alley. It sounds like they met in an alley for a moment's passion or just relief, to be themselves, in private, and were interrupted, leading to a fight, where Benny protected George. We can infer that Benny was shipped out to combat and George feels guilty about it and it emerges when he drinks. We can also likely infer that his comrades may know, or at least suspect he is gay. What is rarely seen outside of Hollywood and political speeches, is that, as long as a soldier did their job, most of the others didn't care what they did on their own time or if they were gay or straight. If they could depend on them when it counted, that was good enough. Yes, some were not that way and bullied them for being gay or being suspected of it; but, those types bully anyone they perceive as weaker. Some of them were even closeted and trying to look macho to hide themselves, from others and themselves. I sevred before the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy was initiated, which, so long as a servicemember did not openly talk about their sexual orientation, they would not be investigated or harassed about it. That did not prevent them from being administratively discharged, though, if it was public knowledge. I saw too many good people dismissed from the military, because they were outed, some in witch hunts, others because they had to be honest about themselves. In not a single instance had they been a disciplinary problem or shirk their responsibilities, nor did they "come on" to their fellow servicemembers. The government's argue ment was that they could be subject to blackmail and, therefore, vulnerable to foreign agents; and, the old chestnut of being "contrary to good order and discipline." The real problem was not the actions of gay servicemembers, it was the insecurities of the supposedly heterosexual majority. Eventually, "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" provided a small measure of protection; but, until gay servicemembers were allowed to openly serve, as a gay individual, did things really start to change. That said, good officers and NCOs turned a blind eye to such things when they knew the soldier or sailor did their job and did it well. They were willfully ignorant of the fact the person was gay....officially. I spent 6 months temporary duty on a destroyer tender, where a female chief corpsman was known to be a lesbian; but, she was damn good at her job and no one cared and no one "officially" knew about it. She was retiring soon and already had a job lined up as a medic for Dolly Parton's touring group. In interviews, Eisner talked about the guilt that the men felt about George, and the failure to protect him from himself. He went out to prove he was "a man" in the eyes, with som "Dutch courage," when he was never meant to be a soldier. There were a lot of Georges, in many wars. The unifying aspect of this work, and all of Eisner's work, is humanity. Eisner had a gift for illustrating the stories of ordinary humanity and to make it compelling. These are stories about human beings, easily recognizable in any culture, placed in a war or the fringes of one and how they dealt with their lives It is written in hindsight, but informed by events experienced or learned through the years. It is not the propaganda entertainments of the 60s, nor the in-your-face anti-war sentiments of the 70s, or retroactive tales of the 80s, or a memoir of the veteran soldier. This was a collection of observations made by a true observer of humanity, whose work put him in contact with soldiers, across several decades, including his own service. Next, we look at Jason Aaron & Cameron Stewart's mini-series The Other Side, a parallel tale of soldiers, on opposite sides of the war.
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Post by codystarbuck on Apr 2, 2024 17:22:07 GMT -5
And...we're back. Sorry it's been a while: I had to fight off an incursion on my base camp and then abandon it for a new sector. So, I promised that I would cover The Other Side, by Jason Aaron and Cameron Stewart. Well, I kind of wish I hadn't. I chose this series, because it sounded like an examination of both sides of the war; but, it ended up not exactly being what was advertised. It is really a psychological horror work, set in Vietnam, rather than a Vietnam War story. As such, it is kind of in the same realm with DMZ, which I had decided not to do, as that is more using Vietnam as a setting for something else. I lump The Creature Commandos and The Viking Commando into that same kind of thing, where they aren't really about WW2, just set within that period and locale. This does sort of deliver on the dual examination; but, unfortunately, through a very streaky lens. First, a bit of background. Writer Jason Aaron was born in 1973, at the end of direct US involvement in the war, in Alabama, but he learned of the war, from his cousin, who was a veteran of the USMC. That cousin was Jerry Gustav Hasford, who was a combat correspondent, with the Marines, much like Captain Dale Dye, the technical advisor on Band of Brothers, Saving Private Ryan and Platoon. Combat correspondents were Marines who were carrying out journalistic work for official military publications, like Stars and Stripes, the military newspaper, as well as things like Leatherneck Magazine. During the Vietnam War, both were official publications, within the control of the Department of Defense (Stars & Stripes) and the USMC (Leatherneck Magazine). Active duty personnel were assigned to duties on those publications. Theoretically, Stars & Stripes was independent of the US military; but, in practice, it was subordinate to the DOD's Public Affairs mechanism and was used as much as propaganda as reporting, due to the editorial slant of the paper. They might highlight injustices within the military; but they were not going to openly challenge command.....at least, not without a lot of evidence and some senior muscle to back them up. As such, they were hardly any more objective than civilian journalists in theater. After his time of service, Hasford worked with the Clarion Workshop and the Milford Writers Workshop, where he submitted a manuscript of a novel, to Frederick Pohl, who was an editor at Bantam, who purchased it, published as The Short-Timers, in 1979. In 1982, after talking with Michael Herr, Stanley Kubrick optioned the book to adapt into a film.....Full Metal Jacket...... And therein lies the problem I have with the work. The mini-series features the parallel tales of Billy Everette, of Russellville, Alabama; and, Vo Binh Dai, of the village of Nam Phong, near Hanoi. Billy receives a draft notice and is inducted into the US marine Corps. Dai answers the call of the People's Army of Vietnam recruiting team, at his village. Billy goes off to Paris Island, where he becomes a frequent target of his drill sergeant, as he is a bit hapless. However, Billy is also see visions of dead soldiers, with the corpse eaten by carrion and maggots and pieces blown away by mines or mortars or artillery. Daitrains on the site of an old French plantation, a symbol of the European enemy driven out previously, just as they will the hated American war mongers. Dai writes in his jouranl, as his fellow soldiers talk of the atrocities of the South, of American cannibals, who eat the dead and feed their entrails to their dogs. Billy continues to see ghosts and starts hearing his rifle talking to him, telling him to put the barrel in his mouth and blow his head off. he goes to see the chaplain, who tells him "Stow that crackpot BSand get your ass squared away most ricky-tick.Jesus don't abide a crybaby, son, and neither does the US Marine Corps." And I call bull#$%&. A chaplain is a spiritual guide and counselor, not a mouthpiece for the Corps. Maybe one in a thousand might be a jerk like that; but I ain't buying it. The whole first issue, from Billy's side, reads like a rehash of The Short-Timers/Full Metal Jacket. I haven't read the book; but, from what I have read, the first act of the film pretty closely mirrors the book and that is what we get here...to the point of just being on the safe side of plagiarism. Billy continues to be tormented by nightmares of dead soldiers and monsters in the jungle, while Dai suffers nightmares of failing his comrades and his people. Billy is shipped off to Vietnam, Dai and his cadre begin the long march South, to join the freedom fighters of the National Liberation Front. Dai and his comrades are cheered in the villages, as the people offer them food and weapons, which they have stored for them. Little ones cheer, as they proudly march on, to join their brothers in the South, against the imperialists and the gangsters in Saigon. Billy is sent to Da Nang, where his unit has low morale and he is another FNG. The people hate him and the Marines hate the people. Everything and everyone is for sale. Dai's cadre suffers on the long march, from malaria, snakebite, injury and fatigue. The jungle is a harsh environment and only the strong survive. Their eyes are swollen by mosquito bites, they barely sleep and their rations become more and more meager, as the go further South. Their morale falters, as they wonder why the Southern "bumpkins" can't fight their own war. Dai sees the Americans try to "bomb their way out of the mess they created," but then is alerted that one of their dead, for whom he is digging a grave, is gone. He finds the body dragged off into the jungle and runs into a tiger. Billy witnesses a wild boar eating the charred remains of a Vietnamese, killed by a napalm strike. Billy finds himself sent of to Khe Sanh, as reinforcements, while Dai and his men continue South, with NLF guides, each worse than the last. They come across a village, where the NLF are executing the civilians and berate the PAVN soldiers, telling them to move on. It all culminates in the final efforts to breach the defenses of Khe Sanh, as Dai is part of a sapper team, while Billy is part of the defenders, hearing rats talking to him, through the walls of his barracks bunker. Billy is on the defensive wall, firing at the charging PAVN and NLF soldiers. He kills Dai and survives the war, but never leaves hell behind, as even in Alabama, he is haunted by the image of Dai. My problem isn't the writing, as much as it is the cliche and the appropriation of material from The Short-Timers. The scenes of Khe Sanh mirror the latter part of the book, which wasn't used in the film (it reaches its climax in the battle for Hue, where Hasford was in the fighting). So much of this is Hasford's material. The cliche is on Dai's side, as Dai is fully devoted to Party doctrine and propaganda. I;m sure there are many who were; but it seems less three-dimensional. It is only in others, like his comrade Xuan, that we see doubts in their fight, or poor strategies from their leaders. I suppose it is forgivable, as Dai witnesses things that disillusion him, just as the Marines and GIS did. The Vietnamese people hate them, as outsiders and their leaders have fed them nonsense. Dai finds that his leaders have fed them nonsense and that the old divide of North and South is more than ideological. The NLF killing the villagers tallies with some tales that the NLF would often target those that were more educated and had more wealth than they had and that it was as much a class fight, as it was an ideological or revolutionary fight. The South Vietnamese government was massively corrupt; but, so were many NLF cadres, as they spent more time settling old scores thandriving out invaders and uniting with the North. Mostly, this is a frustrating work, as I never really feel like Dai and his comrades are realistically portrayed and, at times, come across as more serious versions of Phred, the VC soldier in Doonesbury, who befriends BD. The only real difference is the sense of irony and satire. Mostly, I get a sense of hero worship from Aaron, towards his cousin. Nothing wrong with that; but, Hasford wasn't exactly what you would call a credible source. The Short-Timers is influenced by Hasford's experiences, but it is also highly fictionalized and written for drama. As a combat correspondent, Hasford wasn't a front line Marine and there was a difference between troops in garrison, like him, and those in the field. Hasford also seemed to have psychological issues after the war (who didn't?), as he later faced charges for grand theft, for thousands of dollars of stolen library books and magazines, relating to the Civil War. His defence was that he was researching for the writing of a Civil War novel, but he had tons of books from not only the California Polytechnic State University at San Louis Obispo (discovered in a storage locker, by camps police), but also boks from libraries across the US, as well as Australia and the UK. He plea bargained for a 6 month sentence and restitution of the books (having to pay for the shipping, for their return) and served 3 months, blaming the situation on persecution by "Moral Majority fanatics and the Fascist State." He ended up living, in poverty, of a Greek Island, where he died from complications related to untreated diabetes. That is not the picture of a healthy mind. The book is filled with profanity, far beyond what I experienced in the military and beyond what seems reasonable, to me, for Marines in the field. Soldiers, sailors and Airmen swear...a lot...; but, not everyone and not in every situation. Hollywood writers like to latch onto it because they think it makes the characters seem colorful. R Lee Ermey is the obvious model for the DI in issue 1 and he improvised much of his profane dialogue, in the film. DI's, despite claims by the military, did use profanity and did strike recruits, in that era (and later); but, Ermey is probably more accurate in his performance in The Boys in Company C, as the DI's job is to turn recruits into Marines, to survive on the battlefield. In Vietnam, the training got truncated, which made some of it more intense, and the methods more extreme; but, Ermey's character, in the film, is based on the DI, in the book, while his character in Boys in Company C seems less of a cartoon of a DI and more like a real person, putting on a display, then being honest with an African-American recruit, who was a street fighter. He tries to get him to help the others, because he will be able to survive in combat and the recruit can help teach the others. The recruit doesn't care, as he is in it for himself, but slowly comes to bond with the others, while still working with drug runners to smuggle heroin out in GI bodybags. Too much of this comic, to me, feels like the end result of watching Full Metal Jacket and Apocalypse Now too many times and thinking that was the real thing. By contrast, Don Lomax's Vietnam Journal is able to occasionally be profane, brutal, and gory; but, it never feels cliched. The Nam had to operate under stiffer restrictions, as far as language and gore, but, still managed to convey a portion of the real experience. This feels like if I had tried to write Band of Brothers, based solely on seeing Battleground and Patton. Now, removing that aspect, it is a pretty effective piece of psychological horror, which fits within the Vertigo oeuvre. It is the stuff of nightmares, within a war setting, a Weird War tale, taken to a non-Code Approved extreme. It was nominated for an Eisner and if you can separate out reality and influence, it is a fine work; but, I have trouble distancing those elements from it. I also think it is more interested in shock and horror than relating the reality of Vietnam, which is why I am kind of down on it, as it feels more like a bait-and-switch, in the selling of the series. What I do see is that is representative of how comics are treating war, now, as a psychological tale, rather than a historical or adventure vehicle. We don't get the gung ho Fightin' Army and GI Combat stories of the past, but stuff like this, and DMZ, and Catshit One, where the war is a setting, rather than a subject. Vietnam is ancient history, to the modern comics generation. Thankfully, not all of them. My next feature is a bit more of the historical record/fiction mode, as Joe Kubert, comic book legend and master, returns, in part, to his work on Tales of the Green Beret. However, instead of propaganda war adventures, with heroic Special Forces super soldiers, he writes and draws a tale of the real thing, in 1965, at the battle of Don Xoai. The work is influenced by real events and people and is the result of interviews with surviving members. It has more in common with something like We Were Soldiers Once, than The Short-Timers, or Platoon. It falls within the revisionism of the War as winning the battles, but losing the political will, a narrative which ignores that driving off the enemy is not the same as "winning the war." Unlike Tales of the Green Beret, Kubert is doing his own writing and this reflects more of his perspective on things.
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Post by codystarbuck on Apr 2, 2024 17:33:53 GMT -5
ps I don't have a problem with comics that are based in the Vietnam War and are telling other stories, any more than I have a problem with superhero stories set in WW2, or a murder mystery at a defense plant, or something. So long as it is done well, like say Foyle's War.
My intent with this review thread was to highlight how comic books treated the actual war, which is also why I skipped Captain America and Iron Man, because the war didn't have superheroes. If I were doing WW2 through the lens of comics, I probably wouldn't spend a lot of time on superheroes, other than how the patriotic fervor informed many superhero characters, especially the patriotic ones. Captain America would be the best representative example. I would, instead, focus on the war and historical comics and talk about the gung ho stories, vs the humanistic ones, or those based on fact, comparing and contrasting things like Captain Storm to Sam Glanzman's USS Stevens stories or A sailor's Story. I probably wouldn't spend much time on Weird War.
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Post by foxley on Apr 3, 2024 6:58:14 GMT -5
If that's what the kids are calling it these days...
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Post by codystarbuck on Apr 3, 2024 12:50:30 GMT -5
If that's what the kids are calling it these days... No, that's "crotch rot," to use a Vietnam phrase.
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 9,568
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Post by Confessor on Apr 3, 2024 22:50:17 GMT -5
I have read The Other Side exactly once and it was back when the TPB came out (2007), so I remember very little of it. What I do remember, is that the artwork was nice, that it was a little underwhelming story-wise, and that it reminded me of an updated Weird War Tales issue. I really must revisit it one of these days.
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Post by codystarbuck on Apr 3, 2024 23:32:39 GMT -5
I have read The Other Side exactly once and it was back when the TPB came out (2007), so I remember very little of it. What I do remember, is that the artwork was nice, that it was a little underwhelming story-wise, and that it reminded me of an updated Weird War Tales issue. I really must revisit it one of these days. That's pretty much what it is, which is fine. I was kind of led to believe it was more of a historical fiction, which it isn't, really. I appear not to be alone in my assessment that Aaron has a potty mouth, in his work. They were joking about it over at Atomic Junk Shop, while discussing upcoming works, with an Uncle Scrooge comic coming from him. I really hated the chaplain scene. I am an atheist and have been since I was a teen; but, while I was working at a destroyer squadron command, I worked with a trio of chaplains. They are there to provide counselling, as well as spiritual support and anyone who has talked to a real chaplain would not write that scene.
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