Dispatches

“The ground was always in play, always being swept. Under the ground was his, above it was ours. We had the air, we could get up in it but not disappear in to it, we could run but we couldn’t hide, and he could do each so well that sometimes it looked like he was doing them both at once, while our finder just went limp. All the same, one place or another it was always going on, rock around the clock, we had the days and he had the nights.”

Herr uses “he” to refer to the Viet Cong from the beginning of the book, and without any explanation. It takes a couple of reads to realize who Herr is talking about. The effects of using “he” to describe the enemy is to give the Viet Cong a persona and reduce the North Vietnamese soldiers down to a single being. It also has the effect of drawing the distinction between “us” and “them.”

“Back from the strip a fat, middle-aged man was screaming at some troops who were pissing on the ground. His poncho was pulled back away from the front of his helmet enough to show captain’s bars, but nobody even turned around to look at him. He groped under his poncho and came up with a .45, pointed it into the rain and fired off a shot that made an empty faraway pop, like it had gone off under wet sand. The men finished, buttoned up and walked away laughing, leaving the captain alone shouting orders to police up the filth […].”

This interaction between a captain and his subordinates shows a breakdown in order. Enlisted men have lost respect for their superiors, and no longer fear the consequences of disregarding an order.

“First letter I got from my old man was all about how proud he was that I’m here and how we have this duty to, you know, I don’t fucking know, whatever […] and it really made me feel great. Shit, my father hardly said good morning to me before. Well, I been here eight months now, and when I get home I’m gonna have all I can do to keep from killing that cocksucker […].”

This Marine feels like he’s been sold a bill of goods. His father never gave him attention until he went off to fight in Vietnam, and then, once the Marine has been there for a few months, he realizes that he doesn’t even know what he’s fighting for. His need for his father’s approval turns to anger once he realizes that his father never valued him as a person until he became useful to the government.