A Man’s Vision of Love:
An Examination of William Broyles
Jr.’s Esquire Article
“Why Men Love War”
History 266 Sec 004
The University of Michigan
11-22-2000
Prepared For
Ken Swope
Prepared By
Mike Martinez
“Men love war because it allows them to look
serious. Because they imagine it is the one thing that stops women laughing at
them. In it they can reduce women to the status of objects. This is the great
distinction between the sexes. Men see objects, women see the relationship
between objects. Whether the objects need each other, love each other, match
each other. It is an extra dimension of feeling we men are without and one that
makes war abhorrent to all real women - and absurd. I will tell you what war is.
War is a psychosis caused by an inability to see relationships. Our relationship
with our fellow men. Our relationship with out economic and historical
situation. And above all our relationship to nothingness. To death.”
John Fowles in The Magus
A Man’s Vision of Love:
An Examination of William Broyles Jr.’s Esquire Article
“Why Men Love
War”
The fact that war is both beautiful as well as nauseating is a
great ambiguity for men. In his article for Esquire magazine in 1985 William
Broyles Jr attempts to articulate this ambiguity while being rather unclear
himself. On the one hand Broyles says that men do not long for the classic male
experience of going to war, while on the other hand he says that men who return
know that they have delved into an area of their soul which most men are never
able to. Broyles says that men love war for many reasons some obvious and some
obviously disturbing. Many books support this notion while few stray far from
the admission of love. I believe that most sources indicate that men do in fact
love war in a general masculine way. I also believe that the sources that do not
admit to this love of war do not because of the author’s unique, face-to-face
experience with war’s most severe atrocities. I feel that the sources, while few
in number can faithfully account for the average soldier in any war in the
twentieth century, which Broyles applies his argument to.
Stories of combat
provide a way of coping with a fundamental tension of war: although the act of
killing another person in battle may invoke a wave of nauseous distress, it may
also incite intense feelings of pleasure. William Broyles was one of many combat
soldiers who articulated this ambiguity. In 1984, this former Marine explored
some of the contradictions inherent in telling war stories. With the familiar,
authoritative voice of `one-who-has-been-there\', Broyles asserted that when
combat soldiers were questioned about their war experiences they generally said
that they did not want to talk about it, implying that they `hated it so much,
it was so terrible\' that they would prefer it to remain `buried.\'(Broyles 68)
Not so, Broyles continued, `I believe that most men who have been to war would
have to admit, if they are honest, that somewhere inside themselves they loved
it too.\'(Broyles 68) How could that be explained to family and friends, he
asked? Even comrades-in-arms were wary among themselves: veterans\' reunions
were awkward occasions precisely because the joyous aspects of slaughter were
difficult to confess in all circumstances. To describe combat as enjoyable was
like admitting to being a bloodthirsty brute: to acknowledge that the decisive
cease-fire caused as much anguish as losing a great lover could only inspire
shame.
Yet, Broyles recognized that there were dozens of reasons why combat
might be attractive, even pleasurable. Comradeship, with its bittersweet
absorption of the self within the group, appealed to some fundamental human
urge. And then there was the awesome power conferred upon individuals by war.
For men, combat was the male equivalent of childbirth: it was the “initiation
into the power of life and death.”(Broyles 70) Broyles had little to say about
the `life\' aspect, but argued that the thrill of destruction was irresistible.
A bazooka or an M-60 machine gun was a “magic sword” or a “grunt\'s Excalibur“:
all you do is move that finger so imperceptibly, just a wish flashing across
your mind like a shadow, not even a full brain synapse, and poof! in a blast of
sound and energy and light a truck or a house or even people disappear,
everything flying and settling back into dust. (Broyles 36)
In many ways,
war did resemble sport which, by pushing men to their physical and emotional
limits, could provide deep satisfaction (for the survivors, that is). Broyles
likened the happiness generated by the sport of war to the innocent pleasures of
children playing cowboys and Indians, chanting the refrain, `bang bang, you\'re
dead!’ or to the seductive suspense adults experience while watching combat
movies as geysers of fake blood splatter the screen and actors fall, massacred.
There was more to the pleasures of combat than this, said Broyles. Killing
had a spiritual resonance and an aesthetic poignancy. Slaughter was an affair of
great and seductive beauty. For combat soldiers, there was as much mechanical
elegance in an M-60 machine gun as there was for medieval warriors in decorated
swords. (Broyles 71) Aesthetic tastes were often highly personal. The experience
seemed to resemble spiritual enlightenment or sexual eroticism. Indeed in the
two sources which I have chosen to support Broyles, sexuality and power play
major roles.
In The Coldest War, James Brady discusses his experience in the
Korean War. He intends his story to be typical of the average soldier during the
conflict. Brady discusses his time in Korea mainly as a growing experience. He
went into the war as a fearful 23-year-old and came out a man who had been
through a war. After joining military school to dodge the draft, Brady was sent
to Korea without the desire to fight. One of Broyles’ arguments is that men are
not raised to love war. He argues that you have to be through it before you know
what areas of your soul you have delved into. For Brady the war itself was not
to be loved. The killing was not the object of his affection as he clearly
states in his novel, but Brady’s memoir fits in with most of the reasons which
Broyles gives as motive for men to love war.
“The enduring emotion of
war...is comradeship,” says Broyles on page 70 of “Why Men Love War.” One of the
themes of Brady’s novel is definitely camaraderie. Brady’s relationship with
Mack Allen as well as with Chaffee and other members of his rifle platoon shows
the importance of friendship in his love of war. He fondly remembers Mack Allen
and has seen his fellow lieutenant since the war. Brady reinforces this by
stating that “Everyone goes to war alone.” (Brady 13) By contrasting this to the
friends whom he speaks of and displays pictures of it becomes obvious that his
comrades were very important to his feelings about war. Even though he stresses
the absurdity of killing, Brady shows us his view of war in terms of friendship
and not simply violence.
James Brady also supports Broyles’ idea that war is
loved because it does away with some of the confusing aspects of daily life. The
enemy is not someone whom you have to search for. You know who the enemy is and
for Brady it was the Chinks and the Gooks. No other words are needed in the
Korean war to describe who the soldiers thought that they were facing. Almost
every time that a battle is mentioned the enemy is named as the gooks. Broyles
would agree that during his tour in Vietnam he had named the enemy Charlie or
gook which gave his enemy a simple identity. This is what Broyles means when he
says that you usually know who the enemy is and are given the means to deal with
them. (Broyles 69)
Brady states that on his ride home he had time to ponder
the unnatural act of killing and “the mystery of who lived and who died.” (Brady
241) He also says that he had the good fortune to be alive. This reinforces one
of Broyles’ “more troubling reasons why men love war.” (Broyles 70) War defines
the thin line between life and death. When the dead are thought of on this ride
home Brady might be pondering that they are dead yet there is an “exultant
realization” that he is still alive and on his way home. (Broyles 71) Especially
in the type of war that Brady describes it is hard to tell how many deaths you
are directly responsible for. Mortar fire and aerial bombings claim most of the
dead. Brady could not feel as guilty about other’s deaths as he was glad that he
was going home with his life.
Alvin Kernan is another war survivor who’s
World War II memoir, Crossing the Line, displays more of the love which Broyles
has written about than does The Coldest War. Alvin Kernan was a young man when
he was sent to war. At seventeen he had no where to go after high school and
therefore enlisted in the US Navy in 1940. The war had not yet been brought to
the United States. Kernan’s story describes more of the military maneuvers than
The Coldest War does and makes Kernan’s love of the war more noticeable.
During the attack on the Marshall Islands Kernan’s enthusiasm is obvious.
“My first real experience of a shooting war!” he exclaims. (Kernan 38) His
description brings to mind Broyles idea that one of the reasons for man’s love
of war is that the enemy is obvious. (Broyles 69) The gray areas of daily life
are not important during the war. Your duty is clear and is to kill the enemy.
Kernan demonstrates this in his description of many of the battles which he was
a part of. There was one enemy and it was the Japanese. In Crossing the Line
Kernan’s only enemy is the Japanese. It is unimportant that he lauds them with
compliments on their military might. Not only is this fifty years after the war
that we won, but he still recognizes them as the enemy that he was fighting. In
slight contrast, Kernan mentions that in conversation while on the faculty of a
liberal university he has to hold his tongue when people are talking about the
racism surrounding the bomb so as not to say that he is grateful for it because
he did not have to be involved in a ground invasion of Japan. (Kernan 155) This
demonstrates the gray areas which Broyles is talking about. During the war there
is no confusion as to whose side you are on. Who your enemy is.
Kernan also
discusses the connection between sex and war which is so prominent in Broyles’
article. Broyles says that the connection between sex and war is the root of
man’s love for war. (Broyles 70) War heightens sexual desire. Kernan also
plainly states that there is a connection between sex and war. Chastity, he
says, was cast aside for the duration of the war. (Kernan 93) Kernan talks about
brothels at least twice during his recollections of the war. He makes it seem as
though they were a necessary part of a sailor’s leave or liberty. (Kernan 18-19)
Kernan’s “Stateside” chapter is by far the most telling. He describes his
experience of being on leave and back home where no girl plain, or pretty used
to give him a first glance. During the war however, little Alvin Kernan
experiences, first hand, the connection between sex and war.
I stated in my
thesis that Broyles’ argument that men love war fit for most first hand sources
of war experience. I also stated that those that do not are written by
individuals whose experience during the war was so unique and atrocious that
they were forced to come from war without being able to embrace this manly right
to love it. Two items which demonstrate this are “The Vietnam in Me” by Tim
O’Brien and Company K by William March.
Tim O’Brien is a Vietnam veteran
much like William Broyles Jr. Both men are now famous for their reporting skills
and for their war stories. The main difference between the two is that while
Broyles states that he spent most of his tour in Vietnam without incident
(Broyles 68), O’Brien was in Alpha Company whose area of patrol was Mai Lai the
year after the massacre of the village. He also tells many horror stories of
friends dying while within sight. (O’Brien see bib.) “The Vietnam in Me” not
only tells of O\'Brien\'s wartime encounters, but also of his personal life
before and since Vietnam. He describes failed relationship with Kate, a serious
girlfriend, as well as his youth. His tour in Vietnam does not fit much of the
mold that Broyles has set.
O’Brien’ narrative gives much evidence as to why
he would feel the way he does about war in light of our previous analyses. On
the issue on friendship being the enduring emotion of war, O’Brien’s story lends
support. The things that O\'Brien says that he loved during the war were family
friends and “everything that might be lost or never come to be.“ His best fiend
in Alpha company was Chip. Chip was a black soldier with whom O\'Brien had
become good friends. In May of 1969 Chip was blown up. Being that O\'Brien does
not show any love for war the fact that one of his best friends, and the
enduring emotional outlet of war says Broyles, was killed so violently sheds
light on why O\'Brien does not fit Broyles ideas.
The other major reason why
O\'Brien does not love war is because of his connection to the Mai Lai massacre.
Though Alpha Company was not around until a year after the massacre, O\'Brien
does not have a fond memory of this experience. During the war he was able to
walk through the village and was unaware that anything out of the ordinary had
ever happened, but in his article he goes back to the area and interviews some
of the survivors. He states that after the interviews he visits the ditch where
the people were shot and feels “the guilt chills.” Obviously his memory of his
own involvement has been affected by a collective memory of this horror. For
these reasons, his friends powerful death and his connection to the Mai Lai
massacre, O\'Brien is the type of soldier who would not fit into William
Broyles’ view of men loving war.
The accounts, albeit fictional, in Company
K demonstrate the effect of powerfully atrocious events on man’s love for war.
Company K is not the a first hand source in the way that the above memoirs are,
but it can provide readers with a general account of a company’s sense of love
for war. The novel describes a company during World War I, and generally tells
the worst of what war has to offer. Many of the vignettes are tales of what
James Brady would call “bugging out.” Two events surrounding Company K show how
these events can result in a man‘s love, or lack thereof, for war.
William
March, the author of Company K, was in fact a soldier during Word War I. Little
is known of his involvement in specific battles. He was awarded many medal
including the Croix de Guerre. One event that is known is reported to have been
repeated many times by March in conversation. He was separated from his company
when he came upon a German youth whom he instinctively lunged at with his
bayonet killing the boy and piercing his throat. The boy stared at March’s face
in death. (March xi) Apparently March suffered from “hysterical conditions
related to...his throat and eyes.” (March xii) Personal experiences of March, a
non-fictional soldier, demonstrates the effect that these up-close events had on
March’s writing.
In the actual novel there is one specific event which sums
up the attitude of the war for this company. In the course of about six of the
small stories in Company K an event similar in grotesqueness to the Mai Lai
massacre is told. A troop of German prisoners is lined up in a trench and gunned
down by their American captors. While this story is not based on truth it shows
William March’s hatred of a war which he fought bravely in.
These two works,
“The Vietnam in Me” and Company K lend evidence to the idea that while men
generally love war, there are events which are heinous enough to change this
basic emotion. War may cater to the darkest recesses of man’s soul, but the
conscious mind still has the power to block out that which is too dangerous to
face. Broyles says that he loved war but would never want to fight again. It is
possible that this should be the basic idea of his paper: men who have seen war
and survived it have a great reason to love it; they still have a beating heart
in their chest. The men who have not seen it are most likely the ones to fear
and hate war. They might know someone who died in a war while they were never
given the chance to risk themselves and come out alive. I believe that it might
be just what Broyles says it is not: the classic male experience that we are
taught to train for in playing army men as youths. This, however, is the topic
of an American Culture course and not a History ourse.
Outside Source Bibliography
Fowles, John. (1985) The Magus New York: Dell Pub Co. Rev Rei
edition (May 1985).
O‘Brien, Tim. (1994, October 2). “The Vietnam in
Me.” The New York Times, Books. (also available online at
nytimes.com/books/98/09/20/specials/obrien- vietnam.html)