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Free Essays - History Essays
Americanliterature of the Vietnam War
Americanliterature of the Vietnam War era reflected a peculiar multiple personality ofpatriotism and protest, closely mirroring the psychological makeup of thenation. A common theme of colonialism, though, existed in much of theliterature, even some of the protest-themed material. By literature, we mustby definition include all forms of pop culture, as Vietnam was arguably thefirst war in which a true diversity of media outlets existed for citizens toexpress themselves - radio, television, film, music, newspapers, books,poetry. All were available means for American self-expression regarding theangst and turmoil within American society regarding the Vietnam War. A studyas limited in space as this one does not have room to cover each medium; rather,we will focus on television science fiction - specifically, the legendary StarTrek series.
From 1966 to 1969,American society saw its military involvement in Vietnam reach its apex, bothin number of troops present in South Vietnam and American casualties suffered(16,589 Americans were killed in Vietnam in 1969.) During the same timeperiod, the television series Star Trek had its initial 76-episode runon the NBC television network. A creation of former Los Angeles PoliceDepartment officer and writer of television Westerns, Gene Roddenberry, StarTrek featured a weekly morality play in which the crew of the starship Enterprise,led by the intrepid Captain Kirk, would find themselves entangled in somephilosophical quandary usually prompted by an encounter with an alien race.This was a useful vehicle within which to explore social issues of the 1960s,including the Vietnam War, and Roddenberry never hesitated to do so fearlessly.
Kirk and the Enterprisewere representatives, both literally and metaphorically, of the UnitedFederation of Planets, a futuristic confederation of alien planets whose valuesessentially happened to match that of the United States of the 19thand 20th century. The mission of the Enterprise, asmemorably voiced at the beginning of each week's episodes, was as follows:Space the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise.Its five year mission to explore strange new worlds to seek out new life andnew civilizations to boldly go where no man has gone before. It was acombination of altruism and arrogance, an assumption that America's values wereinherently superior, and that not only would they have triumphed on Earth ofthe future, but they were worth spreading across the galaxy, an interstellarManifest Destiny resembling the expansionist tendencies of the United States inthe 1800s, and which saw its logical extension in the anti-Communist philosophythat led to America's involvement in Vietnam. (Two of Star Trek'sperennial villains were analogous to the Communists; the Romulans were atechnologically advanced race, but a cold, cruel, manipulative, and godlessrace, and the Klingons were also technologically advanced but warlike and cruelto the core.) Ironically, one of Starfleet's most sacred regulations wascalled the Prime Directive, which very simply mandated that Starfleet personnelwere not permitted to interfere with the development of any alien society of alevel of technology less than Starfleet's. However, quite frequently on theprogram, Captain Kirk and his crew would intervene in the internal affairs ofan alien culture without much thought about whether they had an ethical rightto do so. They would teach the aliens a lesson regarding Starfleet values, andbe upon their merry way, heading off to the next adventure. At their best,these episodes were fascinating vehicles in which complex contemporary moralquestions were explored and the nobler side of humankind revealed; at worst,they were insufferably patronising, jingoistic exercises in colonialism - muchlike the foreign policy of the United States itself.
There were fourparticular episodes of Star Trek that were direct or indirect allegoriesto Vietnam and the larger ethical questions provoked by it, episodes entitledCity on the Edge of Forever, Omega Glory, A Private Little War, and LetThis Be Your Last Battlefield.
In the firstexample, City on the Edge of Forever, Kirk and Spock find themselvesaccidentally thrown back in time to Earth of the 1930s, where Kirk unwittinglysaves the life of a famous and powerful peace activist, Edith Keeler. In doingso, however, Kirk has changed history -- ensuring that the pacifist movementprevails in the debate about whether or not the United States should enter WorldWar II. The unfortunate consequence is that Nazi Germany prevails and conquersthe world, enslaving billions. In the end, Kirk and Spock realize that theymust correct history by making a smaller, albeit painful sacrifice, in order tosee a larger good come to pass. They go back in time again, and Kirk mustwatch in agony as Keeler is run over by a car. The peace movement eventuallyfails, and the U.S. does in fact enter the war to stop the Nazis. The messageis clear with respect to Vietnam: it may be a tragic situation, but in thelarger currents of history, perhaps a necessary one:
The episode projected the view that sometimes it isnecessary to engage in ugly, distasteful action, such as waging remorselesswarfare against evil expansionist forces like Nazi Germany or the Communistempire attempting to take over Indochina, even doing away withwell-intentioned, attractive people who stand in the way of such historicalnecessity. (Franklin, 1994)
Thescript was written in the spring of 1966 by famed sci-fi author HarlanEllison. It was perhaps the most pro-war episode. As the war progressed, sodid Star Trek's preoccupation with and doubts about it, matching theattitude of the American people.
APrivate Little War, written by series creator Roddenberry himself, did notbother with the allegorical subtleties of Ellison's story, and directlyaddressed the question of colonialism. In this episode, Kirk and company beamdown to an extremely primitive planet and unexpectedly discover two warringfactions - one of which is inexplicably armed with flintlock rifles. We soondiscover that the Klingons have provided the weapons, and Kirk decides that hemust provide flintlocks to the under-armed, more sympathetic faction in orderto maintain a balance of power. The conflict between the Starfleet and Klingonproxies soon escalates, naturally, leading to Kirk and the ship's doctor,McCoy, having the following telling exchange:
McCOY: I don'thave a solution. But furnishing them with firearms is certainly not the answer!
KIRK: Bones, doyou remember the twentieth-century brush wars on the Asian continent? Two giantpowers involved, much like the Klingons and ourselves. Neither side felt thatthey could pull out?
McCOY: Yes, Irememberit went on bloody year after bloody year!
KIRK: But whatwould you have suggested? That one side arm its friends with an overpoweringweapon? Mankind would never have lived to travel space if they had. Nothe onlysolution is what happened, back then, balance of power.
McCOY: And ifthe Klingons give their side even more?
KIRK: Then wearm our side with exactly that much more. A balance of powerthe trickiest,most difficult, dirtiest game of them allbut the only one that preserves bothsides! (Roddenberry, 1968)
The episode endswith Kirk supplying Starfleet-allied faction with one hundred additionalrifles, which Kirk refers to as one hundred serpents. Appropriately, theepisode aired on February 2, 1968, just as the United States was reacting inshock to the Tet Offensive by the Vietcong and North Vietnamese Army.
The episode LetThis Be Your Last Battlefield concerned a fratricidal conflict on anotherplanet, in which approximately half the population had faces that were black onthe left side, and white on the right side, and the other half vice versa. Theformer is convinced of their inherent genetic superiority and are willing tokill and enslave the other to prove it, an obviously ridiculous and futileexercise. The oppressors even force their victims to fight their wars forthem. While obviously a race-relations allegory, it is also a commentary onthe ethnic quality of the casualties in Vietnam:
Enraged bymillennia of persecution, the oppressed are led by a fanatic militant. In aclear allusion to the disproportionate deaths being suffered byAfrican-Americans in Vietnam, he asks crew members of the Enterprise: "Doyou know what it would be like to be dragged out of your hovel into a war onanother planet, a battle that will serve your oppressor and bring death to yourbrothers?" (Franklin, 1994)
In the finalexample, Omega Glory, also written by Roddenberry, Star Trek tacklesthe issue of whether, in a fight for freedom, the United States could justifyutilizing tactics that violated its own cherished moral principles. In theepisode, Kirk and Spock discover a planet that has evolved in a parallel mannerto Earth, right down to similarity between national identities - Yangs(Yankees) and Kohms (Communists), who have been at war for centuries. In arather ironically colonial display of ignoring the Prime Directive, Kirkteaches both parties the meaning of the Declaration of Independence - styledocument the Yangs have been carrying around for hundreds of years, so longthat they have forgotten its intent. He admonishes both the Yangs and theKohms that in order to have any gravity, the principles of freedom must applyto both cultures, no matter what the cost. Freedom, Kirk says, is foreveryone, and war is never justified if we have forgotten why we went to war inthe first place. The episode aired in January 1969, and Roddenberry is clearlycommenting on the atrocities committed by American troops on Vietnamesecivilians in pursuit of liberating them from the Vietcong, and the foolishnessof continuing to pursue the war even past the point when the nation was nolonger quite sure why it had become involved some fifteen years previously.
Star Trek, then, provided effective and poignant commentary on the VietnamWar, but was perhaps not always aware of the irony of the vehicle, which in andof itself was little more than American gunboat diplomacy in space. To GeneRoddenberry's credit, it was an idealistic and noble projection of Americanideals for the most part, but nonetheless hopelessly colonial in its frequentpresupposition of American exceptionalism, a fatal flaw of the United Statesfor so many periods in its own history.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Military Casualty Information, VietnamVeterans Memorial Website, take from:
http://thewall-usa.com/stats/
Franklin, H. Bruce. Star Trek in theVietnam Era. National Air and Space Museum's 1992 exhibit entitled StarTrek and the Sixties. Developed further in 1994.
Roddenberry, Gene. A Private Little War,Star Trek. Paramount Studios. Original Airdate: February 2, 1968.
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