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American literature of the Vietnam War
American literature of the Vietnam War era reflected a peculiar multiple personality of patriotism and protest, closely mirroring the psychological makeup of the nation. A common theme of colonialism, though, existed in much of the literature, even some of the protest-themed material. By literature, we must by definition include all forms of pop culture, as Vietnam was arguably the first war in which a true diversity of media outlets existed for citizens to express themselves - radio, television, film, music, newspapers, books, poetry. All were available means for American self-expression regarding the angst and turmoil within American society regarding the Vietnam War. A study as 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 Star Trek series.
From 1966 to 1969, American society saw its military involvement in Vietnam reach its apex, both in number of troops present in South Vietnam and American casualties suffered (16,589 Americans were killed in Vietnam in 1969.) During the same time period, the television series Star Trek had its initial 76-episode run on the NBC television network. A creation of former Los Angeles Police Department officer and writer of television Westerns, Gene Roddenberry, Star Trek featured a weekly morality play in which the crew of the starship Enterprise, led by the intrepid Captain Kirk, would find themselves entangled in some philosophical 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 Enterprise were representatives, both literally and metaphorically, of the United Federation of Planets, a futuristic confederation of alien planets whose values essentially happened to match that of the United States of the 19th and 20th century. The mission of the Enterprise, as memorably 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 and new civilizations to boldly go where no man has gone before. It was a combination of altruism and arrogance, an assumption that America's values were inherently superior, and that not only would they have triumphed on Earth of the future, but they were worth spreading across the galaxy, an interstellar Manifest Destiny resembling the expansionist tendencies of the United States in the 1800s, and which saw its logical extension in the anti-Communist philosophy that led to America's involvement in Vietnam. (Two of Star Trek's perennial villains were analogous to the Communists; the Romulans were a technologically advanced race, but a cold, cruel, manipulative, and godless race, and the Klingons were also technologically advanced but warlike and cruel to the core.) Ironically, one of Starfleet's most sacred regulations was called the Prime Directive, which very simply mandated that Starfleet personnel were not permitted to interfere with the development of any alien society of a level of technology less than Starfleet's. However, quite frequently on the program, Captain Kirk and his crew would intervene in the internal affairs of an alien culture without much thought about whether they had an ethical right to do so. They would teach the aliens a lesson regarding Starfleet values, and be upon their merry way, heading off to the next adventure. At their best, these episodes were fascinating vehicles in which complex contemporary moral questions were explored and the nobler side of humankind revealed; at worst, they were insufferably patronising, jingoistic exercises in colonialism - much like the foreign policy of the United States itself.
There were four particular episodes of Star Trek that were direct or indirect allegories to Vietnam and the larger ethical questions provoked by it, episodes entitled City on the Edge of Forever, Omega Glory, A Private Little War, and Let This Be Your Last Battlefield.
In the first example, City on the Edge of Forever, Kirk and Spock find themselves accidentally thrown back in time to Earth of the 1930s, where Kirk unwittingly saves the life of a famous and powerful peace activist, Edith Keeler. In doing so, however, Kirk has changed history -- ensuring that the pacifist movement prevails in the debate about whether or not the United States should enter World War II. The unfortunate consequence is that Nazi Germany prevails and conquers the world, enslaving billions. In the end, Kirk and Spock realize that they must correct history by making a smaller, albeit painful sacrifice, in order to see a larger good come to pass. They go back in time again, and Kirk must watch in agony as Keeler is run over by a car. The peace movement eventually fails, and the U.S. does in fact enter the war to stop the Nazis. The message is clear with respect to Vietnam: it may be a tragic situation, but in the larger currents of history, perhaps a necessary one:
The episode projected the view that sometimes it is necessary to engage in ugly, distasteful action, such as waging remorseless warfare against evil expansionist forces like Nazi Germany or the Communist empire attempting to take over Indochina, even doing away with well-intentioned, attractive people who stand in the way of such historical necessity. (Franklin, 1994)
The script was written in the spring of 1966 by famed sci-fi author Harlan Ellison. It was perhaps the most pro-war episode. As the war progressed, so did Star Trek's preoccupation with and doubts about it, matching the attitude of the American people.
A Private Little War, written by series creator Roddenberry himself, did not bother with the allegorical subtleties of Ellison's story, and directly addressed the question of colonialism. In this episode, Kirk and company beam down to an extremely primitive planet and unexpectedly discover two warring factions - one of which is inexplicably armed with flintlock rifles. We soon discover that the Klingons have provided the weapons, and Kirk decides that he must provide flintlocks to the under-armed, more sympathetic faction in order to maintain a balance of power. The conflict between the Starfleet and Klingon proxies soon escalates, naturally, leading to Kirk and the ship's doctor, McCoy, having the following telling exchange:
McCOY: I don't have a solution. But furnishing them with firearms is certainly not the answer!
KIRK: Bones, do you remember the twentieth-century brush wars on the Asian continent? Two giant powers involved, much like the Klingons and ourselves. Neither side felt that they could pull out?
McCOY: Yes, I rememberit went on bloody year after bloody year!
KIRK: But what would you have suggested? That one side arm its friends with an overpowering weapon? Mankind would never have lived to travel space if they had. Nothe only solution is what happened, back then, balance of power.
McCOY: And if the Klingons give their side even more?
KIRK: Then we arm our side with exactly that much more. A balance of powerthe trickiest, most difficult, dirtiest game of them allbut the only one that preserves both sides! (Roddenberry, 1968)
The episode ends with Kirk supplying Starfleet-allied faction with one hundred additional rifles, which Kirk refers to as one hundred serpents. Appropriately, the episode aired on February 2, 1968, just as the United States was reacting in shock to the Tet Offensive by the Vietcong and North Vietnamese Army.
The episode Let This Be Your Last Battlefield concerned a fratricidal conflict on another planet, in which approximately half the population had faces that were black on the left side, and white on the right side, and the other half vice versa. The former is convinced of their inherent genetic superiority and are willing to kill and enslave the other to prove it, an obviously ridiculous and futile exercise. The oppressors even force their victims to fight their wars for them. While obviously a race-relations allegory, it is also a commentary on the ethnic quality of the casualties in Vietnam:
Enraged by millennia of persecution, the oppressed are led by a fanatic militant. In a clear allusion to the disproportionate deaths being suffered by African-Americans in Vietnam, he asks crew members of the Enterprise: "Do you know what it would be like to be dragged out of your hovel into a war on another planet, a battle that will serve your oppressor and bring death to your brothers?" (Franklin, 1994)
In the final example, Omega Glory, also written by Roddenberry, Star Trek tackles the issue of whether, in a fight for freedom, the United States could justify utilizing tactics that violated its own cherished moral principles. In the episode, Kirk and Spock discover a planet that has evolved in a parallel manner to Earth, right down to similarity between national identities - Yangs (Yankees) and Kohms (Communists), who have been at war for centuries. In a rather ironically colonial display of ignoring the Prime Directive, Kirk teaches both parties the meaning of the Declaration of Independence - style document the Yangs have been carrying around for hundreds of years, so long that they have forgotten its intent. He admonishes both the Yangs and the Kohms that in order to have any gravity, the principles of freedom must apply to both cultures, no matter what the cost. Freedom, Kirk says, is for everyone, and war is never justified if we have forgotten why we went to war in the first place. The episode aired in January 1969, and Roddenberry is clearly commenting on the atrocities committed by American troops on Vietnamese civilians in pursuit of liberating them from the Vietcong, and the foolishness of continuing to pursue the war even past the point when the nation was no longer quite sure why it had become involved some fifteen years previously.
Star Trek, then, provided effective and poignant commentary on the Vietnam War, but was perhaps not always aware of the irony of the vehicle, which in and of itself was little more than American gunboat diplomacy in space. To Gene Roddenberry's credit, it was an idealistic and noble projection of American ideals for the most part, but nonetheless hopelessly colonial in its frequent presupposition of American exceptionalism, a fatal flaw of the United States for so many periods in its own history.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Military Casualty Information, Vietnam Veterans Memorial Website, take from:
http://thewall-usa.com/stats/
Franklin, H. Bruce. Star Trek in the Vietnam Era. National Air and Space Museum's 1992 exhibit entitled Star Trek 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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