Walking through a large chain bookstore recently, I passed the “History-Military” section. There was a time when I regularly entered this section, primarily as a young civilian. These past few years however, I tend to avoid it. You see, actually living a war tends to do that to you. It makes things personal.
Passing the section on this particular day, a title leapt out at me from several feet away. It must have been the distinctive yellow binding or perhaps the childish font on the outside. Regardless, the title read “Vietnam War for Dummies”. The title took a moment to settle in through the slight bafflement. Had I read that right? When it did it took a calm effort to suppress the rapidly rising bile in my throat. I then numbingly continued on my course.
I recall a veteran of the Second World War once saying “Military history books should be read on the top of mountains during rainstorms while sitting in a muddy pit”. His point was that, while a general understanding of war can be achieved through the study of these books, they truly failed to project the real atmosphere of war itself. It is in actuality quite impossible.
Anyone who has ever sat through a barrage of mortar-fire, or tried to press himself into flat ground while bullets snapped overhead or had to simply make a shelter on a mountainside in bad weather while located near the enemy can attest to that. Anyone who has done these things can also attest that something as complex as a war can never be “dummied down”, and for that matter, never should be. The mere application of the thought should be handled with dignity and reverence.
It is repulsive and disgusting to simplify the blood spilt by warriors on far-reaching battlefields. The book itself may be the most complex and well-researched of its kind possibly written by an actual Vietnam Veteran even, but I will never know as I will never pick it up. The abominating title is an insult to the veterans of that war and in fact veterans of all wars. It says something of the American culture, so distanced from these conflicts, that something like this is even written and “summarized”.
An issue such as the title of this book is not about politics. Indeed, whether you are left-leaning, independent or right-leaning, the times that we live in and the current wars being fought require a common discourse and a certain understanding.
It requires that, while you may attempt to abstain from thoughts about our present conflicts, that you should at least pay a passing note of interest in order to have a relevant understanding of how these events impact our culture and our children’s culture. Many of those who would read the book are people who support war without any idea of what it takes to fight it attached to the cowardice of talking rhetoric from safe locations while others do the dying.
If some day I am walking through that same bookstore and see “Iraq War for Dummies”, I am not sure what my reaction will be. Perhaps I will have a different perspective as I age. Regardless, I will tell possible purchasers of such a thing the same sentence that I will tell you: The buyer of the book is likely what the title implies.
Joshua Gates lives in Centennial.
