I published this article after taking my then 11 year old son to the movie BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY. I was angered and upset by Ron Kovic's about-face, turning his back on everything he'd believed in as a marine and becoming involved with Vietnam Veterans Against The War, a group I personally abhorred because I felt they dishonored the sacrifices of so many dedicated soldiers I served with who gave their lives, or were horribly wounded and maimed fighting a war they believed in.

I was dismayed about the stereotype of Vietnam veterans which was emerging in the movies and in print, characterizing Vietnam combat veterans as psychotic, drug-crazed killers and rapists--on a horror spree for kicks.  This article was the result of those anxious feelings. When I saw the article in print I felt badly about what I'd written, and as a result, this was one of the last articles I published professionally. 

I welcome any comments about the article. Below is an image of the newspaper article, and a text box for easier reading.

[Troy, NY Sunday, Jan 28, 1990] I grew up in the '50s and early '60s when World War II was an exciting, value-based backdrop for American action, adventure and romance movies. Like most of my male peers who served with me in Vietnam, I came to believe that war, the "fight for freedom" for American democratic ideals was the most noble thing a man could do. The movies were a powerful force inmolding that "heroic warrior" image of Amrican manhood, but no less convincing were the textbooks of our nation's history, glorifying citizen-soldiers as the true patriarchs of our society, from Roger's Rangers and the Minutemen to Washington, from SGT York and Audie Murphy to Ike. Now I'm appalled to see that the tragic realities of Vietnam's lessons about war, which at great sacrifice burst the myth of the noble warrior for a world weary of futile conflict, are the focus of moviemakers who seem intent on resurecting the myth. The new generation of war movies attest the atrocity, the degradation of Vietnam; they stress the ignoble acts of unwilling and confused psychotics in real proportion to the sacrifice and uncommon bravery of men who fought well and with honor on battlefields stained with the blood of dishonor and purposelessness. Still, the images of the fight are so powerful, so dynamic in the struggle for life and death, that heroes, bloodstained and fraught with jungle much and leeches, come crawling back into the American consciousness, bone tired and decorated against their will . . . glorified in today's wide-eyed American schoolboy dreams of true manhood, proven in war. Never mind that many Vietnam vets have PTSD, never mind the joblessness and the lost marriages and alcohol and drug addiction. To the kids, they're real men, they're heroes. People to look up to because, after all, they fought the war. By all means, give the combat vets their due, and they are due much, but please, kids, don't admire war, and the making of it as heroic, in itself. I'm a disabled veteran shot twice while serving as an infantry lieutenant commanding an infantry platoon of the Americal Division in Vietnam. I learned, in the most difficult manner, that killing people is wrong; it's the coward's way out of conflict. I learned it's just not possible to uphold ideals by doing harm. Today's Vietnam War moviemakers claim they want to thelp the public understand the Vietnam veteran and his experience of war. Let me tell you, without apology to anyone, that it is pure folly to suppose that a movie can reveal any real insight into the very personal experience of combat. I saw the movies. I had my war. They aren not the same thing. If they were, I wouldn't have gone to Vietnam, I wouldn't have volunteered for what I thought, from the movies and the textbooks, was the most noble undertaking a man could pursue. The romance is lost on both sides of an infantryman's rifle. That creative detachment of artistic interpretation is somehow void in the face of life and death, yours or the enemy's. Drama can teach lessons about reality. I don't deny that. But the dramas I'ves seen about Vietnam are full of exaggeraton and cliche. Both exaggeration and cliche are legitimate tools of drama, but they predispose the viewer to reach the conclusions intended by the artist. The most certain and potent way we have to separate the heroes from the cowards, the justified from the underserving, is in the most fundamental human test -- parenthood. Vets, don't send your kids to the Vietnam movies to learn about war. Tell them about it. Just tell them , not so much about glory and heroism and the good fight, but tell them how you learned the value of human life. Tell them that's a lesson you want to give to them in any way you can. Tell them even America can be wrong, and it's always, in every case, for them to decide. Tell them it's their country, and the power and responsibility for change, within the limits of the law, are soon to be theirs. Tell them Vietnams and other wars won't happen if they dont want them to. Copyright 1990-2002 William A. Cox, Jr.

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