Herr's dispatches from Vietnam are obviously and drastically different from the editorial columns of Pyle's from WWII. In discussion last week we touched up the idea of the two wars being different in terms of the patriotism expressed during these wars and this has been a running theme of the lectures this week. One point that was mentioned in terms of the completely opposing degrees of patriotism was the origins of the wars and why they were being fought. WWII was fought to ensure the citizens' safety, with Pearl Harbor being attacked, US Citizens were literally in danger. However the Vietnam War had no real bearing on the citizens at home, as a proxy war they had no deep investment or even interest in the war.
Herr and Pyle's accounts of their experiences, I believe, reflect these origins of the war. Pyle is patriotic and expresses the lighter side of WWII while Herr is much more graphic and depressing and shows the unrational and psychotic side of Vietnam. One could argue that America's view of each of these wars at home was developed by these writers and the sentiments that they expressed of the war. However, I believe that the opposite is true. Instead of the writers influencing America, America's outlook on the war influenced the way in which each war was covered. Herr's confused and troubling accounts then are directed by America's antiwar sentiment at the time, a type of justification to fuel the protests against Vietnam. Like the citizens at home, Herr's accounts mirror the disconnect felt by the soldiers in Vietnam.
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I agree with you that America's outlook on the war influenced the way in which each war was covered by Herr and Pyle. These wars had completely different causes and the way they were covered influenced how Americans viewed each war. Vietnam gave rise to anti-war sentiment amongst Americans, while the horrors of WWII were not known by Americans. These two wars had completely different affects on Americans, which can be seen in the writing styles of both Herr and Pyle.
ReplyDeleteI think that is an interesting idea that national sentiment could have had an impact on reporters covering wars half a world a way. The only thing I might wonder is that it would be hard for either write to have their hand on the pulse of American dialogue directly while they are off covering the war. I wonder that because Pyle and Herr were embedded in direct combat in covering the wars, that they may have instead may have been subconsciously gauging some of the sentiments about the war from the troops on the ground, which in turn showed up in their writing and affected America's outlook on each of the respective wars.
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