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Men at arms: Chivalry and the American experience in Vietnam
Conference presentation

Men at arms: Chivalry and the American experience in Vietnam

Christopher J Levesque
Seventy-Seventh Annual Meeting of the Society for Military History (Lexington, Virginia, 05/20/2010–05/23/2010)
05/23/2010

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Abstract

During and immediately after the Vietnam War many Americans treated reports of atrocities like as unfortunate aberrations most easily explained as local acts of revenge or frustration. Combat veterans particularly rejected the idea that atrocities defined their behavior in Vietnam. As reports of war crimes increased after My Lai became public, more nuanced explanations for violence against civilians were needed. Psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton argued that the structure of the war created an environment that encouraged atrocities. The factors Lifton believed contributed to atrocities included a basic training environment that relied on a racist message resulting in dehumanization of the enemy, operational mechanisms that encouraged random killing, desire for revenge and mission briefings that in some instances gave soldiers a license to kill. When combined with training to obey orders without question and frustration at the inability to engage the enemy in set-piece battles, encounters with unarmed women and children presented themselves as an illusory face-to-face battle. While these factors undoubtedly played a role in atrocities, they ignore deeper cultural factors, including religion, chivalric traditions, and ideals of masculinity that also played a role in setting the stage for atrocities in Vietnam.

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