Rumor of War in 1977, Philip Caputo

Rumor of War

In 1977, Philip Caputo wrote A Rumor of War, to document his experience as a Marine during the Vietnam War. Caputo does not "pretend" to write about history, politics, "power, strategy, influence, national interests, or foreign policy," (xiii). A Rumor of War is about what it is like to be a soldier: it is a "simple story about war, about the things men do in war and the things war does to them," (Caputo xiii). The events chronicles in A Rumor of War cover Caputo's service in 1965 and 1966. However, the war dragged on a lot longer than that. Caputo therefore writes an epilogue years later with more commentary.

Caputo traces the changes in his own perspective, as well as in the perspectives of his fellow soldiers. When he first joins the marines, the troops believe that they are fighting a small and relatively insignificant war. As casualties mount, the confusion on the ground becomes palpable. Questions about why the war is being fought start to seep into the minds of the officers, including those in command. As Lieutenant, Caputo issues orders that led to his being court-martialled and discharged. The incident provides some of the most poignant commentary about the futility of the war, and the psychological trauma that comes from fighting with no clear mission.

When Caputo is with the court-martial, some of the core issues at stake in the Vietnam War start to surface. One is what Caputo skillfully describes as the "wide gulf that divides the facts from the truth," (329). On the one hand, Caputo did order the assassinations. He will not plead guilty to murder, because it was his understanding that the Americans were supposed to try to win the war. Killing is one of the tactics used in military offensive; Caputo is rightfully confused as to why he is being put on trial when, as he puts it "it wasn't murder. And if it was murder, then half the Vietnamese killed in this war have been murdered," (329). Rader convinces Caputo that he needs to reframe is plea as his being completely innocent of the charges. The facts can be separated from the truth; the truth can be constructed from whatever "facts" are at hand. Caputo continues, "there wasn't a single lie in it. And yet it wasn't the truth," (330). What Caputo knows in his heart as the truth is that the principles upon which the Vietnam War were fought were tenuous at best. Muddled missions and visions made for mass confusion on the ground, including confusion among commanding officers. The truth, notes Caputo, is a "synthesis" of multiple points-of-view. The "war in general and U.S. military policies in particular were ultimately to blame for the deaths of Le Du and Le Dung. That was the truth, and it was the truth which the whole proceeding was designed to conceal," (Caputo 330).

It was as if a giant lie was being re-spun constantly. Whether to frame the deaths of the civilians as murder or not: this was a question that depended on prevailing public relations. An American public was growing increasingly impatient, dissatisfied, and disgusted with the war effort. The fact that the war was not being fought intelligently or with respect for the enemy was one reason that officers like Caputo were confused. On the one hand they were told to kill, and commanded to kill. Caputo was offered rewards for the successful killing of Viet Cong. Desperate times called for desperate measures. Caputo was working within the framework of American military ethics at the time, even though that ethical framework was sick. His actions, and those of the troops under his command, were criminal in the ethical sense but not in the legal sense. When Caputo is court martialled, it exposed some of the most obvious forms of hypocrisy and confusion emerging within the military.

Soldiers in Vietnam often found themselves in untenable combat situations. They were damned if they did (as with Caputo) and would be damned if they didn't (such as by getting killed). The twisted ethics of war are "moral bacteria" infecting the souls of soldiers who initially only fought out of loyalty to their country and commitment to their duties as military officers (Caputo 331). War also brought out the "capacity for evil" that lurked within men, and which came out brutally on the battlefields (Caputo 331). The exoneration of Caputo represents the way American military efforts are spun so that they appear noble and honorable, when in reality they are twisted attempts at securing control and hegemony. Rather than back down, the military commanders puffed up their intentions to quell the uprising. What could have been mildly hurt pride became utter embarrassment and demoralization. The credibility of not just the military but of the entire United States government plummeted after the War in Vietnam. Lies were being told to the American public, to squeeze every ounce of support for the war. Military commanders also told lies that injured the war effort itself. American troops were dying in numbers faster than most people were aware of on the fields. The loss of control and the ineffective strategizing was leading to countless numbers of casualties and prisoners of war.