Those Who Have Borne the Battle: A History of America's Wars and Those Who Fought Them

Abstract

[...]these wars have also been a watershed for veterans, who rarely have come home to public acclaim (or even acknowledgment), often have had inadequate post-service care, and, with the notable exceptions of the Vietnam and Korean Veterans' Memorials in Washington, have even lacked commemoration. [...]judging by Wright's book along with Rachel Maddow's Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power (Crown, 2012), the previously noted trend of involving only a fraction of the population has resulted in a system that pushes the burden for military service onto ever-fewer people while at the same time demanding unreasonable sacrifices of those in uniform.

Those Who Have Borne the Battle: A History of America's Wars and Those Who Fought Them James Wright. New York: Public Affairs, 2012. 331 pp. Bibliog. Index. $27.99.

Reviewed by Michael S. Neiberg

This book is more sympathetic than argumentative. It emerged from the desires of the author, a former Marine, history professor, and college president, to tell the story of American veterans. Having met with many former combatants in Iraq and Afghanistan, James Wright sought to understand their situation in its historical context, while explaining to readers the relationship between the nation's wars and the men and women who fight them.

Especially in an era when medical care for veterans is inconsistent and their suicide rates alarmingly high, the topic of these people and how the United States has cared for them is critical. Wright's approach is personal, with a great deal of first-person writing and harkening back to individual experience. Not for nothing does the book begin with Wright's recollection of what the military meant to those in his childhood hometown of Galena, Illinois. However, as a scholar he rejects much of the mythology Americans have created about their wars; Wright strives to see those conflicts as they really were.

Each chapter begins with a historical survey of a war or era of hostilities. The general outlines will be familiar to students of warfare, which the author makes no attempts to sanitize. This provides a framework within which to contextualize the veterans' role in the years that followed. His treatment of World War II is particularly relevant to this point, as Wright highlights the privileging of white males by virtue of the U.S. system developed to prosecute the war. Particularly galling is that German prisoners of war were invited to a performance by Lena Home - whereas African-American soldiers were not. This also stands as an apt metaphor for many U.S. shortcomings during that period.

Wright sees the true watershed moment not in 1941-45, as do many historians, but in the Korean War that began in 1950. The United States could not even agree on what to call it, symbolizing the new intellectual terrain the nation had entered. President Harry S. Truman's positive reply to a reporter's question as to whether Korea was a "police action" didn't stick. Neither did the "Korean conflict." It was not until 1998 that Congress officially named it the Korean War.

In Wright's formulation, with Korea began the modern American understanding of war: limited in the force deployed and the political objectives sought, fought far from home at low intensity but long duration, and involving only a small percentage of the U.S. population. While some served, most were able to go ahead with life as usual. But since that time, these wars have also been a watershed for veterans, who rarely have come home to public acclaim (or even acknowledgment), often have had inadequate post-service care, and, with the notable exceptions of the Vietnam and Korean Veterans' Memorials in Washington, have even lacked commemoration.

But if American veterans are largely ignored or held at arm's length, Wright notes that the rhetoric and money have been effusive. Even during the Vietnam period, the author observes, no American politician - and few citizens - blamed soldiers for the mistakes of their leaders. Funds for veteran's care have been sacrosanct, even if the money is often buried in a mass of red tape that prevents veterans from getting the resources they need. The pattern mostly holds true today, with Americans reporting even in these austere times that funding for veterans should not be cut.

And yet, judging by Wright's book along with Rachel Maddow's Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power (Crown, 2012), the previously noted trend of involving only a fraction of the population has resulted in a system that pushes the burden for military service onto ever-fewer people while at the same time demanding unreasonable sacrifices of those in uniform. Americans want their wars far away from civil society. As Wright notes, for too many Americans supporting the troops substitutes for asking one's own son or daughter to join them as part of a volunteer force. Unlike Maddow's book, Wright's does not propose a quick-fix list of solutions. Instead he asks the reader to think, to reflect, and to empathize with those who have borne the battle.