Friendly Fire In The Literature Of War

The term "friendly fire" was coined in the 1970s but the theme appears in literature from ancient times to the present. It begins the narrative in Aeschylus's Persians and Larry Heinemann's Paco's Story. It marks the turning point in Homer's Iliad, Virgil's Aeneid, the Chanson de Roland, Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage and Tim O'Brien's Going After Cacciato. It is the subject of transformative disclosure in Jaan Kross's Czar's Madman, Ron Kovic's Born on the Fourth of July, O'Brien's In the Lake of the Woods and A.B. Yehoshua's Friendly Fire. In some stories, events propel the characters into a friendly-fire catastrophe, as in Thomas Taylor's A Piece of this Country and Oliver Stone's 1986 film Platoon. This study examines friendly fire in a broad range of literary contexts.

The term "friendly fire" was coined in the 1970s but the theme appears in literature from ancient times to the present. It begins the narrative in Aeschylus's Persians and Larry Heinemann's Paco's Story. It marks the turning point in Homer's Iliad, Virgil's Aeneid, the Chanson de Roland, Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage and Tim O'Brien's Going After Cacciato. It is the subject of transformative disclosure in Jaan Kross's Czar's Madman, Ron Kovic's Born on the Fourth of July, O'Brien's In the Lake of the Woods and A.B. Yehoshua's Friendly Fire. In some stories, events propel the characters into a friendly-fire catastrophe, as in Thomas Taylor's A Piece of this Country and Oliver Stone's 1986 film Platoon. This study examines friendly fire in a broad range of literary contexts.

The true story of Michael Mullen, a soldier killed in Vietnam, and his parents’ quest for the truth from the US government: “Brilliantly done” (The Boston Globe). Drafted into the US Army, Michael Mullen left his family’s Iowa farm in September 1969 to fight for his country in Vietnam. Six months later, he returned home in a casket. Michael wasn’t killed by the North Vietnamese, but by artillery fire from friendly forces. With the government failing to provide the precise circumstances of his death, Mullen’s devastated parents, Peg and Gene, demanded to know the truth. A year later, Peg Mullen was under FBI surveillance. In a riveting narrative that moves from the American heartland to the jungles of Vietnam to the Vietnam Veterans Against the War march in Washington, DC, to an interview with Mullen’s battalion commander, Lt. Col. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, author C. D. B. Bryan brings to life with brilliant clarity a military mission gone horrifically wrong, a patriotic family’s explosive confrontation with their government, and the tragedy of a nation at war with itself. Originally intended to be an interview for the New Yorker, the story Bryan uncovered proved to be bigger than he expected, and it was serialized in three consecutive issues during February and March 1976, and was eventually published as a book that May. In 1979, Friendly Fire was made into an Emmy Award–winning TV movie, starring Carol Burnett, Ned Beatty, and Sam Waterston. This ebook features an illustrated biography of C. D. B. Bryan, including rare images from the author’s estate.

War is often depicted in the textbooks as a well-orchestrated, albeit violent, exercise in which opposing units strive to achieve tactical and strategic objectives. That each side will suffer casualties in the process is taken for granted; they are the inevitable, if regretable, consequence of such a deadly undertaking. That each side is almost certain to suffer casualties inflicted by its own forces is not generally taken for granted, Yet, in each of America's wars, especially those of the twentieth century, a significant number of soldiers have been killed or wounded as the result of friendly fire. The fact that the percentage of casualties resulting from friendly fire from World War I through Vietnam has been extremely low does not make the accidental killing or wounding of one's own troops any less tragic or unpalatable. Nor does it offer much consolation to the commander responsible for the lives of his troops or to the soldier who runs the risk of falling victim to the fire of his own forces. It may well be that in the "fog of war" friendly fire casualties are inevitable, but this solemn observation does not absolve the armed forces from doing everything in their power to eliminate the problem. To be sure, each branch of the Army and each of the Armed Services employ measures calculated to prevent incidents of friendly fire. But such measures offer only partial solutions, especially on the modern battlefield where joint and combined forces operate under often obscure conditions. A more comprehensive study of the causes and consequences of friendly fire is needed. That one has not yet appeared is attributable to several factors, foremost among them being the nature of the evidenceon which such a study must rely. The required raw data are scattered throughout a variety of primary and secondary, official and unofficial sources. Before one can undertake a serious and comprehensive analysis of friendly fire, these data must be found and brought together in one place. In Amicicide: The Problem of Friendly Fire in Modern War, LTC Charles R. Shrader has taken a major step toward the compilation of these data. From his survey of much of the existing literature on World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War, he has extracted examples of friendly fire involving U.S. ground forces and has categorized them according to types of incidents. In his well-informed narrative, he draws tentative conclusions about the causes and effects of friendly fire and offers recommendations for those who expect to study the subject further. He has, in short, produced a superb reference book and a springboard for a deeper and more comprehensive analysis of this grim and complex problem. William A. Stofft Colonel, Armor Director, Combat Studies Institute

FRIENDLY FIRE explores the intrigue and treachery between - and within the nations that were ostensibly allies during the Second World War. It demonstrates the extent to which the Allied war effort was driven by vested interests, primarily concerned with the balance of power in the post-war world rather than the defeat of Germany and Japan. As a result of these manoeuvres between the Allies, the war lasted around two years longer than it should have done. The end result was a Europe divided between the East and West and the onset of the Cold War.The theme of 'friendly fire' - casualties inflicted on one's own side - connects the various aspects of this book. Individual countries deliberately misled their own citizens about the real reasons they were fighting, even resorting to the assassination of major figures who threatened to expose the real agenda. As FRIENDLY FIRE reveals, every one of the wartime governments had its own guilty secret. Among the many revelations we learn how, for its own economic ends, the Roosevelt administration actively encouraged the war between Britain and Germany, and how Anglo-American relations during the Second World War were characterised by suspicion, mistrust and a struggle for future supremacy. The authors also detail how British agents tricked Hitler into declaring war on the US in order to bring America into the European conflict and how, under the guise of war aid, the US gave the USSR the means to establish itself as a world superpower - including, from 1943-45, the secret of the Atom bomb. FRIENDLY FIRE is based on extensive research on both sides of the Atlantic and contains information obtained from important archives and the testimonies of those individuals actively involved in the events and deliberations revealed. It relays the shocking truth about now-legendary government figures who actively shaped the destiny of countless millions - Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin.

From surveys of much of the existing literature on World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War, the author has extracted examples of friendly fire involving U.S. ground forces and has categorized them according to types of incidents. In this narrative, he draws tentative conclusions about the causes and effects of friendly fire and offers recommendations for those who expect to study the subject further.

Kinney explores the intersections of culture, literature, and history surrouding the Vietnam "conflict," about which hundreds of plays, novels, short stories, and memoirs have been written. The cultural and social implications from these evocative films and popular fictions shaped the American landsape with thoughts on what the war really meant to American culture.

The term ÔFriendly Fire' is used to describe the accidental shooting of servicemen by their own side. This is a historical survey of some of the most dramatic incidents. It is inevitable that in the heat of battle men become confused and disoriented and such accidents are bound to happen. Sometimes they can be attributed to the incompetence or stupidity of a commander. More often they are simply the result of a breakdown in communications or a change in the weather. In this absorbing book, Bickers uses his own experience as an airman in and after World War II to show how hard it is for a pilot to distinguish friend from foe.