The Army, Newsreel, and <i>The Army Film</i>

ERIC BREITBART have entailed a level of personal courage and moral commitment that, quite frankly, I didn’t have. Moreover, the Vietnam War wasn’t more than a blip on the radar for most Americans, myself included, so the idea that I might be sent into combat never entered my mind. As for the Army itself, I thought that I could just tough it out. Nevertheless, nothing I had ever done prepared me for the culture shock I experienced during eight weeks of basic training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. Learning how to fire an M-14 rifle, march in formation, and keep a neat foot locker was only part of the Army’s game plan for transforming civilians into soldiers. There was also K.P., bayonet training, and making a bed with the blanket so tight that a dime would bounce on it. In addition, we were given weekly sessions of what was called “character guidance,” which usually consisted of a short film and a lecture on any subject from the proper way to brush your teeth or why you shouldn’t curse, to the reasons for the war in Vietnam. I soon realized that the main purpose of these sessions was not to guide me in a particular direction, stiffen my moral character, or even to teach me anything, but simply to make certain that I didn’t spend too much time thinking about anything outside the confines of Fort Jackson. I was amazed at how quickly the Army was able to socialize me into thinking like a soldier, someone who could see the military and nonmilitary worlds as entirely separate entities. And if they could do it to me, a sophisticated college graduate fresh from two years in Paris, they could do it to anyone. Most of the draftees in my basic training company were sent to the 25th Infantry, based in Honolulu, and eventually ended up in Vietnam. Through the luck of the draw I was sent to Dugway, Utah, a test facility for chemical and biological weapons in the middle of the Utah desert, and while I still couldn’t find an antiwar Eric Breitbart, U.S. Army, Dugway Proving Ground, Utah, 1965. Courtesy of the author.