William Blum: Johnny Got His Gun

[stillcool]

The Anti-Empire Report
Johnny Got His Gun
by William Blum
www.dissidentvoice.org
January 13, 2007

In the past year Iran has issued several warnings to the United States about the consequences of an American or Israeli attack. One statement, issued in November by a high Iranian military official, declared: "If America attacks Iran, its 200,000 troops and 33 bases in the region will be extremely vulnerable, and both American politicians and military commanders are aware of it." <1> Iran apparently believes that American leaders would be so deeply distressed by the prospect of their young men and women being endangered and possibly killed that they would forswear any reckless attacks on Iran. As if American leaders have been deeply stabbed by pain about throwing youthful American bodies into the bottomless snakepit called Iraq, or were restrained by fear of retaliation or by moral qualms while feeding 58,000 young lives to the Vietnam beast. As if American leaders, like all world leaders, have ever had such concerns.

Let's have a short look at some modern American history, which may be instructive in this regard. A report of the US Congress in 1994 informed us that:

Approximately 60,000 military personnel were used as human subjects in the 1940s to test two chemical agents, mustard gas and lewisite . Most of these subjects were not informed of the nature of the experiments and never received medical follow-up after their participation in the research. Additionally, some of these human subjects were threatened with imprisonment at Fort Leavenworth if they discussed these experiments with anyone, including their wives, parents, and family doctors. For decades, the Pentagon denied that the research had taken place, resulting in decades of suffering for many veterans who became ill after the secret testing. <2>

In the decades between the 1940s and 1990s, we find a remarkable variety of government programs, either formally, or in effect, using soldiers as guinea pigs -- marched to nuclear explosion sites, with pilots sent through the mushroom clouds; subjected to chemical and biological weapons experiments; radiation experiments; behavior modification experiments that washed their brains with LSD; widespread exposure to the highly toxic dioxin of Agent Orange in Korea and Vietnam . . . the list goes on . . . literally millions of experimental subjects, seldom given a choice or adequate information, often with disastrous effects to their physical and/or mental health, rarely with proper medical care or even monitoring. <3>

...much more at the link...

The Conscience of Our Leaders
The American Media as the Berlin Wall
Man Shall Never Fly
Unwelcome Guests at the Table of the Respectable Folk

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Jan07/Blum13.htm

[illinoisprogressive]

1. B. Boxer read a letter about a young man in the hospital

His face was burned beyond recognition and his back was broken. His legs were amputated and one arm.
when she read about it I thought of the book, Johnny get your gun.
The horrors inflicted upon humanity because of Bush is yet to be told....

[Tom Joad]

2. Excerpt from the book....

http://www.tomjoad.org/johnnygothisgun.htm

That book changed my life. I heard Mike Farrell, (pre MASH days) read it at an anti-vietnam rally broadcast on TV, then picked up a copy.

From the book about a young man whose body was destroyed, he sends a message about what he would like to say to the world, and to the warmakers, those who will send them to war:

We are men of peace we are men who work and we want no quarrel. But if you destroy our peace if you take away our work if you try to range us one against the other we will know what to do. If you tell us to make the world safe for democracy we will take you seriously and by god and by Christ we will make it so. We will use the guns you force upon us we will use them to defend our very lives and the menace to our lives does not lie on the other side of a nomansland that was set apart without our consent it lies within our own boundaries here and now we have seen it and we know it.

Put the guns into our hands and we will use them. Give us the slogans and we will turn them into realities. Sing the battle hymns and we will take them up where you left off. Not one not ten not ten thousand not a million not ten millions not a hundred millions but a billion two billions of us all the people of the world we will have the slogans and we will have the hymns and we will have the guns and we will use them and we will live. Make no mistake of it we will live. We will be alive and we will walk and talk and eat and sing and laugh and feel and love and bear our children in tranquility in security in decency in peace. You plan the wars you masters of men plan the wars and point the way and we will point the gun.

[Tom Joad]

3. but a billion two billions of us all the people of the world we will have the slogans and we will

live.


Feb 15, 2003 the world said no to war.

[stillcool]

4. Thanks for that...

I've heard of it, but have never read it. Funny, I want to ask 'how bad is it?', because I don't want to freak myself out....gives me pause...while others suffer and live through it, I'm afraid to even read it.

Keep the above in mind the next time you hear a president or a general speaking on Memorial Day about "honor" and "duty" and about how much we "owe to the brave young men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice in the cause of freedom and democracy."

And read Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo for the ultimate abuse of soldiers by leaders of nations.

[northofdenali]

5. The last part of the first half of the book -- by Dalton Trumbo

I read it at an antiwar rally in 1970

He froze all over stiff and rigid like a dead cat. There was something wrong about this pricking and pulling and friction heat. He could feel the things they were doing to his arm and yet he couldn't rightly feel his arm at all. It was like he felt inside his arm. It was like he felt through the end of his arm. The nearest thing he could think of to the end of his arm was the heel of his hand. But the heel of his hand the end of his arm was high high high as his shoulder.

Jesus Christ they'd cut his left arm off.

They'd cut it right off at the shoulder he could feel it plain now.

Oh my god why did they do a thing like that to him?

They couldn't do it the dirty bastards they couldn't do it. They had to have a paper signed or something. It was the law. You can't just go out and cut a man's arm off without asking him without getting permission because a man's arm is his own and he needs it. Oh Jesus I have to work with that arm why did you cut it off? Why did you cut my arm off answer me why did you cut my arm off? Why did you why did you why did you?

One of the most devastating antiwar novels ever written. Got the author blacklisted by McCarthy, as well.

Edited to add: You're right not to read it, stillcool, if you're at all depressed/upset/angry - it'll make you more so by a factor of at least 100. The first time I read the novel, I was 15. I'm 52 now, and have never gotten over it.

[stillcool]

6. I had a feeling...

and you are right...there is too much misery for me to tap into. I have to be careful of how far I go. It does no good at all.

[northofdenali]

7. When we end the occupation of Iraq,

and have a solid majority in the Senate, and have retaken the White House and our courts and country, then read it. It's a definite indictment of war, written in 1939, heartbreaking, graphic and turned me, a mild antiwarite, into a raging pacifist.

[pnorman]

8. I didn't know what to make of those charges. I thought they might be "over the top".

But Googling the relevant footnote, I found THIS: http://www.gulfweb.org/bigdoc/rockrep.cfm

pnorman

[stillcool]

9. Christ...it's one thing to read it...

as a writer's take, and quite another to view it in a government document discussing the merits and legalities of such blatant abuse.

[reb]

10. JOHNNY GOT HIS GUN

The book was probably the most moving book I ever read, short
of The Naked Capitalist by Cleon Skousen.

It was made into a movie about 1950 and won academy award for
best picture, but the 'director' was a false name and could
not receive the award.  If he had been identified, he would
have been labeled a communist and gone to jail.  Does anyone
have any idea on how to obtain a DVD of the film ??

Reb

[angstlessk]

11. There is a 1971 version with Timmothy Bottoms at netflix, but on the wait

list. I have added it to my movie q.