The Mace & Crown, Thursday, October 11, 1984

Emerson recounts horror of Vietnam

Evoking images of death and destruction, award winning war correspondent Gloria Emerson recounted her experiences in the war zones of Vietnam and Nicaragua during ODU's seventh annual Literary Festival last Thursday.       Emerson, who covered the Vietnam War for the New York Times and witnessed the Nigerian Civil War, said that although she has spent a third of her life covering wars, "Nothing I have ever learned was of any benefit." The outcome of war seldom produces gain."       "War is the gasoline of America," she said, attempting to dispel the John Wayne myth of invincibility.       "Generations of men have seen John Wayne amble into la la land," they see war as a heroic happening, medals and citations, said Emerson.       Emerson cited that America'a preoccupation with war resulted in the loss of 58,000 men.       "The 58,000 lives lost in Vietnam were not from Princeton, Yale or Harvard. They were not the sons of doctors, but surplus kids. Kids that America could afford to have die," said Emerson.       One of a handful of women covering the Vietnam War, Emerson experienced no scorn from her male colleagues. "They were generous and pateint, never condescending," said Emerson.       Emerson said the affect women can have on men in battle is detrimental. "For some reason seeing a woman injured has a much more frightening and dreadful affect on men than seeing another man injured. Maybe it goes back to their mother's I don't know."       For Emerson surviving the Vietnam War meant ten years of reflection and an award winning book, Winners and Losers.       Emerson said, "I came close to death several times but living through a war does not make me a better person."       "For me surviving the war meant walking down the street and seeing a dead man on the corner winking at you."       Emerson wrote Winners and Losers as an attempt to resolve her last visions of Vietnam.       "When I looked down from the helicopter, the ground looked like an ashtray," said Emerson.       Winners and Losers, winner of the 1978 National Book Award for Nonfiction, presented America's reaction, and lack of reaction to the Vietnam War.       "I think writing about war is a way of raising the dead and hoping that you will see them," said Emerson.       Although Emerson has written numerous articles on the Vietnam conflict, she admitted that one characteristic continues to allude her writings. The love that bonded soldiers in Vietnam, that transcended race and gave the soldiers just a bit of comfort against hell.       "The love I saw between soldiers moved me so deeply that I have not been able to write about it, I've tried but I just can't do it," said Emerson.       Emerson said that when a soldier is in combat waiting not to give his life, but to have it taken from him, he does not think about home. Rather he feels attached to his fellow soldiers, the ones who are going through it with him. "They will all go down together," said Emerson.       "Why does it take murder and destruction to bring men together? In America we force myths of silence and courage on our men, and in combat they often find themselves clinging to the only thing they have, that love," said Emerson.       Appealing to students nationwide, Emerson takes her message to universities and colleges where she hopes to soften the mold of stoicism and heroic visions which she said our men are cast into.       Emerson said she is frightened because today's youth does not remember the tragedy of Vietnam. "They don't remember how it separated the country," said Emerson. She told the audience at ODU, most of you can't remember it, you don't see that our vets and those who sent them there are still seperated.       "I feel a war fever is sweeping the country and as long as we accept Ronald Reagan's vision of la la land, more young men will have their lives taken for something they do not understand," said Emerson.       "Students do not see the impending danger," said Emerson.       But my talking it out may be a way of easing an old profound pain, a way of keeping a small amount of hope alive she said.       "I don't want to see another Nam, Nicaragua or El Salvador take our men... My talking about it all may not work, but they can't say they haven't been told."