Read On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society Online

Authors: Dave Grossman

Tags: #Military, #war, #killing

On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society (43 page)

BOOK: On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society
8.27Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

technological advantages, 172

sociopaths, 180, 182-83, 185, 321, 340

technological distance, 169—70

Soldier of Fortune
magazine, 343

teenagers, in Vietnam War, 264-65, 287

Somalia, 258

television, violence in, 261, 302, 308-11,

Somme, Battle of, 122

325-30, 347

Soviet Union, 212, 215

terrorism, 207-08, 225

spears, use of, 120-21

Thanatos (death instinct), 37, 332

special forces, 61, 68, 129, 180, 257

thermal-imagery devices, 169, 172

Spiegel, H. X., 335

Thompson, Jack, 13, 234, 244

stabbing, 98, 336

Tiananmen Square Massacre, 215

Staff, Peter, 109-10

Toffler, Alvin, 316

Stellman, Jeanne and Steven, 283, 284, 293

Tokyo, bombing of, 101—02

Stewart, Harry, 116, 336

Torah, 132, 337-39

Stockholm syndrome, 159

totalitarian governments, 210, 340

Stouffer, S. A., 53, 162, 344, 345

touch, sense of, 74

Strasser, Peter, 164

training, 18.
See also
conditioning

Strategic Bombing Survey, U.S., 80

of assassins, 306—07

stress, combat, 36, 44-45, 48, 61-62, 66, 76

basic, 190, 317

aggression and, 77

bayonet, 190

exhaustion and, 70

Civil War, 20

fear as factor in, 52, 53

denial defense mechanisms, 255—56

psychiatric casualties caused by, 95

desensitization, 251—52

training for, 68, 81-82

for exhaustion, 67—68

in Vietnam War, 271

posturing, effect on, 13

Stuart-Smyth, Alan, 146, 217-21

on prisoner treatment, 199, 203—04

sublimation, 324—25

simulators, 177-78

submarine crews, 108

for stress, 68, 81-82

submission, 5—6, 15, 21—25, 71

trauma, psychological, 36, 86, 89, 343.
See
suicides, 78, 150

also
psychiatric casualties

of leaders, 148

amount of resistance and, 191

mass, 150

of atrocities, 222-26

murder-suicides, 241-43

of close-range killing, 115-16

of Vietnam veterans, 290, 345

in daily lives, 76-78

Summers, Harry, 258

edged-weapons use and, 122, 124

superego, 37

of executions, 201

surrender, 147-48, 150, 174, 175-76,

of guerrilla warfare, 198

199-201

of hand-grenade killing, 112-13

sustained combat.
See
continuous combat maximum-range killing and, 108

Swank, R. L., 43-44, 61, 180, 181, 184,

of midrange killing, 112

189, 235

of nonkillers, 90, 233, 259-60

swords, use of, 121

training for, 68

I N D E X

365

Trochu, General, 122

kill rates, 254, 334, 336

Truby, D.J., 109, 174

long-range killing in, 109

Truman, Harry S., 242-43

loss of, 273-74

medical personnel, 335

My Lai incident.
See
My Lai incident

Uhernik, Nick, 266

nonkillers in, 118, 259-60

United Nations, 167, 174, 217

personal kills in, 114-15

prisoners killed in, 199

Vagts, Alfred, 33-34, 164-65

psychiatric casualties in, 269, 277-78.

veterans.
See also
post-traumatic stress
See also
post-traumatic stress

disorder (PTSD)

disorder (PTSD)

condemnation of.
See
condemnation, of rationalizing killing in, 237-40, 262-80

Vietnam veterans

snipers in, 109, 172-73, 336

cooldown period for, 271-73,

social support structure for, 274—80

285-86, 293

U.S. close combat superiority in, 258

readjustment to civilian life of, 260,

youth of combatants in, 264—67, 287

291-92, 344, 345-46

violence in America, 299—332

Veterans Administration, 96

movies and, 308-11

Vicksburg battle, 11

statistics on, 299-302, 304, 346-47

victims.
See also
specific victims, e.g., violent ideation, institutionalization of, 252

children

virtual reality, 316

in movies, 321

nature of, 171-76, 189

Wagenbach, James W., 276

victory

Wake Island battle, 147

fortitude replenished by, 85

Waldron, Adelbert F., 172-73, 336

role of, 264, 273-74

war criminals, 105, 205

video games, violence in, 261,303,314-16,

Waterloo, Battle of, 122

323, 324, 326

Watson, Peter, 25, 35, 49, 52, 149, 161,

Vietnam Veterans Memorial, 275, 276, 293

306, 307

Vietnam War, 38, 248-95, 340, 344-45

Wavell, Lord, 51

atrocities in, 163, 207-08, 215.
See also
weather, effect of, 69, 72-73, 94

My Lai incident

Weinberg, S. K., 335

automatic weapons distribution in,

Weinberger, Caspar, 292

334, 336

Weinberger doctrine, 292

close-range killing in, 116-17

Weinstein, E. A., 335

cooldown period for returning

Well of Fortitude, 83-86

veterans, 271-73

Whitdesey, C. W„ 148

cultural distance in, 162-63

Willis, Captain, 118, 155

drug use in, 269, 270-71, 345

will to fight, 80

exhaustion in, 69

Wilson, James Q., 301

firing rates, 35, 181, 250, 251, 344

Wilson, Woodrow, 226

group role in, 268-70, 275-76, 287-88

Wind of Hate, 65, 66, 76-82, 80, 95,

ineffective firing in, 12

208

inescapability of, 267-68, 287-88

Wissembourg, Batde of, 12

killing female Vietcong in, 175

women.
See also
rape

killing of civilians in, 196-98, 265-67,

killing of, 174-75, 266

267, 287

as scapegoats, 210-11

366

I N D E X

Wood, Evelyn, 31

bombings in, 55-57, 65, 80, 99-102,

World War 1

104, 105

artillery bombardments, 80

bonding in, 269

edged-weapons combat in, 122,

cooldown period, 272, 285-86

123-24, 125

cultural distance in, 161—62, 163

ending of, 273-74

exhaustion in, 69, 71-72, 85-86

exhaustion in, 69, 86

fear acceptable in, 53

fraternization with enemy, 160

firing rates, 3-4, 15-16, 144, 153,

gas used in, 95, 331

181, 333

hand grenades used in, 112-13

fraternization with enemy, 158-59

ineffective firing in, 12

killing rates, 30, 110, 161-62, 184-85

Lost Battalion, 148

knife killing in, 130

machine guns in, 154

leadership in, 147

nobility in, 195-96

nonfirers in, 3—4, 15-16

nonfirers in, 27-28, 34

nonkillers in, 118

psychiatric casualties in, 44

pilots, killing by, 30, 110

snipers, 108-09

post-traumatic stress disorder after,

surrendering Germans killed in, 175-76

285-87

treatment of surrendering soldiers in, 200

prisoner treatment in, 204, 205

World War II.
See also
Nazis

psychiatric casualties in, 43-44, 269

air combat in, 184

punishment justification in, 165

atrocities in, 211, 215-16

bayonets used in, 126

Young, Peter, 174

*

BOOK: On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society
8.27Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Other books

Love Her Right by Christina Ow
By Blood by Ullman, Ellen
El códice del peregrino by José Luis Corral
The Creepers by Dixon, Norman
Wonderland Creek by Lynn Austin
The Blue Hour by Donahue, Beatrice
RavishedbyMoonbeam by Cynthia Sax
A Box of Matches by Nicholson Baker
A Touch of Heaven by Lily Graison
People of the Deer by Farley Mowat