Ten Commandments on Vietnam

Fr. Dan Berrigan began a talk recently at St. Joseph’s University with a transcript of a speech given by Coretta Scott King at a peace rally on the Sheep Meadow in Central Park on April 27, 1968.

My dear friends of peace and freedom, I come to New York today with the strong feeling that my dearly beloved husband, who was snatched suddenly from our midst, slightly more than three weeks ago now, would have wanted me to be present today. Though my heart is heavy with grief from having suffered an irreparable personal loss, my faith is stronger than ever before. As many of you probably know, my husband had accepted an invitation to speak to you today. And had he been here, I am sure he would have lifted your hearts and spirits to new levels of understanding. I would like to share with you some notes taken from my husband’s pockets upon his death. He carried many scripts of paper upon which he scribbled notes for his many speeches. Among these notes was one set which he never delivered. Perhaps they were his early thoughts for the message which he never delivered to you today. I simply read them to you as he recorded them. And I quote, Ten Commandments on Vietnam.

► Thou shalt not believe in a military victory.

► Thou shalt not believe in a political victory.

► Thou shalt not believe that they, the Vietnamese, love us.

► Thou shalt not believe that the Saigon government has the support of the people.

► Thou shalt not believe that the majority of the South Vietnamese look upon the Vietcong as terrorists.

► Thou shalt not believe the figures of killed enemies or killed Americans.

► Thou shalt not believe that the generals know best.

► Thou shalt not believe that the enemy’s victory means Communism.

► Thou shalt not believe that the world supports the United States.

► Thou shalt not kill.

The analogies to the present wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are startling, and the message of Dan Berrigan to the students echoed Martin Luther King’s words of forty years ago. Berrigan is intellectually vigorous in his mid-eighties, and the mantra, Thou shall not kill, is written on the breastplate of his soul.

These words reverberated on a visit to Washington D.C. recently, the first time in over forty years that the occasion was not a peace protest, just a look at the cherry trees and the monuments on the Mall. There are presently three major monuments to past wars, the most recent WWII. I was a child witness to WWII, and we have engaged in war relentlessly during my pilgrimage on planet earth: Korea, Vietnam, Nicaragua, Grenada, Panama, El Salvador, Somalia, Lebanon, Serbia, Afghanistan, Iraq; some CIA actions: Chile, Guatemala, Haiti, Libya, Columbia, Iran, and the beat goes on.

The WWII monument, to this uncritical eye, is a celebration of war. The former unobstructed view from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial is gone. There are fifty wreathed pillars, the symbol of victory, one for each state. There is an engraving with words celebrating the triumph of “Democracy” and the power of “Force.” The warrior celebration is absent in the quiet eloquence and pathos of the Vietnam memorial, and there is a touching realism to the Korea memorial. Korea was my generation’s war, but I had a four-year college deferment, escaping the conflict, as did many of the “educated class” in Vietnam. Since WWII the U.S. fighting force is basically working class men and women, especially in Iraq. The deferment game was a middle class avoidance of war and some were especially astute at the game. We have models, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and the master of deferment (4) Dick Chaney.

“Force” is a word Lee Hoinacki associates with the poetry of Simone Weil :.”force that subdues men in the face of which human flesh shrinks back,” and “contradiction.” Force, in the words of Chris Hedges, is a lynch-pin to the American psyche, described in his book, War Is a Force that Gives Us Meaning. Did we ever imagine a debate on torture, or that the President would mandate gruesome, inhuman acts. The contradiction: The Innocent One, Christ’s willingness to be Crucified, by deadly torture, allows us to imagine the absurd, the non-violent option in a culture enamored with force.

The human cost of the Iraq war is staggering; hundreds of thousands killed because some foolish men capriciously did not comprehend or hold sacred the Creator’s command, Thou shall not kill. There is no justification for this irreparable, tragic debacle. To honor the lost lives, let us continue with new energy the quest for peace. The Easter mantra of the Lord is: Peace be with you, Do not be afraid.

“So if in Christ there is anything that will move you, any incentive in love, any fellowship in the Spirit, any warmth or sympathy — I appeal to you, make my joy complete by being of a single mind, one in love, one in heart, and one in mind.” Phil 2,1.

Joe Bradley

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