When I First Got Back From The

In The Military I Could Exercise The Power Of Being Automatically Respected Because Of The Medals On My Chest, Not Because I Had Done Anything Right At The Moment To Earn That Respect. This Is Pretty Nice. It's Also A Psychological Trap That Can Stop One's Growth And Allow One To Get Away With Just Plain Bad Behavior.

We Mistakenly Assume That Bodily Survival Has A Higher Precedence Than Ego Survival. This Is Simply Not Generally True. Ego Will Happily Destroy The Body For Its Own Sake. Look At Overweight Executives Headed For Heart Attacks On The Way To Getting Their Pictures In Fortune Or Anorexic Models Suffering Slow Starvation On Their Way To Getting Their Pictures In Vogue. Protecting Ego Is The General Case.

When I First Got Back From The War, I Said, 'i'm Gonna Write The Great American Novel About The Vietnam War.' So I Sat Down And Wrote 1,700 Pages Of Sheer Psychotherapy Drivel. It Was First Person, And There Would Be Pages About Wet Socks And Cold Feet.

This Nation Should Be Less Worried About Putting The Vietnam Syndrome Behind Us Than Restarting The World War Ii Victory Syndrome That Resulted In The Vietnam Syndrome In The First Place.

When The Peace Treaty Is Signed, The War Isn't Over For The Veterans, Or The Family. It's Just Starting.