ABSTRACT
As Americans born in the middle third of the twentieth century, men and women of my generation have lived most of our lives in war or in the shadow of war. This is true even of those like myself who have never hefted a more serious weapon than a BB gun or worn a uniform other than that of the Boy Scouts or academic robes. Born on the cusp of World War II, we passed through childhood during the Korean War, graduated from college during the “long peace” of the cold war, and embarked upon our careers during the Vietnam War. For a student of international relations like myself, an abstract grasp of war as an element of international politics grates against a visceral understanding of the terrible intimacy of war. I realize that, consciously or not, we bear upon us and within us the scars of each one of the far too many wars our nation has fought within our lifetimes. At least, we should bear these scars. If we do not, we have failed the memories of everyone on all sides of each conflict.
