SSRJ #3-D. Walker

Walker’s story is not unlike many soldiers who came back from Vietnam, witnessing the horrors and atrocities of a war that had no resolution, no real victory. War is about victory, it is about winning at all costs, and it is about sacrificing the few for the greater good of all. Vietnam was different than any war that the United States had fought in up to that time. The history books differ if there was victory there or if there was anything good that came from the war. Many of the Vietnam veterans felt that their country forgot them, that they fought, were bloodied and scarred, and their fellow soldiers and buddies died for no reason. The story takes place in the late 80s, before the Gulf War, before 9/11, before the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars. In the past 15 years or so there has been a resurgence of patriotism and a new found appreciation and respect for our military, past and present. Prior to this period, the military did not have as much respect and much of that had to do with the Vietnam War. Many vets from Vietnam carried what they felt was a shame for what they did in Vietnam. For that reason I believe this story is more about war than peace. Just as the Vietnam War had no real peace resolution, Walker also had no real inner peace in his life.
The beginning of the story sets the tone for the rest of the story; Walker admits that he did want to talk to his wife or daughter about the war because he wanted them to think he was a good man, not the man he was in Vietnam. He did not want his family to know that he killed without feeling or remorse. By all accounts he had become a well adjusted contributing member of society. He recounts how he came back from the war and did nothing, just sitting around in Chicago smoking dope and in his mind, still at war. He eventually enrolled in college and was accepted to medical school but even at medical school he could not escape the war. When the Research Center was blown up by some war protesters he was called on to help resuscitate a physicist who was dead already. He related that incident in war terms so it was more of a flashback to him. From that point to the present was an interesting twist. He eventually became a plastic surgeon doing cosmetic surgery for the most part. He became bored with his patients and started doing charity work around the world. But all the while he was still dead inside.
Why he chose to go back to Vietnam and especially North Vietnam is rather perplexing to me. I believe he was trying to go back to the scene of the crime, so to speak, in hopes of getting answers and closure. The Vietnam he went back to was the same dirty filthy place that hardened him in the first place. His description of the sights smells and sounds in Ho Chi Minh City almost jumped off the page and at points I felt like I could smell what he smelled. He did a great job of pulling me into the scene. Everything reminded him of what he saw in the war, even his hotel room.
In his first meeting with Dihn it was shocking to hear how Walker thought how easily it would be to kill Dihn. It was due to the way Dihn greeted him, not wanting to shake his hand, the way Dihn reminded him of the Viet Cong he fought in the war. It wasn’t until later that he discovered Dihn had no thumbs; they were removed during a time he was being tortured. But Dihn doesn’t do anything to make Walker cozy up to him. Dihn would mention how the Vietnamese way is why they win victory and how they fought the Americans and the Vietnamese puppets. This only causes Walker to further loath where he was at and who he was with. Walker does the job he came there to do nonetheless and now Dihn wants him to do surgery on him to transplant his toes to make thumbs. Just as the war had no resolution, just as Walker had no resolution in his life, this too had not real resolution. The new thumbs had gangrene and had to be amputated. Walker could not fix Dihn, he could not fix himself, he could not change the past and he could not fix the war inside him.
I believe the theme is implicit within the story, all the characters are like the grass, they wither away and die, they are only here for a short time. But the grass also grows over and covers the bare ground, so maybe The Grass he is speaking of is Walker’s attempt to cover up his past.