Please post by Monday, February 11.
Lieutenant Philip Caputo blames the Vietnam War for making his "thoughts and feelings...irretrievably jumbled..." Undoubtedly, fighting any war is extraordinarily difficult and unimaginable for those who have never experienced it. Despite all the training, the realities of war can create unbelievable stress. However, does this excuse him of the awful orders and events that resulted in the deaths of two innocent civilians? Should the just war ideas concerning discrimination between combatants and noncombatants apply in this situation? Should Lt. Caputo have been punished more severely for his terrible decision?
Please post by Monday, February 11.
19 Comments
Kyle B
2/6/2019 20:39:56
I believe that Lt. Caputo did what he believed was the right decision. In times of war you cannot hesitate, you need to live in the moment or risk not living at all. At the time Lt. Caputo believed his actions were just and necessary, I'm not saying what he did was right or wrong, although I don’t believe that he should have been punished more. Lt. Caputo received his punishment and now has to live with these innocents deaths on his hands for the rest of his life and I believe that's punishment enough.
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Emma D
2/9/2019 21:40:06
I believe that what Lt. Caputo did was inexcusable. While war does put an immense amount of stress on an individual, there are certain actions that cannot be normalized. Innocent civilians should not have to fear being captured and murdered unjustly, and in this case that is exactly what happened. Soldiers do not have the right to get away with murder, even if they are put under pressure. These are real people being killed and their lives are not worth an extra beer ration or some short-lived praise. Before any speculated enemy is killed during war, there should be solid evidence to serve as proof, otherwise it is just murder. While Lt. Caputo did not end up being a serial killer after the war, the military should not have allowed his release as it set an example for future soldiers because it took the humanity away from death and showed them that they can easily get away with murder. Also, as Lt. Caputo was giving the orders, he seemed excited. This attitude is disgusting and shows he has been mentally scarred by the war, making him quite honestly dangerous. It is understandable that the war would do this to him, yet it is unsafe to let someone off who has acted in this way because he could easily act the same way in a similar circumstance. Lt. Caputo, who is not an evil man, should have been treated as a war criminal rather than being given honorable discharge.
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Derrick Nault
2/10/2019 13:40:55
I feel that war brings impossible stress upon any individual that finds themselves in one. Anyone who took care to read the whole excerpt rather than just answer the questions will feel an immense dread by just imagining what Caputo had to go through. I do not feel that he should be held responsible for his actions because no form of training can allow for rational thought in war and the culture of following orders makes the waters murky as to who is responsible. Soldiers are trained by repetition so that they can kill without thinking or being hindered by the stressful circumstances, they are not used to hell and can rationally act in these circumstances due to training. All the higher ups wanted were dead Vietnamese soldiers and a soldier in autopilot would deliver those bodies because killing is good, if you kill you are good. Though I think the issue is not whether or not he is responsible, it is whether or not our government should label him as a war criminal. This is a separate issue. PTSD became a rampant issue after WWI due to a shift in those convictions which supported the war coming from nationalism rather than religion. If God was on your side, then your killing was good and the enemy is bad. Things became far more ambiguous afterwards, a nation has to convince their people that they are good-- that they are just. Creating a court to isolate broken individuals as criminals allows the collective to be the justified and law-abiding force in the war. This keeps morale and support more more wars up, allowing the war effort to be more successful and potentially saving allied lives. If I am deciding as an individual, any soldier put to death by their government should be counted as a casualty of that war and killing your own is unethical. As the head of the nation, it is essential that I keep my men as effective killers so that they are not killed themselves, by any means necessary-- including labeling Caputo as a war criminal.
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Richard G
2/10/2019 17:06:22
All though war can be both physically and mentally taxing on a person I believe Lt. Caputo could have easily determined whether or not the people he had killed were actually Viet Cong. Therefore I believe Lt. Caputo is a war criminal and should have been punished more severely. good man or evil man; war time or peaceful time; a murderer is a murderer under any circumstances.
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Jake M
2/10/2019 17:25:44
I think that Philip Caputo should not have been punished for his actions. I feel this is right only do to the factors of war. War is tough once it settles in. PTSD is a common thing to happen to soldiers once they return home from combat. In the righting many soldiers has to go through what Caputo had to go through. a common thing happening in Vietnam was rain. In vietnam once it started to rain it didnt't stop until after weeks and sometimes months. Soldiers suffered from this making the conditions hard to live in and fight in. In Coputo's defense I feel that these harsh conditions caused the death of the citizens. Another factor being the people hating them. At one point in the story a Vietnam women spit in Mister McKenna's face and he shot the girl in the chest. Showing the hatred for the Americans the viet congs did have an influence on the conditions of the killings of citizens. This is why I think Philip Coputo should not receive any harsh punishments.
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Connor
2/10/2019 18:31:47
War is violence and it can really affect how we act how we think and why we do what we do during war. When deployed in a war zone you have the right to kill. There is a whole new set of rules you need to follow, in order to follow these rules, you need to make a lot of rational decisions, which can be very hard when people can be decieving you and you are in a different enviroment. But this does not excuse all decisions made in war. That’s why I believe Caputo should receive a semi punishment for his crimes because even though he’s in a war zone I do think he still could’ve distinctively classified the two as non combatants, but again we have understand he’s in a different enviroment with different rules making rational decision making immensely harder. But I still do believe he could’ve made a better decision under those circumstances.
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James r
2/10/2019 18:51:23
I think he should not be charged with murder because and when it you are put in a war zone there are rules u need to follow and the rules if you break them you will be punished but in this instance a lot was happening to him and he could not really control himself and it got to him and that is why he killed the civilians for no reason.
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Sam K
2/10/2019 20:06:11
Lt. Caputo should have been charged as a war criminal. Besides the fact that he killed two innocent civilians, he told a twisted version of the truth to avoid punishment. On top of this, he was excited about killing (albeit he thought they were killing Viet Congs) and said he felt "giddy".Caputo also wanted to torture the people before he killed them in order to make them pay in a way for what they had done. He also disobeyed orders not to enter the ville. Although it is understandable that the "fog of war" makes it more difficult to rationalize, it does not excuse the murder of innocent people, especially one who had been helping you. Perhaps the most disturbing part of this excerpt is how Caputo tries to justify his action. In what world is it okay to break into someone's village and home in order to kill them? Even the memoir seems to be written as a defense, trying to excuse his inexcusable actions.
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Gabrielle C
2/10/2019 20:14:40
I believe that Caputo did what he had to do in order to survive. He killed people because he was in war. If he was put on this decisions, he would have to make quick decisions even if it wasn't justified. He shouldn't be punish because what he had to do, will scar his life. He has to live with the fact that he did kill innocent people. In war there are rules and I understand that those rules need to be followed, but if it's the matter of life and death, Caputo did what he had to do
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Madison K
2/10/2019 20:44:07
Caputo had to make quick decisions and try to survive during war. So I don't think that he should be punished since he was in fear for his life. But I also don't think he should be punished for doing what he thought was right when he was in war.
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Rafael L
2/10/2019 21:37:36
With or without training, War changes everyone, it is inevitable. He is just one more to lose his humanity around tension and deaths, many deaths. He talks about how his colleagues started to lose their mind or sense and didn't think before starting an action. This is what cause the deaths of our soldiers and the VC's. He should not be charged as a War Criminal as his change of personality during the war caused him to be overwhelmed over his colleagues deaths and the idea of his own death before being able to go home. Since we haven't been in a war it is hard to see how much it can change someone.
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Celeste L
2/10/2019 21:48:44
What Lt. Caputo did was unacceptable. His writing almost convinced me that he was innocent, but after taking some time to come up with my own conclusions, it was difficult to believe him. I think that there were many circumstances that someone could use to excuse the way he killed the two people, especially that he was being incentivized with extra beer, but the taking of human life, especially in that fashion, is unacceptable. Lt. Caputo admitted to crafting a story for everyone involved in the incident to tell. He felt giddy at the thought of killing Viet Congs. Though it could be argued that the "fog of war" took over Caputo, he had plenty of training. Also, while I think that in the text there is a lot of evidence to support that Caputo was not a war criminal, it seems like this book was just a way for him to try to defend the indefensible. His team cracked the head to a civilian girl in the village and they kicked and disrespected the bodies of their victims. He even admitted to not telling the whole truth in his testimony, which is why I agree that Caputo should not have been let off. What he did was evil and it was a large lapse of judgment which deserves punishment. It is dangerous to set the precedent that the stress of the war is an excuse for murder.
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Lucy Rodrigues
2/10/2019 22:20:36
Me. Lt. Caputo was inexcusable because the killed an old woman for no reason and seemed like it was nothing and you can’t excuse a war crime even though he was stressed and was only a month away from being able to leave the war it is still inexcusable
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noura
2/10/2019 23:07:07
I think what Lt Caputo did was justifiable. I think he did what he had to do during war and survive war. You can't just go throughout the entire war not killing anyone. Not trying to make it sound like hes 100% right but like... He was in war. So I think what he did was like acceptable in the time he was doing it. Its not like he was randomly killing innocent people on the street like they all knew what they were doing and what was going to end up happening.
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Grace S
2/10/2019 23:09:48
Although he may have killed two civilians, it was the time of war, and most people in that situation would have made the same decision as Lt. Caputo. Any war that has a bomb involved kills innocent people so, the people that make the decisions to send those bombs would have to charge the same if he would be charged. The only criminal officance he should be charged for lies under oath that is not connected to the charges of the two deaths.
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Michael Duda
2/10/2019 23:53:51
I believe that Caputo made serious mistake that resulted in innocent deaths, however I do not think that it is in any way just to charge him as a criminal considering the traumatic circumstances that soldiers alike experienced in Vietnam. It is no secret that a soldier like Caputo could have very easily been extremely anxious being young and thrown into a fubar war while also taking into consideration that he is responsible for the rest of his platoon as well. War is terrible and it’s easy to say that Caputo is a murderer, however no one will really ever know all of the thoughts and emotions that could have been racing through his head on that day with that said Caputo was not a dumb irrational man. He has a tremendous responsibility as to keep a level head as best as possible as not only his life depended on it but also all of the men in his platoon. Caputo made a quick decision that ultimately was wrong and will most likely haunt him for the rest of his life while this is not even taking into consideration that things he experienced every day during his time in Vietnam and not necessarily push him over the edge to murder, but rather pushed him to a rash decision that was ultimately wrong but was made with his best intentions under the given circumstances.
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Eryanna B
2/11/2019 00:35:38
I absolutely believe that Caputo should've been charged with murder and dishonorably discharged. I truly believe that after all the training one must go through before entering a war it should not be possible to kill two innocents, and try to dismiss it with "fog of war". I was almost convinced that Caputo was innocent until I read about how they laughed at the dead body and made jokes. Every statement that was made about the two young men, every joke, and every peal of laughter truly made it hard to believe that he was innocent. Also the fact that he felt as if he had to do "something" and resorted to sending his men to kill two innocents in mind boggling. Stress of war is a very real thing, however, I do not think it should be used to justify the killing of these two young men. Caputo even admits to telling his men to say a different story than what actually happened. I believe that he had motivation especially from Neal, and now that he is being charged he is trying to use stress from war as a justification. The brutality that was demonstrated was completely inexcusable and I stick by my statement that he should be charged and dishonorably discharged.
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Dylan DeGennao
2/11/2019 05:47:34
I feel like Caputo shouldn’t be charged for murder because when your out in war you have to make quick decisions. The decision he made must of been right in his own head to kill the people for a reason. In a time of war like this any soldier would make the same choice as Caputo did. Also feel like he made the right decision of killing those innocents but we don’t know the circumstances of what made him kill the innocent.
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Houstyn McConaghy
2/19/2019 17:15:31
I feel that Caputo was wrong in killing innocent people and that he deserved a more severe punishment. Killing defenseless civilians is not war. Armed soldiers and army's fighting each other is war. What Caputo did was murder of innocents. It is very important that innocents are kept safe and that there are equal punishments for anyone that commits murder.
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