I Can Haz Phlebotomy?

I thought this most wonderful novel (an excellent choice, Ms. LaMagdeleine, if I do say so myself) presented a rather interesting collection of anti-war rhetoric. Having said that, I only somewhat agree with the book's opinion. Yes, it may be true that if no one signed up to fight wars, we wouldn't have wars, but the reality is that this is not the reality. If one nation were to militarily attack another, should they not fight back? This is a situation in which I don't think Trumbo elaborates (or even explains) the "right thing to do". Of course, if this scenario were the case, I know that most of you would fight to defend your country, because "your lives are at risk." This book made me realize that lives are not truly at risk if the nation under attack peacefully capitulates. But is this freedom? Maybe it is. Maybe the attacker is the one supporting freedom. Or their idea of it. But whatever.

Interesting

One part of the book that I found really interesting is a passage from page 121: “If the thing they (soldiers) were fighting for was important enough for them to die for then it was also important enough for them to be thinking about it in the last minutes of their lives.” I think this is a very important concept in the explanation of Bonham’s views to the reader. It shows that he is able to ask a rhetorical question to which there is only one answer.

Johnny Got His Beverage (Keep it Funky)

These two pieces (March of the Flag and Johnny Got His Gun) are related because they are essentially antithetical. March of the Flag is a great manifestation of someone who can't spell manifest destiny. Manifest Destiny was the highly imperialistic idea that it was by divine will that Americans were expected to spread their way of life across the world. Beveridge also inserted some elements of racial superiority by calling Americans "a people sprung from the most masterful blood of history...." This is evident of the late-nineteenth/early-twentieth century American notion that other countries (specifically in Latin America) are not as civilized, thus necessitating their facilitation into "the marvel of American society".
Johnny Got His Gun, however, is directly opposed to this view: the Vietman War was purposed to establish American-style democracy in Vietnam, regardless of what the people wanted. The opposition to this is the focus of the novel; if the novel's setting were in the time of Beveridge's speech, the opposition to such cultural/political imperialism would have been much more severe.