Among other notable things about Jim Webb are his novels. If you have not read them it is time to do so because they say a lot about him. Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead was his first published novel and his only hugely successful one; it established his reputation as a novelist and brought international recognition. Many consider The Naked and the Dead to be the greatest combat novel ever written by an American. Some reviews of Webb's Fields of Fire compare it with Mailers classic. Come look below and we will explore the role of these novels on our Nation's political awareness about war.
The synopsis from Wikipidea about The Naked and the Dead shows that it is not just a novel:
Set on an island in the South Pacific where the American Army under General Cummings is trying to drive out the Japanese, it deals particularly with a single reconnaissance platoon of riflemen. The novel contains several combat scenes, and a great deal of description of the way the Army organises warfare in the jungle. It focuses on the psychological portraits of the men in the platoon, and of General Cummings and Lieutenant Hearn. The portraits are built on short vivid 'biographies' of each of them back in America, before joining the Army, in a form of flashback with a device whereby speech is conveyed without inverted commas, although action on the island uses speech in inverted commas. The tension of the novel derives not only from the difficulties of the campaign and the danger posed by the Japanese, but also from the conflict between officers and men, their own internal conflicts and fears, and the aggression between squad members. Everyone, from the General down, has character flaws and there is no depiction of lasting happy family life or of good male-female relations. Later in the book Hearn becomes the lieutenant of the squad, to the extreme anger of Croft, their ambitious regular sergeant, and to the detriment of the men and the work of the platoon. The novel questions the competence, motives and impact of high-ranking officers and their decisions on the outcomes of military campaigns. The squad suffers mental and physical hardship and some deaths, but there is little mourning or kindness. There is no mercy shown to the Japanese.
What this synopsis does not tell you is that Hearn is a liberal and the General is a classical conservative. Their dialogs are actually prophetic. The way Hearn goes from being the general's aide to comanding a platoon has to do with their conflicts.
Webbs writing is also epic in character. In an article from a 1978 issue of Time entitled Reviving the Story-Telling Art we find this comment about Webb's first novel:
Half a dozen years ago, some critics predicted that no good literature would emerge from Viet Nam. The literate men of the generation were in college, or jail, or Canada, said the theory. And yet an able and even distinguished body of war memoirs and novels has been steadily accumulating: Ronald Glasser's 365 Days, Ron Kovic's Born on the Fourth of July, Michael Herr's eloquent Dispatches.
Among the best fiction is James Webb's Fields of Fire. Now a counsel to the House Veterans Affairs Committee, Webb was a company commander in Viet Nam—wounded twice, decorated with the Navy Cross, the Silver Star and two Bronze Stars. His story, about a platoon of Marines hacking through the bush around An Hoa, lacks the zonked frenzy of some Viet Nam prose. But Webb is a shrewd storyteller who seems to have gone through the Nam with a cassette recorder in his inner ear. Snake, a street-tough "grunt," hears the standard, "Where are you from?" Says Snake, with exactly the right tone: "I ain't from anywhere, Lieutenant. It's me and Mother Green, the Killing Machine. Till death do us part."
Webb's book has the unmistakable sound of truth acquired the hard way. His men hate the war; it is lethal fact cut adrift from personal sense. Yet they understand that its profound insanity, its blood and oblivion, have in some way made them fall in love with battle and with one another. Back in "the World," they would never again be so incandescently alive. The point is as old as Homer, of course, but Webb restates it with merciless precision.
My own reaction to this book was one of recalling the effect The Naked and the Dead had on me as a young person and being awed by the impact Webb had on me after all that time and political activity had passed. That is why when Webb ran for Senate here in Virginia, I had no doubts about his qualifications or his sincerity about the Iraq war. I first read The Emperor's General which has had this said about it:
Make Sure You Go Out and Pick This Novel Up
The Emperor's General" was written by current United States Senator from Virginia James Webb. To give you a little background on Webb he served in the Marine Corps during the Vietnam War as an infantry leader. He then went on to serve as a lawyer on the Veterans Affairs Committee then to go on to serve as Secretary of the Navy during the Reagan Administration. After leaving the Department of Defense Webb would go to be an award winning journalist for his work on the ground embedded with troops in Lebanon.
Webb always has loved the art of writing and this is what he turned to in his years before arriving in the greatest deliberative body in the world, that being the United States Senate. One of the people who in fact read the book and was gracious enough to lend his thoughts on it for a back of the cover declaration was future colleague of Webb's and fellow Vietnam veteran Senator John McCain. McCain praising the book as a wonderful piece of work..
Webb would go on to take considerable criticism from his opponent in the 2006 Virginia Senate Race George Allen for some of the raunchy and realistic sex scenes which are described in this book and some of the other very truthful struggles that James Webb described as knowing about the life of an everyday soldier. To be honest with you I think Allen looked foolish and out of touch with the struggles that someone can be faced with on the ground in a time of war.
The Emperor's General is a mixture of fact and fiction. The latter getting the dominant share of the page. Webb certainly doesn't seem to obfuscate his views on whether General Macarthur conducted the postwar trials properly. By all accounts the picture that Webb paints of Macarthur seems to be overwhelmingly accurate. The portrait that is drawn of the flamboyant military man is exactly that; an egocentric, image concentrated man who did not like to be disagreed with. This is why most of his staff are simply ones who pretty much do his bidding and only voice their personal views when Macarthur is in abscensia. The novel centers around General Douglas Macarthur's staff as he tries to salvage something respectable out of postwar Japan.
I found the book to be one of the best reading adventures I ever had. The mix of history and political, sociological, and antropological insight was more than just food for thought. It was a gourmet treat!
His book about midshipmen at the Naval Academy A Sense of Honor was another real treat for me. I was an NROTC midshipman, but also one who chose the USMC option at the end of my sophomore year. Webb brought those days to life for me in this novel.
James Webb is clearly a man who thinks deeply and weaves information into patterns with those thoughts. As a writer and scholar I find myself feeling a bit of envy because he is very successful at doing what I want to do in my writing about scientific and philosophical matters as they affect politics. If you want to evaluate this man as a politician I suggest you taste what he has created. We need more minds like this as our leaders.