On Killing

Thanatos (death instinct), 37, 332

thermal-imagery devices, 169, 172

Thompson, Jack, 13, 234, 244

Tiananmen Square Massacre, 215

Toffler, Alvin, 316

Tokyo, bombing of, 101—02

Torah, 132, 337-39

totalitarian governments, 210, 340

touch, sense of, 74

training, 18. See also conditioning

• of assassins, 306-07

• basic, 190, 317

• bayonet, 190

• Civil War, 20

• denial defense mechanisms, 255-56

• desensitization, 251-52

• for exhaustion, 67-68

• posturing, effect on, 13

• on prisoner treatment, 199, 203-04

• simulators, 177-78

• for stress, 68, 81-82

trauma, psychological, 36, 86, 89, 343. See also psychiatric casualties

• amount of resistance and, 191

• of atrocities, 222-26

• of close-range killing, 115-16

• in daily lives, 76-78

• edged-weapons use and, 122, 124

• of executions, 201

• of guerrilla warfare, 198

• of hand-grenade killing, 112-13

• maximum-range killing and, 108

• of midrange killing, 112

• of nonkillers, 90, 233, 259-60

• training for, 68

Trochu, General, 122

Truby, D. J., 109, 174

Truman, Harry S., 242-43

U

Uhernik, Nick, 266

United Nations, 167, 174, 217

V

Vagts, Alfred, 33-34, 164-65

veterans. See also post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

• condemnation of. See condemnation, of Vietnam veterans

• cooldown period for, 271-73, 285-86, 293

• readjustment to civilian life of, 260, 291-92, 344, 345-46

Veterans Administration, 96

Vicksburg battle, 11

victims. See also specific victims, e.g., children

• in movies, 321

• nature of, 171-76, 189

victory

• fortitude replenished by, 85

• role of, 264, 273-74

video games, violence in, 261, 303, 314-16, 323, 324, 326

Vietnam Veterans Memorial, 275, 276, 293

Vietnam War, 38, 248-95, 340, 344-45

• atrocities in, 163, 207-08, 215. See also My Lai incident

• automatic weapons distribution in, 334, 336

• close-range killing in, 116-17

• cooldown period for returning veterans, 271-73

• cultural distance in, 162-63

• drug use in, 269, 270-71, 345

• exhaustion in, 69

• firing rates, 35, 181, 250, 251, 344

• group role in, 268-70, 275-76, 287-88

• ineffective firing in, 12

• inescapability of, 267-68, 287-88

• killing female Vietcong in, 175

• killing of civilians in, 196-98, 265-67, 267, 287

• kill rates, 254, 334, 336

• long-range killing in, 109

• loss of, 273-74

• medical personnel, 335

• My Lai incident. See My Lai incident

• nonkillers in, 118, 259-60

• personal kills in, 114-15

• prisoners killed in, 199

• psychiatric casualties in, 269, 277-78. See also post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

• rationalizing killing in, 237-40, 262-80

• snipers in, 109, 172-73, 336

• social support structure for, 274-80

U.S. close combat superiority in, 258

• youth of combatants in, 264-67, 287

violence in America, 299—332

• movies and, 308-11

• statistics on, 299-302, 304, 346-47

violent ideation, institutionalization of, 252

virtual reality, 316