Word: heroisms
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...HERO cannot be a hero unless in a heroic world," /V observed Nathaniel Hawthorne, who thought even in 1850 that America's world had turned unheroic. Thomas Carlyle felt that "Ballot-boxes and Electoral suffrages" might prove a fatal threat to heroes. Americans today find heroism daily in Viet Nam and high courage in a thousand situations, from space to civil rights. And yet there is a widespread feeling that the leap of imagination that makes heroes and the generosity of spirit that acknowledges them are disappearing. Can there be real heroes in a time of the computer...
...local battle in Viet Nam. Now with a cast of many thousands or millions, each leader heads only a segment, and decision is often a synthesis of the opinions of many herolings. Where there are too many heroes, there may be none in the end, for the essence of heroism is singularity. Lindbergh is perhaps the greatest of all American heroes, a machine-borne Icarus who did not fall. The astronauts are his heirs and yet they are already submerged in team heroism. First there was Alan Shepard, who was succeeded by the engaging John Glenn, and then Edward White...
...cleaning woman to sweep the kitchen. Other literary "heroes" are fall guys, incipient madmen, badgered Everymen, victims. Their motto, says Daniel Aaron, professor of English at Smith, seems to be, "Call me schlemiel." In more mundane life, there is much revulsion against the pose, if not the reality, of heroism. "Ya wanna be a hero?" is a mockery, not a compliment...
...more practical approach was suggested by a namesake of the President's, Army Chief of Staff Harold K. Johnson, who told a group of Oklahoma newsmen that while Americans must naturally be fully informed about setbacks and casualties, they should also be told more about "personal acts of heroism, civic action and construction work" in Viet Nam. Indeed, a single act of heroism like that of Army Captain William Carpenter in the Central Highlands last week (see following story) can do more to put the war in focus for most Americans than quartos of consensus-seeking rhetoric...
When word of Carpenter's heroism flashed back to the U.S. last week, Bob Anderson, fellow West Point All-America, said casually: "That's the kind of leadership he gave at West Point. What he did in South Viet Nam is something I would almost have expected. I look for him to be Chief of Staff some day." At the White House, Press Secretary Bill Moyers told reporters that Carpenter's valor had impressed the President too. "He finds it an inspiring chapter in the Viet Nam story," said Moyers. Fittingly enough, Bill Carpenter was nominated...