Word: patria
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Under the slogan Todo por la Patria (All for the Fatherland), the Guardia Civil established its fearsome reputation mainly through its willingness to follow orders. Troopers are never based in their home provinces, in order to prevent the kind of personal involvement that might make them reluctant to use force. The 58,000-man Guardia Civil is part of the army and is under the command of an army general, but its basic function is police work...
...perspectives changed the view of soldiering. Detente (in its morally confusing juxtaposition with the Viet Nam War) seemed to remove the external threat to the U.S. It also encouraged cynicism: Why, asked the vulnerable young men with intimate reasons to wonder, should they sacrifice their lives fighting Communists pro patria at Khe Sanh when the President of the U.S. would be drinking friendship toasts in Peking and Moscow? Such a morally double-jointed approach to enemies seemed, simplistically but understandably, to be corrupt and treacherous. In addition, the blank finality of nuclear superpower showdown inherently reduces all military endeavor...
...written only at the insistence of his publisher, the author hurriedly speaks of old agonies, the balm of forgetfulness, and of his conviction that all wars are futile and immoral. There is even the ritual reference to what Wilfred Owen called the old Lie: "Dulce et decorum est/ Pro patria mori"- how sweet and beautiful it is to die for one's country...