The Kurtz Papers
JOURNAL OF SE ASIAN AFFAIRS, Vol VI, July 7th 1965.
Discipline in an Armyby Col Walter E. Kurtz
Ed notes: censored and nearly all of the distributed copies destroyed, only a few issues of that volume remained intact.
It is my understanding that the Army over the years, in a broad terms, has ceased to be a place where Martial Law is upheld stricto sensu. What prevails in its stead is a general body of law copied from civil law that rules this 'institution' and its people.
One might ask oneself how far we are today from the spirit that animated the Spartans, or the discipline within Roman Imperial ranks.
One might ponder why these became to be known as the embodiment of an army and how we are trying our best to emulate them by upholding similar ideals, values and rewards …but failing in applying similar sanctions … Not those of civil society but indeed those of an army.
Perhaps some will deem these views a bit extreme in the prevalent lax context of individualism and rights, be it rights of free speech and all the other corpus of rights …who are in reality nothing more then privileges… to which one might not be entitled but earn, and how these seem to come nowadays with no duties attached whatsoever.
…We have become an 'institution' and not an army… An institution where people, not soldiers, can recite you a long list of their rights and summon a lawyer to a court of law, but will fail to attach each of these rights to a deed or a duty.
….And so no, a soldier has no rights but duties…. and no privileges to pretend to without deeds of equal consequence.
An army is not a place for civilians, who are free to enjoy all the freedoms and privileges they want. An army is a place where soldiers die accomplishing what they have to, and often more, often more, for which they are remembered eternally by their peers.
It is a solemn gray place, an army …And what oneself becomes as a soldier, a cold and grey temple where burns a sacred flame….
On a more down to earth tone we might also think of the repercussions upon the Army of having to turn …epicureans… ….bums, hippies and anarchists into soldiers …as it seems to be the only prevalent breed amongst the well to do nowadays…
I think that was it not for the poor street kids from Alabama, New Jersey, Harlem, the Bronx, or Puerto Rico, who have learned the laws of the street, at the school of hard knocks as they call it, and who know that nothing, absolutely nothing is granted in life, our army would cease to be altogether.
…For liberty did indeed desire these words to be put at her feet and not others, for these and not others are those who are strong in bearing arms in the face of danger…
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me
Cordially, etc, etc.
