War an atrocity—author

Press, 16 July 1987, Page 23

War an atrocity —author

By

NIGEL MALTHUS

War is an atrocity from beginning to end, says the best-selling American author, Nelson De Mille. Mr De Mille, a former Army officer who saw service in Vietnam, was in Christchurch on a promotion tour for his latest novel, “Word of Honour,” based on a fictional massacre by American troops in Vietnam. While the incident he wrote about was fictional, similar incidents had taken place, he said. In the book, the victims were the entire staff and patients of a French hospital during the Battle of Hue — where Mr De Mille himself saw service. It comes to light 18 years later, and the platoon’s lieutenant, by then a successful businessman,

is court-martialled for murder. A main theme is that everyone, not just the man on trial, is guilty. “It is a truism that everyone who was there probably had a secret,” said Mr De Mille. People liked to tell “war stories,” but they did not tell “the real war story. That’s a thing they want to bury,” he said. Soldiers in the field could not make the same value decisions they would at home. "You like to be able to say you took a stand, but when it is happenning, you tend to look the other way,” he said. Rumours abounded in Vietnam about atrocities committed by both sides. Soldiers could not tell whether the rumours about what the Viet Cong did to American prisoners were true, or made up by their own commanders to make them hate the enemy. “You sort of feel justified to do the same thing when the time comes.” Mr De Mille said that World War II had brought war films and novels almost immediately, but for some reason there had been a delay after Vietnam. The Vietnam war was only now becoming topical. “I wanted to write this book 10 years ago, but no-one wanted to read it,

or publish it. I think they were right,” he said. There was now a “retrospective exorcism” under way, with a crop of works such as the Arthur Stone movie, “Platoon.” “Word of Honour” was

not about the war so much as the effects of war, and it had a universal message, he said. Mr De Mille signed a contract last week with Columbia Motion Pictures, which plans to release it as a film next year.