"If you want to learn more about James Webb, read more of James Webb."--C. W. Dean, Webb Volunteer

Last winter, I read his non-fiction narrative of cultural history, Born Fighting, How the Scots-Irish Shaped America, which also treats the reader to a number of James Webb's autobiographical family stories.  I was going to volunteer anyway, but Born Fighting sealed the deal--I need this man representing me in the U. S Senate.

My intent here is to share some thoughts on James Webb's fiction, not as a literary critic, but as a person who gets most of his entertainment from reading.  I hope to suggest how writers, and particularly James Webb, craft their fiction from life experiences and leave artifacts for readers to discover well into the future.  In short, if you want to know more about James Webb, read more of James Webb.  He's been telling us about himself since 1978.

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I hope to write a weekly piece here featuring each of James Webb's six novels in order of publication.  Neither James Webb nor his campaign staff participated in this effort.  I am an unpaid campaign volunteer and this project is mine alone.
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James Webb+óGé¼Gäós first novel, Fields of Fire, is still in print after 28 years.  Fields of Fire and the Vietnam War (1960 +óGé¼GÇ£ 1975) belong to a historical period that brought massive, rapid, and controversial sociologic changes to American life that few escaped.  Today+óGé¼Gäós readers who were born, let+óGé¼Gäós say, since 1968 will not have the advantage of having experienced first-hand the turbulent years that add context to the period of the Vietnam War.  Nevertheless, for readers of all ages who want to view the Vietnam War through a single novel, Fields of Fire stands alone.

There is a maxim for writers that commands one to write about what one knows.  Fields of Fire can easily be viewed as James Webb+óGé¼Gäós non-fiction Vietnam War memoir masquerading as fiction.  The author was 32 years old and 8 years removed from his Vietnam service when the novel was published.  In 1969, U.S. Marine Corps Lieutenant James Webb led his Marines in Vietnam+óGé¼Gäós An Hoa Basin; his combat record is well chronicled and need not be repeated here except to place him at the historical point where the U. S. military presence in Vietnam reached its apex of over half a million service members.  Webb+óGé¼Gäós characters +óGé¼+ôSnake,+óGé¼-¥ +óGé¼+ôSenator,+óGé¼-¥ and Lt. Hodges tell the reader what it was like to be part of that experience.

Webb writes early of his open disgust for the period+óGé¼Gäós conscription system that allowed U. S. Presidents George W. Bush and William J. Clinton, as well as U.S. Vice-Presidents Dick Cheney and Dan Quayle, to find comfortable ways to avoid service in Vietnam.  Studies have suggested that over 60 per cent of those who were eligible to serve successfully excluded themselves.  Webb describes with intense sarcasm some of the methods, legal and illegal, used by tens of thousands to escape involuntary induction through local Selective Service (Draft) Boards. 

James Webb writes James Webb+óGé¼Gäós Vietnam experience in the third person, an observer telling a story about others.  He enlarges three characters with few abstractions: Marine Lieutenant Robert E. Lee Hodges, Jr. - a bright, quiet, witty, but poor Eastern Kentucky Appalachian mountain youth whose ancestors, to the man, took up arms when called; Marine Corporal and Squad Leader Ronnie +óGé¼+ôSnake+óGé¼-¥ (last name and home of record undisclosed) - a street-smart urban loner, violent and profane, who got his nickname and Marine Corps tattoo before enlisting; and Marine Lance Corporal Will +óGé¼+ôSenator+óGé¼-¥ Goodrich - Harvard Ivy League, upper middle class, a musician, thoughtful, sarcastic, and a misfit in Vietnam+óGé¼Gäós An Hoa Basin in 1969.

Webb clearly builds his alter ego around Lt. Hodges, the dominant, fresh from training, understated leader whose observations and assessments are almost never wrong.  He was eager to go to war but, unlike some of the more senior Marines, he remained a citizen soldier.  When the shooting starts, we see that Hodges+óGé¼Gäó natural combat skills belong to the ages.  Indeed, the ghosts of his warrior kinsmen are rarely out of his mind.

Snake has been in Vietnam some months before the others appear.  He is at home in Vietnam, having abandoned an unsavory past that he refuses to revisit.  Snake is the organized fighter; you can leave the leadership to Hodges and others, just let Snake find his way to the targets.  He is a one-man war of attrition and evaluates his minute-to-minute survival by the destruction he and his squad can inflict.

Will Goodrich+óGé¼Gäós Marine recruiter all but promised him a job playing the French horn in the ceremonial Marine Band.  Instead, he enters the 10,000 mile long combat replacement pipeline with no Marine Band at the other end.  He could almost be a minor supporting actor but Webb has bigger plans for him.  He is a clumsy Marine nicknamed +óGé¼+ôSenator+óGé¼-¥ for his Harvard credentials; he fights reluctantly and retreats again and again from his latent heroism until late in the novel.

Webb can invent names for characters and claim, as he does, that they never existed, but he cannot make up the brutal combat sequences that dominate the novel--they are word-for-word, raw, +óGé¼+ôstomp down+óGé¼-¥ NON-fiction.  Just to help us along, he appends a +óGé¼+ôglossary of unusual terms+óGé¼-¥ (Webb+óGé¼Gäós quotes) used by Americans fighting in Vietnam and unique to the time and setting of the novel.  Be assured that none of the +óGé¼+ôunusual terms+óGé¼-¥ were invented and most Vietnam veterans don+óGé¼Gäót need the glossary.

So, what does James Webb reveal about himself in Fields of Fire?  I believe the young James Webb shows us, with humility, his talent for speaking and writing about deadly traumatic events with a calmness and clarity most often associated with much older men.  He has a magnetic sense of observation and an immense talent for turning the lessons he has learned into convincing images with little difficulty.  Like Lt. Hodges, his mind will not let him make many mistakes.  At age 32, James Webb had already passed the exams that most of us will never take.

Save Fields of Fire for a rainy weekend; it is not a beach book, a formula book, a melodrama, a quick read, or a +óGé¼+ôfeel good+óGé¼-¥ work.  Fields of Fire is a rough experience loaded with poignant messages from Webb+óGé¼Gäós characters, including those who only appear briefly and some who appear only through whimsical memories and subtle suggestion.

Fields of Fire and James Webb have become icons within the Vietnam veterans+óGé¼Gäó community, especially the Marines.  I have been among Vietnam veterans when someone will mention a line or thought from Fields of Fire; most everyone nods acknowledgement, or a respectful silent agreement.

Next installment:  +óGé¼+ôA Sense of Honor+óGé¼-¥

In addition to James Webb+óGé¼Gäós Senate Campaign web site, he also has a personal web site that features his writing:

http://www.jameswebb...

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C. W. Dean has been a Professional Photographer in the State of Virginia since 1972 specializing in portraits.  He is a Vietnam veteran, son of a World War II veteran, and, like James Webb, proudly traces his origins to Virginia+óGé¼Gäós Scots-Irish immigrants.  He lives with his wife, Elizabeth, near Mount Vernon, Virginia.

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