Lecture: “CRA” Triangle (1956)

Now, it is fashionable these days to think that battlefields filled with dead bodies are bad. That’s a fashionable thing to think. We all think that. We’re perfectly aware of this. We think that to such a degree that we consider it the truth. That’s because we’ve heard about too many battles, We’ve heard about too many battles. Now, if we’d never heard about a battle but simply fought in a few, all we would have would be the experience of having fought in a few and the R is right there — the dead bodies, the bullets whizzing around and so on.

This was always something which was quite amusing to me. I used to think about this as very peculiar, very peculiar. I used to think there was something wrong with me because if anything had to do with action or combat came along, I didn’t find the circumstances very intolerable. And this was inexplicable to me until I found out that I considered battles I had never been in ghastly! And I didn’t think any of the battles I’d ever been in ghastly. See, I didn’t think this was a bad thing. I didn’t even vaguely associate this as a bad thing. Submarines are something you fish for. They’re slightly larger than other kinds of fish. And airplanes is like duck hunting except the duck can shoot back and you have some motive to shoot down airplanes — to stop their propellers; enough significance.

I’m afraid I have that to this day. I’m afraid I do. I look up at airplanes and lick my chops and what wouldn’t I give for a .40 millimeter. It got to be a sport. No more than that.¹

Notes