:37:03
Never mind the metaphysics, Commander.
Let's get back to your wife.
:37:07
Needless to say, that first night,
I wrote Adm. Jessup, saying...
:37:11
"For heaven's sakes, get me out of this."
:37:13
Two weeks later,
I was transferred back to Washington.
:37:15
I raced home to my wife...
:37:17
- And found her with another man.
- Lord, no.
:37:20
My wife, who had deceived me
more times before the war...
:37:23
than I care to think about...
:37:24
was now having the time of her life
being faithful.
:37:27
She was furious with me for coming back.
:37:29
There was no reason
for her being virtuous anymore.
:37:32
She promptly sued me for divorce...
:37:34
on the grounds of religious differences.
:37:35
I was a self-preservationist...
:37:37
and she was a high
Anglican sentimentalist.
:37:40
You're fair game, then.
:37:45
After every war, you know we always
find out how unnecessary it was...
:37:48
and after this I'm sure all the generals...
:37:50
will write books about the blunders
made by other generals...
:37:53
and statesmen will publish
their secret diaries...
:37:56
and it'll show beyond
any shadow of doubt...
:37:58
that war could easily have been avoided
in the first place.
:38:00
The rest of us, of course, will be left...
:38:03
with the job of bandaging the wounded
and burying the dead.
:38:06
I don't trust people who make bitter
reflections about war, Mrs. Barham.
:38:10
It's the generals
with the bloodiest records...
:38:12
who are the first to shout what a hell it is.
:38:14
It's always the war widows
who lead the Memorial Day parades.
:38:18
That was unkind, Charlie, and very rude.
:38:21
We shall never end wars, Mrs. Barham,
by blaming it on ministers and generals...
:38:25
or warmongering imperialists
or all the other banal bogeys.
:38:28
It's the rest of us who build statues
to those generals...
:38:31
and name boulevards
after those ministers.
:38:33
The rest of us who make heroes
of our dead...
:38:35
and shrines of our battlefields.
:38:38
We wear our widow's weeds
like nuns, Mrs. Barham...
:38:41
and perpetuate war
by exalting its sacrifices.
:38:45
My brother died at Anzio.
:38:47
I didn't know that, Charlie.
:38:50
Yes. An everyday soldier's death,
no special heroism involved.
:38:54
They buried what pieces
they found of him.
:38:56
But my mother insists he died a brave
death and pretends to be very proud.