Dave Grossman - On Killing

• nature of, 171-76, 189

victory

• fortitude replenished by, 85

• role of, 264, 273-74

video games, violence in, 261, 303, 314-16, 323, 324, 326

Vietnam Veterans Memorial, 275, 276, 293

Vietnam War, 38, 248-95, 340, 344-45

• atrocities in, 163, 207-08, 215. See also My Lai incident

• automatic weapons distribution in, 334, 336

• close-range killing in, 116-17

• cooldown period for returning veterans, 271-73

• cultural distance in, 162-63

• drug use in, 269, 270-71, 345

• exhaustion in, 69

• firing rates, 35, 181, 250, 251, 344

• group role in, 268-70, 275-76, 287-88

• ineffective firing in, 12

• inescapability of, 267-68, 287-88

• killing female Vietcong in, 175

• killing of civilians in, 196-98, 265-67, 267, 287

• kill rates, 254, 334, 336

• long-range killing in, 109

• loss of, 273-74

• medical personnel, 335

• My Lai incident. See My Lai incident

• nonkillers in, 118, 259-60

• personal kills in, 114-15

• prisoners killed in, 199

• psychiatric casualties in, 269, 277-78. See also post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

• rationalizing killing in, 237-40, 262-80

• snipers in, 109, 172-73, 336

• social support structure for, 274-80

U.S. close combat superiority in, 258

• youth of combatants in, 264-67, 287

violence in America, 299—332

• movies and, 308-11

• statistics on, 299-302, 304, 346-47

violent ideation, institutionalization of, 252

virtual reality, 316

Wagenbach, James W., 276

Wake Island battle, 147

Waldron, Adelbert F., 172-73, 336

war criminals, 105, 205

Waterloo, Battle of, 122

Watson, Peter, 25, 35, 49, 52, 149, 161,

306, 307

Wavell, Lord, 51

weather, effect of, 69, 72-73, 94

Weinberg, S. K., 335

Weinberger, Caspar, 292

Weinberger doctrine, 292

Weinstein, E. A., 335

Well of Fortitude, 83-86

Whitdesey, C. W„ 148

Willis, Captain, 118, 155

will to fight, 80

Wilson, James Q., 301

Wilson, Woodrow, 226

Wind of Hate, 65, 66, 76-82, 80, 95, 208

Wissembourg, Batde of, 12

women. See also rape

• killing of, 174-75, 266

• as scapegoats, 210-11

Wood, Evelyn, 31

World War I

• artillery bombardments, 80

• edged-weapons combat in, 122, 123-24, 125

• ending of, 273-74

• exhaustion in, 69, 86

• fraternization with enemy, 160

• gas used in, 95, 331

• hand grenades used in, 112-13

• ineffective firing in, 12

• Lost Battalion, 148

• machine guns in, 154

• nobility in, 195-96

• nonfirers in, 27-28, 34

• psychiatric casualties in, 44

• snipers, 108-09

• surrendering Germans killed in, 175-76

• treatment of surrendering soldiers in, 200

World War II. See also Nazis

• air combat in, 184

• atrocities in, 211, 215-16

• bayonets used in, 126

• bombings in, 55-57, 65, 80, 99-102, 104, 105

• bonding in, 269

• cooldown period, 272, 285-86

• cultural distance in, 161-62, 163

• exhaustion in, 69, 71-72, 85-86

• fear acceptable in, 53

• firing rates, 3-4, 15-16, 144, 153, 181, 333

• fraternization with enemy, 158-59

• killing rates, 30, 110, 161-62, 184-85

• knife killing in, 130

• leadership in, 147

• nonfirers in, 3-4, 15-16

• nonkillers in, 118

• pilots, killing by, 30, 110

• post-traumatic stress disorder after, 285-87

• prisoner treatment in, 204, 205

• psychiatric casualties in, 43-44, 269

• punishment justification in, 165

Young, Peter, 174

Copyright © 1995,1996 by David A. Grossman

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

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First Paperback Edition

Permissions to use previously published material appear on pages 352-53.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Grossman, Dave.

On killing : the psychological cost of learning to kill in war and society / Dave Grossman. — 1st ed.

p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN 0-316-33000-0 (he) 0-316-33011-6 (pb)

1. Combat — Psychological aspects. 2. Psychology, Military.

3. Homicide — Psychological aspects. 4. Violence — Social aspects.

5. Violence — Psychological aspects. I. Title.

U22.3.G76 1995

355V0019—dc20 95-13888

Illustrations by Mary Reilly

“Full of arresting observations and insights… that make you alter the way you have thought about a certain subjects…. A powerfully argued explanation.”

The good news is that the vast majority of soldiers are loath to kill in battle. Unfortunately, modern armies, using Pavlovian and operant conditioning, have developed sophisticated ways of overcoming this instinctive aversion. The psychological cost for soldiers, as witnessed by the increase in post-traumatic stress, is devastating. The psychological cost for the rest of us is even more so: contemporary civilian society, particularly the media, replicates the army’s conditioning techniques and, according to Grossman’s controversial thesis, is responsible for our rising rate of murder, especially among the young.

On Killing is an important study of the techniques the military uses to overcome the powerful reluctance to kill, of how killing affects the soldier, and of the societal implications of escalating violence.

In the World War II only 15-20 percent of combat infantry were willing to fire they rifles. In Korea, about 50 percent. In Vietnam, the figure rose to over 90 percent.

“Colonel Grossman’s perceptive study ends with a profoundly troubling observation. The desensitizing techniques used to train soldiers are now found in mass media — films, television, and video arcades — and are conditioning our children. His figures on youthful homicides strongly suggest the breeding of teenage Rambos.”

“A fine piece of work.”

“This important book deserves a wide readership.”

A former army Ranger and paratrooper, Lt. Col. Dave Grossmantaught psychology at West Point and is currently the Professor of Military Science at Arkansas State University.

I would like to note that some friends (such as the noted historian Bill Lind, author of the superb book Retroculture) disagree with this representation of Victorian sexual repression, but I have yet to meet a single individual who disagrees with the analysis of our modern repression outlined here, and that is the pertinent point.