“The first casualty of war is innocence”

Oliver Stone’s ‘86 Platoon was marketed with the tag line, “The first casualty of war is innocence”, which is an actual adaptation of American progressive and isolationist politician Senator Hiram Johnson. What Johnson actually said in 1917 was “The first casualty of war is the truth”. The Greek play writer and soldier Aeschylus aka ‘father of tragedy’ wrote was “In war, truth is the first casualty.” But what is the psychology of war really? Do soldiers become murderers when they enjoy killing? Is war beautiful? Are all humans capable of monstrous acts? Dutch filmmaker Coco Schrijber made an instant classic and very RARE documentary in 2001 called “First Kill”. The Film examines these and other questions with former war correspondent Michael Herr, who wrote the screenplays to Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket as they explore what war does to the human mind and soul. ONE-TO-WATCH above. And if you want to dig deeper I do recommend reading the ’77 contemporary classic ‘Dispatches’ by Mr. Michael Herr himself, Matterhorn’s: A Novel of the Vietnam War, Dale A. Dye’s novelisation of Platoonand ordering Dutch born Pop music archivist Hugo Keesing’s 13-CD box ’The Next Stop Is Vietnam’ here.