Me puedo imaginar, hace 2757 años, a los soldados del rey asirio Tiglath-Pileser III aduciendo que no sabían que la población civil a la que masacraban tenía todo el derecho a vivir en la tierra que ellos estaban invadiendo. Como mínimo, desde aquel 740 a. C. hasta hoy, millones de soldados han alegado que ellos no sabían nada de las "razones" por las que habían llevado a cabo asesinatos en masa.
En 1981 (15 años después de retirarse del campo de batalla) Robert Mason, piloto de helicóptero de combate, escribió su libro de memorias Chickenhawk que trata del tiempo que estuvo destinado en Vietnam, entre agosto de 1965 y julio de 1966. En el prólogo de este libro Robert Mason confiesa su ignorancia.
"I knew nothing of Vietnam or its history. I did not know that the French had taken Vietnam, after twenty years of trying, in 1887. I did not know that our country had once supported Ho Chi Minh against the Japanese during the Second World War. I did not know that after the war the country that thought it was finally free of colonialism was handed back to the French by occupying British forces with the consent of the Americans. I did not know that Ho Chi Minth then began fighting to drive French out again, an effort that lasted from 1946 until the fall of the French at Dien Bien Phu, in 1954. I did not know that free elections scheduled by the Geneva Conference for 1956 were blocked because it was known that Ho Chi Minh would win. I did not know that our government backed an oppressive and corrupt leader, Ngo Dinh Diem, and later participated in his overthrow and his death, in 1963. I did not know any of these facts. But the people who decided to have the war did".
Cuánto mejor se habría escrito la historia si esos millones de soldados se hubieran preguntado, antes de alistarse en un ejército, por qué iban a obedecer las órdenes del salvapatrias de turno.
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