A Rumor of War

A Rumor of War

by

Philip Caputo

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A short, stocky man and “an expert with the sawed-off twelve-gauge” that he carries. The teenage platoon nicknames him “Pappy” since he’s twenty-three years old. His appearance fits his nickname, as the months of sleep deprivation, wincing at snipers’ bullets, and the stress of constantly looking for trip wires have physically aged him. Along with Caputo, Crowe is later brought up on murder charges, after the deaths of two Viet Cong, Le Dung and Le Du. He, too, is acquitted.

Lance Corporal Crowe Quotes in A Rumor of War

The A Rumor of War quotes below are all either spoken by Lance Corporal Crowe or refer to Lance Corporal Crowe. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Heroism and Identity Theme Icon
).
Chapter Eighteen Quotes

I wondered why the investigating officer had not submitted any explanatory or extenuating circumstances. Later, after I had time to think things over, I drew my own conclusion: the explanatory or extenuating circumstance was the war. The killings had occurred in war. They had occurred, moreover, in a war whose sole aim was to kill Viet Cong […] The deaths of Le Dung and Le Du could not be divorced from the nature and conduct of the war. As I had come to see it, America could not intervene in a people’s war without killing some of the people. But to raise those points in explanation or extenuation would be to raise a host of ambiguous moral questions. It could even raise the question of the morality of American intervention in Vietnam […] If we were found guilty, the Marine Corps’ institutional conscience would be clear.

Related Characters: Philip Caputo (speaker), Lance Corporal Crowe, Le Dung, Le Du , Lieutenant Jim Rader
Page Number: 322-323
Explanation and Analysis:

There was murder in my heart and, in some way, through tone of voice, a gesture, or a stress on kill rather than capture, I had transmitted my inner violence to the men. They saw in my overly aggressive manner a sanction to vent their own brutal impulses. I lay there remembering the euphoria we had felt afterward, the way we had laughed, and then the sudden awakening to guilt. And yet, I could not conceive of the fact as one of premeditated murder. It had not been committed in a vacuum. It was a direct result of the war. The thing we had done was a result of what the war had done to us.

Related Characters: Philip Caputo (speaker), Lance Corporal Crowe, Lonehill, Allen , Le Dung, Le Du , Lieutenant Jim Rader
Page Number: 326
Explanation and Analysis:
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Lance Corporal Crowe Quotes in A Rumor of War

The A Rumor of War quotes below are all either spoken by Lance Corporal Crowe or refer to Lance Corporal Crowe. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Heroism and Identity Theme Icon
).
Chapter Eighteen Quotes

I wondered why the investigating officer had not submitted any explanatory or extenuating circumstances. Later, after I had time to think things over, I drew my own conclusion: the explanatory or extenuating circumstance was the war. The killings had occurred in war. They had occurred, moreover, in a war whose sole aim was to kill Viet Cong […] The deaths of Le Dung and Le Du could not be divorced from the nature and conduct of the war. As I had come to see it, America could not intervene in a people’s war without killing some of the people. But to raise those points in explanation or extenuation would be to raise a host of ambiguous moral questions. It could even raise the question of the morality of American intervention in Vietnam […] If we were found guilty, the Marine Corps’ institutional conscience would be clear.

Related Characters: Philip Caputo (speaker), Lance Corporal Crowe, Le Dung, Le Du , Lieutenant Jim Rader
Page Number: 322-323
Explanation and Analysis:

There was murder in my heart and, in some way, through tone of voice, a gesture, or a stress on kill rather than capture, I had transmitted my inner violence to the men. They saw in my overly aggressive manner a sanction to vent their own brutal impulses. I lay there remembering the euphoria we had felt afterward, the way we had laughed, and then the sudden awakening to guilt. And yet, I could not conceive of the fact as one of premeditated murder. It had not been committed in a vacuum. It was a direct result of the war. The thing we had done was a result of what the war had done to us.

Related Characters: Philip Caputo (speaker), Lance Corporal Crowe, Lonehill, Allen , Le Dung, Le Du , Lieutenant Jim Rader
Page Number: 326
Explanation and Analysis: