Literary Analysis Research Essay

I believe that this piece is my best because I was able to obtain alot of valuable information about the Vietnam War. It is depressing to hear how fellow Americans used the system to destroy the lives of innocent Vietnamese people. The imperealistic decisions of the United States has left a bad taste in the mouths of many foreign nations. I believe it is best to look back at past failures and re-evaluate our approach to foreign policy. This paper has helped me understand America's affect on other societies.

“The Distinct Understanding of Robert Bly’s Poem:
The Teeth Mother Naked at Last”

Robert Bly’s poem “The Teeth Mother Naked at Last” reveals the true injustice surrounding the Vietnam War. Bly uses graphic descriptions to plaster an image in the mind of the reader. This in turn develops a psychological response to the brutality occurring overseas and the undeniable false testaments being professed at home. The poem exposes the reader to the injustice and fraudulent actions of government officials. This poem walks you through the jungles and grass huts in Vietnam, and allows you to feel the sting of death surrounding the terrorized innocent farmers. The words of Bly also put into effect the feelings of protesters of the war. “The Teeth Mother Naked at Last” abstractly depicts the indignities occurring in Vietnam and at home during the Vietnam War.

Bly writes, “This is the thrill that leads the President on to lie” (2415). This statement symbolizes the dishonest actions of Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and President Lyndon B Johnson. The American destroyer, Maddox, is on patrol off the coast of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam when it is assaulted by several North Vietnamese torpedo boats. The official statement of the government is that the destroyer had been attacked for no reason, but the Maddox had been in territorial waters and intercepting Vietnamese conversations. In fact, the attack happened after the South Vietnamese attacked two targets on the northern coast that was organized by a U.S. program involving controlled covert force against the Northern Vietnamese that was known as (OPLAN)-34A. The Maddox actually intercepts the message and is preparing to fight off the torpedo attack. Two other ships take the hit from the torpedoes and the Maddox remains undamaged. This occurrence is identified as the Tonkin Gulf incident (Prados).
In the meantime, Lyndon B. Johnson asserts to the public that U.S. vessels had been attacked twice without any logical reasons. This is determined to be a lie when, years later, tapes reveal several phone conversations between President Johnson and Secretary of Defense McNamara. They discuss the political repercussions of openly suggesting the ties between the OPLAN strikes and the attack on the Maddox. McNamara says, “I think I should also, or we should also at that time, Mr. President, explain this Op Plan 34-A, these covert operations. There's no question but what that had bearing on” (Prados). President Johnson informs McNamara that he is not to discuss OPLAN with anyone else including key Congressional figures. In their conversation they acknowledge that the OPLAN operations provoked attacks on the Maddox, but they lead the American citizens to believe that the attack was senseless. President Johnson, also, uses the assault on the Maddox as a reason to begin air raids in North Vietnam.

In “The Teeth Mother Naked at Last” Bly suggests a list of things the President has lied about during his press conference. He uses various items such as the population of Chicago and the weight of an adult eagle (2415). This describes the length and complete pattern to the President’s lies. He suggests that everything out of his mouth is perjury: “As soon as the President finishes his press conference/ black wings carry off the words [with] bits of flesh clinging to them” (Bly 2415). This line describes the mortalities revolving around the actions of the President. It is obvious that the realities surrounding these events were distorted to allow America’s next attacks to seem justified in the eyes of American citizens.

Now, America is committed to a full blown war, and nothing will stand in the way of victory. Many of the armed forces are actually told that the higher the death count, the better they are doing. Bly reiterates, “Kill them: I don’t want to see anything moving” (qtd. 2414).This is the command pressed in every soldiers mind. Unfortunately, many take advantage of the situation that explains for the severity in war crimes committed during the Vietnam War

. Bly writes,”This is what it is like to bomb grass huts (afterwards described as structures), [and] this is what it is like to kill marginal farmers (afterwards describe as Communists)” (2416). This is given evidence when a report from Harper’s Magazine interviews several ex- Tiger Force members, and they voice their haunting experiences to the world. The Tiger Force is a platoon that caused much heinous and unnecessary harm to Vietnamese civilians. Veteran Leland Williams says they were instructed to kill farmers that were known to be unarmed. He even speaks of an event where a teenage Vietnamese girl is forced to perform oral sex on two of his former platoon officers. Immediately following the sexual assault, they cut her throat and kill her. This is extremely unwarranted behavior in relation to the protection of American interests (Today I Know Better).
Another incident is announced by former Tiger Force officer Michael J. Allums that is completely grotesque. There is a fellow officer in the Tiger Force named Ybarra, who confesses to Allums that he slit the throat of an infant and took a metal bracelet from the baby’s arm. He thereafter wears the bracelet as a symbol of his accomplishment. He also observed Ybarra cut off the ears of Vietnamese men that he killed. Ybarra carried them around in a bag with him (“Today I Know Better”). They were a symbol kept to remember his victims. This is a man that was paid by the U.S. Army to protect and defend the American way. In no way are his actions justified. Allums states that during the war activities similar to these happened all the time, but he didn’t realize they were war crimes until he was away from that environment. Murder was received as an honor in any shape or form, and the more the better.
Robert Bly’s statements only tell a portion of the real stories behind the terrors of Vietnam. When Bly says “blood leaps on the vegetable walls” (2414), he is symbolizing the massive amount of murders performed by American officers unto the Vietnamese civilians. Bly jests, saying, “from a political point of view, “ democratic institutions are being created in Vietnam (qtd. 2414).This sarcastic statement really identifies the opposite actions being modeled to the South Vietnamese. The role model American instead portrays that killing and torturing all that exist in a society implies the democratic way.
It is conceivable as to why people were strongly protesting the Vietnam War. Robert Bly writes in perspective of the President in “The Teeth Mother Naked at Last” that the government should “not be deterred from the task at hand by voices of dissent” (qtd. 2415).The government tried to make the protesters seem like a bunch of hippies trying to escape the draft when in actuality most of the protesters were middle class working people or war veterans. In November of 1969 over half a million walked in Washington in protest of the war (Franklin). Bly says, “We all feel like tires being run down roads under heavy cars” (2417). This describes the immense pain in the hearts of American citizens at this time who are being represented by an evil beast demanding another bloody victory.
The poem sheds light on the realities of the Vietnam War. Robert Bly does an excellent job of using words to paint a picture of the destruction caused by the US military. This poem provides a piece of the puzzle in comparison to the harsh truths uncovered from the Vietnam War. During this Cold War era, American citizens are persuaded to believe that the war is just and necessary when the truth reveals that it was forced and unorthodox. Unfortunately, the innocent have to suffer from the imperials’ horrific decisions. Robert Bly allows the reader to emotionally comprehend the devastation caused by the Vietnam War in “The Teeth Mother Naked at Last”.



Works Cited
Bly, Robert. “The Teeth Mother Naked at Last”. The Heath Anthology Of
American Literature. Ed. Paul Lauter. Boston: Houghton Mifflin,
2006. 2413-2419.

Franklin, Bruce. “The Antiwar Movement We Are Supposed to Forget”.
Chronicle of Higher Education 20 Oct. 2000. pB7, 4p, 2bw (Academic Search Premier).

The National Security Archive. 16 Nov. 2006. The New Press. 17 Nov. 2006.
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB132/tapes.htm

“Today I Know Better”. Harper’s Magazine. Feb. 2004. 22-25. (Academic SearchPremier)