Word: heroism
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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This is not to deny that the men who resist the will of their captors often perform feats of heroism and that some would hold themselves in contempt if they failed to try. The struggle against the captor can become an obsessive way to assert one's defiance of a hostile universe. But the majority of men are not assailed by such temptations of existential heroism. For the most part, the U.S. serviceman fights hard, risks his life and sometimes gives it in the service of his country. It seems unreasonable to ask him to continue risking his life...
...doubt is as momentary as the cold: when the victorious smudgers make their 9 a.m. appearance at school, strutting through the halls in their combat clothes and bragging to everyone that they're going home to bed, they know they've found one good way to teen-age heroism...
...earth, all of us, do thank you, our astronauts, for your marvelous message, your outstanding example of heroism and humility, your perfect teamwork along with thousands of fellow Americans. You will lead today's youth out of the morass of self-pity and destruction, you will teach the new generation the world over to follow on the road of selfdiscipline, hard work and heroic achievement that is the behavior of a true American citizen...
...wanted to see the orders issued to Pueblo's skipper, Commander Lloyd M. Bucher. "These men are being hailed as heroes," he added. "They are heroes in the sense that they survived the imprisonment. But they did sign a great many statements that did not reflect any great heroism in my mind. I'll have to investigate further to see just what hero-type things they performed...
...Pueblo were heroes, their kind of "heroism" was the most elemental--mere physical survival of the Korean captivity. If that was cause for celebration, what it showed to the rest of America was net. The men had to endure only because of the utter futility of America's efforts at releasing them...