Quotes: Military (2)

Military 43 Roth: "Did you notice how they treated the officers…slept in staterooms when we were jammed in the hold like pigs…to make them feel superior, a chosen group…the same device Hitler uses when he makes the Germans think they’re superior." Mailer, The Naked and the Dead. The military and the Nazis.

Military 102 Red: "As far as I’m concerned, it’s [the army’s] been a goddam mess ever since they put Washington on a horse." Mailer, The Naked and the Dead. The military mess goes a long way back in America.

Military 102 Red: "There ain’t a good officer in the world…they’re just a bunch of aristocrats, they think." Mailer, The Naked and the Dead. Officers, the aristocrats of the military.

Military 138 The General: "And the other equation is that the individual soldier in that army is a more effective soldier the poorer his standard of living has been in the past…why do you think a regiment of Southerners is worth two regiments of Easterners?" Mailer, The Naked and the Dead. Poverty makes the man.

Military 138 The General: "We have the highest standard of living in the world and, as one would expect, the worst individual fighting soldiers of any big power…they’re comparatively wealthy, they’re spoiled…the reverse of the peasant, and I’ll tell you right now it’s the peasant who makes the soldier…." Hearn: "So what you’ve got to do is break them down…." The General: "Every time an enlisted man sees an officer get an extra privilege, it breaks him down a little more…." Hearn: "They’d hate you more…." The General: "They do; but they also fear us more." Mailer, The Naked and the Dead. The psychology of the military mind.