Book Reviews: 1. Desertion 2. Traitors Among Us: Inside the Spy Catcher's World 3. Judgement at Tokyo: The Japanese War Crimes Trials

• Author: Major John E. Hartsell
• Pages: 05

200 MILITARY LAW REVIEW [Vol. 171

DESERTION1

REVIEWED BY MAJOR JOHN E. HARTSELL2

Careful, circumspect, always with one concern and one concern only- how to protect his own derriere.

-Author and Vietnam deserter Jack Todd mocking someone else's decision-making process.3

1. Introduction

   Jack Todd's Desertion is not just about a man's crime, cowardice, or betrayal. It is also about the colorful life and self-centered choices of a twenty-three year-old draftee who chose to desert to Canada rather than serve as an Army journalist during the Vietnam War.4 In Desertion, Jack Todd colorfully exposes the adventures of an Army deserter as he grew up in Nebraska, fell in lust, went to boot camp, deserted to Canada, and ultimately reveled in a counter-culture lifestyle. The book suffers mortally, however, because Todd appears to have developed a boundless, emotional affinity for the main protagonist: himself.

   Throughout the book, Todd offers purposefully selected glimpses of his experiences in an effort to justify his actions to his reader. He states that in 1969 he opposed the Vietnam War, but his true anti-war beliefs were masked by his love for a young girl.5 When the girl unjustly broke up with him while he is in basic training,6 Todd explains, he suddenly remembered his opposition to the war and fled to Canada.

   Todd's endeavor to justify his actions fails because the facts surrounding his sympathetic justifications frame a far different portrait than the one he tries to paint. His attempts to use autobiographical stories to summon morality, exploit his angst, and spin events to his favor are all undermined by his ego-fueled depiction of facts and contradictory recollections. As a result, the book is little more than a boorish collection of self-gratuitous anecdotes, which attempt to explain away a serious offense and lay blame on others.

2. The Life of a Deserter

   Todd tells his reader about his life's fortunes and misfortunes. He grew up in a close-knit family, attended college, and became editor of the University of Nebraska newspaper,7 but he left college in his senior year to work as a reporter for The Miami Herald.8 In Miami, he covered politics, riots, and a multitude of unsavory crimes.9 He also became smitten with the femme fatale of the book, a Miami native named Mariela.10

   Todd describes Mariela as a quiet, shy virgin who had been pursued for years by a socially inept suitor.11 Todd recounts how he successfully took the suitor's girl, and later, in far too much detail, how he intrepidly took Mariela's virginity.12 Then a letter from the draft board destroyed the professional and personal bliss that Todd was enjoying in Miami.13

   Todd intended to complete his last semester of college at the University of Miami after he quit the University of Nebraska.14 Inexplicably, however, he decided not to re-enroll in school once he got to South Florida.15 Shortly thereafter, he lost his student deferment and became eligible for the draft. Surprisingly, the allegedly anti-war Todd did not evade the draft initially. He did not flee to Canada as a draft dodger; instead, he

   received his draft notice, took his oath,16 and reported to Fort Lewis, Washington, for basic training.17

   As with practically every military recruit since time immemorial, Todd disliked basic training. He thought the facilities were Spartan,18 the

   training pointless,19 the food and sleep insufficient,20 and the training instructors Draconian and sadistic.21 Todd was terribly disturbed that he was bunked with men who actually snored, coughed, and created even more distasteful bodily noises than those.22 He paints an extraordinarily bleak picture of his basic training experience, and punctuates it with banal stories about having to march,23 do push-ups,24 fold socks,25 and live in a cold public barracks.26

   Todd's physical longing for Mariela increased along with the rigors of basic training.27 He reveals that he became more sexually sentimental with each march.28 Ironically, he complains of basic training's indignities, yet he unabashedly tires his reader with details of Mariela's intimacies.29 He

   recounts his confidence in their relationship and in his future. He learned that he was unlikely to ever see combat, and that he would also probably be an Army journalist doing little more than issuing press releases.30 He

   also knew that he had a job at the Herald waiting for him once he finished his two-year obligation to the Army.31 He truly believed Mariela would wait for him and that he was the master of his own destiny; he had no idea

   he had doomed his relationship with Mariela even before he departed Miami.

   Todd's sexual bravado lead to his downfall. He writes that back in Miami, when he deflowered Mariela, he was quite pleased with himself. He felt like a "conqueror,"32 but Mariela confided to him, "So that was sex huh? So what's the big deal?"33 Her comments "crushed, humiliated, and disgraced" Todd.34 As a result, he sought the advice of a friend to improve his sexual abilities and mend his bruised ego.35 Meanwhile, the vengeful, socially inept suitor re-entered the story while Todd was in basic training, telling Mariela that Todd sought sexual pointers for her benefit. She was outraged, and ended the relationship when Todd later called her from Fort Lewis.36

   Todd's reaction to Mariela's rejection was monumentally excessive: he decided to desert to Canada. He knew that he would not go into combat,37 that he had a job waiting for him,38 and that he could at least try to go to Florida to talk to Mariela.39 Instead, Todd desperately proclaims, he suddenly remembered that he had always been against the war and, as a result, he deserted to Canada to follow his conveniently rediscovered moral conviction.40 Todd paints a self-serving picture of an emotional catharsis, and he tries to hoodwink the reader into believing that Mariela's rejection awoke his sleeping morality concerning the war. On the contrary, the reader concludes, Mariela obviously hurt his pride and he reacted in the most infantile of ways: by running away.

   When Todd left Fort Lewis, he did not act like a man with awakened anti-war morals; instead, he acted like a drunken frat boy on a panty raid. He writes,

   I buy a dozen chocolate bars. Now I unwrap the candy bars and place them carefully here and there inside the footlocker, which happens to sit right next to the radiator, which is always red-hot

   to compensate for the open windows. When the MPs figure out I'm gone, they'll have a nice mess of gooey melted chocolate to clean up. Not much as gestures of defiance go, but it's the best I can do on short notice.41

   He did not paint peace signs on the installation, did not conduct a sit-in, and never once told his training instructors that he was a conscientious objector. Instead, Todd played a juvenile prank and then ran off in the exact opposite direction of Miami: Canada.

   In Canada, Todd engaged in a lifestyle that can, at best, be described as unusual. While "on the lamb," he landed a job with the Vancouver Sun,42 which legitimized his immigration status. A week later, however, he joined a strike against the very paper that helped him remain in Canada.43 Thereafter, Todd deserted the Sun and became a vagabond. He drifted into towns, jobs, and other peoples' lives. At different points he was: a reporter,44 a dishwasher,45 a drunk,46 a pornographer,47 a leech,48 a hitchhiker,49 a poet,50 a celebrity-gossip writer,51 a recipient of Canadian unemployment payments,52 and an ex-American.53 Interestingly enough, aside from his criminal efforts to desert, he never became an active war protestor while in Canada.

3. Blame of Others

   Todd blames three sources for forcing him to abandon his parents54

   and his country. First, he blames the Nixon Administration for continuing

   an immoral war.55 Second, he blames Mariela for her failure to understand why he publicly revealed the details of their sex life.56 Third, he blames the cruel and oppressive drill sergeants at Fort Lewis who polarized him against the United States Army.57 Ironically, Todd himself, through his complaints and justifications, demonstrates that these three sources unwittingly played only a very limited role in his crime. The primary cause of Todd's desertion was his own selfishness. He chose desertion; desertion did not choose him.

   Todd waxes pathetic about how he loves America and how Nixon was the real traitor.58 He argues that the war was wrong, and that fleeing to Canada was one of the few ways to be right.59 He adamantly maintains that moral conviction drove him north, and moral conviction forced him to desert.60 His own book undermines his explanation, however, and it demonstrates that his Johnny-come-lately blame of the Nixon administration is disingenuous.

   Although Todd insists that he was against the war, he fails to cite a single article, demonstration, protest, or editorial to corroborate his claim. Todd subjects his reader to incredible tales of his experiences in sports,61

   drinking,62 reporting,63 and sex.64 He prattles on endlessly about events he reported,65 a tooth that was pulled,66 a party he attended,67 meals he ate,68 people he met,69 songs he heard,70 weather he endured,71 cigarettes he

   smoked,72 a lesbian that he bedded,73 threesomes he shared,74 police he scammed,75 and pornography he wrote.76 He fails to detail any active participation in the anti-war effort, however, or any real basis for his purported anti-war beliefs.

   Todd claims that he loves America,77 but his sincerity must be measured against the insults he hurled at Americans in Canadian newspapers:

   · With typical head-up-the-keester Yankee savoir fair, the editors of "The Sporting News" have succeeded in proving only that when it comes to sophistication, your average American falls somewhere between Gomer Pyle and Homer Simpson.78

   · Americans think Formula One is what you give your kid instead of breast-feeding.79

   · St. Louis has more fat people per...