Chapter 8, Chapters 28 - 30 Summary and Analysis

In Chapter 28, Beckwith tricks his own men and puts them through a training exercise that the troops believe is real. They are testing the "kill or no kill" response in the soldiers. This is the first step in the process that occurs when people cope with killing. In the field the truth is that many who have trained to do so will not and that those who definitely will tend to do a higher proportion of it than those who had thought they would but discover that they won't. Again, German behavior influenced the conditions. German snipers did not kill in one case; this caused leaders to grow concerned about ensuring that their troops could do it. In another case, the Germans inspired the Americans by retrieving a hijacked aircraft, and rescuing the passengers through force of...