Awakening of Wartime Sexual Assault in Paco's Story by Larry Heinemann

Abstract

The U.S. government has taken the sexual assault of U.S. troops lightly, even though aware of the prevalence during the Vietnam War. Some conscientious veterans admitted and confessed to this fact, but the US media also did not report it much. However, Paco's Story (1986) by Larry Heinemann specifically describes the mass sexual assault of a Vietnamese sniper who killed two US sentry soldiers. The National Book Awards 1987 winning novel confirms the public's consensus on this issue. This paper studies the reality and problems of sexual assault in the U.S. military by analyzing Paco's Story by Larry Heinemann with the main question of whether sexual assault against an enemy can be admitted in a wartime situation. This article starts with introducing the US military sexual violence and media awareness of it at that time and analyzes the novel over the two scenes of sexual intercourse. The writer analyzes the first scene that Paco's squadron raped a Viet Cong female sniper while paying attention to the presence of the men's sexual desire in the criminal act in addition to racism and misogyny. Next, this research goes to the second scene of the imaginary love affair between Paco and Cathy, looking for the answer of what stands for Cathy's existence to Paco. Lastly, this research is expected to contribute to studying wartime sexual assault in other countries including the Vietnam War.