WARS
SPAIN
“A peaceful village in Northern Spain. / The year is late in the nineteenth century; skirts are worn long./ In front of a small house is a large courtyard. / In the middle of the courtyard is a large table. / Overhead are vines.” (Harris, 11)
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As was mentioned on a previous page, there is no known war that took place between Spain and France in the late 19th century but we believe that Zinnie Harris created a conflict that is not historically accurate in order to explore a specific angle and viewpoint of war.
WWI
Setting in the play
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Scene 2 - between Spain and France
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Scene 3 - a city in France under siege
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Scene 4 - Northern France "No Man's Land"
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Scene 5 - A square in a little town in France
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Scene 6 - a clearing outside the city of Metz
WWI put a dent on the economy causing money inflation and food shortages
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No Man's Land
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land that is unoccupied or is under dispute between parties
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used to describe the ground between the two opposing trenches
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tons of barbed-wire
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WWII
Setting in play
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between Krakow and Berlin
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a train station where trains take Jewish people to ghettos and concentration camps
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The trains
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Two very notable concentration camps were located in close vicinity of Krakow and Berlin
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The first trains with German Jews expelled to ghettos in occupied Poland began departing from central Germany on 16 October 1941
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Cars were packed with up to 150 deportees - 50 was the number proposed by the SS regulations
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No food or water supplied
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Boxcars would have one bucket latrine
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Only one window in each car would lead to multiple deaths due to lack of ventilation
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The average
trip would take around 4 days
VIETNAM
Setting in the play
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The “prison building” = A combination of prisoner camps and the strategic hamlets fabricated by Harris
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Strategic Hamlets
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The strategic hamlet program was directed by South Vietnamese officials and aimed at enlisting the rural populations of South Vietnam in the fight against the communists by relocating them to protected and monitored “hamlets” or isolated communities
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They wanted to not only protect the people from the Viet Cong but unify them and get them to fight as well
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Not very effective! People were bitter and resentful that they were being forced to leave their country-side homes and they didn’t stop the Viet Cong from infiltrating these communities
In scene 8 we get the idea when a man is brought out that detainees and prisoners were not treated well in these establishments and where often tortured, sometimes even to death.
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Agent Orange ​
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The idea behind the use of this herbicide was to reduce casualties by clearing areas around the US establishments and installations so they could see the “enemy” more easily as well as to deny them crops and food
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By 1970, they sprayed roughly twenty million gallons of herbicides over about one-quarter of South Vietnam. 500,000 acres of crops were destroyed but over 3,000 villages were also sprayed.
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This tactic did not just affect the Viet Cong, but instead had hugely negative effects on innocent civilians by denying them crops and killing their land which led to starvation and death
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Napalm
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Napalm sticks to the skin and can spread easily all over the body to cause incredibly deep and severe burns.
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Once released, a napalm bomb was hard to contain and could leave an area of 2,500 square yards in total destruction
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Using napalm bombs dropped by a fast-moving aircraft didn’t guarantee much accuracy which resulted in many civilian casualties
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Over 3 million people were killed: 58,000 American troops, 250,000 South Vietnamese troops, over a million North Vietnamese soldiers and Viet Cong guerillas, 10s of thousands in Laos and Cambodia and over 2 million civilians from the North and the South
IRAQ
The aftermath of the war and the water crisis
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When the United States originally attacked Iraq in 2003, they bombed establishments and infrastructures that were imperative when it came to the people’s access of clean drinking water such as dams, pumping stations, and water desalination plants
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the people most affected by this water crisis are those living in the countryside and suburbs that are not connected to a water network and don’t have access to clean water
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In 2008, when American soldiers were still in Iraq, more than 40% of people were relying on poor quality water. Most of Iraq's water comes from its two main rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates. These rivers are extremely polluted. At the time, there was available bottled water, but the water is privatized so 10 liters of bottled water cost about 50 US cents to a dollar. Many Iraqis living without access to pumps or wells could not afford to pay for their water and had to drink water from the polluted rivers which leads to wide-spread water-borne illness, especially for children.
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Many of these realities still exist today.
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The number of Iraqis killed between March 2003 and the end of 2011 when US forces departed is between 100,000 and one million, with thousands more injured physically and greatly affected psychologically