Salinger In the CIC With Henry Kissinger

Salinger served in the CIC (Counterintelligence Corps) during The Battle of the Bulge in World War II. He was responsible for interviewing captured German soldiers as well local civilians, friend or foe. Did he witness torture and if so how did he handle it? How much was he willing to face and share, or was allowed to? War does things to the mind. His mind failed under the relentless pressure of trauma after trauma. After having thoughts of self harm, he submitted to psychiatric care. After recovering, he volunteered to return for more. He was cited for valor more than a couple of times, a bonifide hero.

Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger also served in the CIC and the Battle of the Bulge. It would be interesting to know if their paths crossed during those assignments, for which they both received medals for valor. Here's the relevant Wikipedia quote about Kissinger in the CIC: 

"Kissinger was reassigned to the 84th Infantry Division. There, he made the acquaintance of Fritz Kraemer, a fellow immigrant from Germany who ...arranged for him to be assigned to the military intelligence section of the division. Kissinger saw combat with the division and volunteered for hazardous intelligence duties during the Battle of the Bulge."

Further Wikipedia comments about the CIC:

"In the European and Pacific theaters of operations CIC deployed detachments at all levels. These detachments provided tactical intelligence about the enemy from captured documents, interrogations of captured troops, and from para-military and civilian sources. They were also involved in providing security for military installations and staging areas, located enemy agents, and acted to counter stay-behind networks. They also provided training to combat units in security, censorship, the seizure of documents, and the dangers of booby traps. In some cases CIC agents found themselves acting as the de facto military government on the occupation of large towns before the arrival of Allied Military Government for Occupied Territories (AMGOT) officers. As the war in Europe came to a close, CIC were involved in the Operations Alsos, Paperclip and TICOM, searching for German personnel and research in atomic weapons, rockets and cryptography. Recruits after World War II included Klaus Barbie, also known as the 'Butcher from Lyon', a former Gestapo member and war criminal."

After recovering from shell shock, Salinger volunteered to return to postwar Germany and hunt war criminals. He married a woman and later had the marriage annulled. She was a Nazi. Did he marry her for Intelligence reasons or did he truly love her? 

Salinger's war record was so highly personal we can understand why he had to lock himself away for long periods. It meant going deep and facing shame and trauma, and facing trauma can be re-traumatizing. This is why many combat veterans end up on welfare. PTSD, untreated, can be debilitating. Salinger wrote during the war, even during combat, stories that became The Catcher in the Rye.

Can you imagine sitting down with Charlie Rose to talk about killing and death? Or with any civilian who hasn't a clue what it is like to face combat? 

Read All Quiet on the Western Front  or Slaughterhouse Five for a sample of what it is like to return home after combat. These are be the standard by which any book about infantry combat is measured. In future volumes to be published we may see how Salinger does it.