Most of you were not even born yet. In October of 1965, John Sack, an associate producer at CBS, pitched a story about following a U.S. Army company from basic training through their first mission in Vietnam. The story did not fly. Instead, he sold the idea to Harold Hayes, Esquire’s editor, who agreed to have Sack embed with “M” company, which started basic training in Fort Dix, NJ. The resulting 33,000-word story captured the tedium of military life and the brutalities of close combat. It also produced an Esquire cover deigned by George Lois that was shocking and memorable. “OH MY GOD—WE HIT A LITTLE GIRL”—it said in extra-large white Bodoni type against a black backdrop. It was a recollection of a horrified soldier in the field.
The impact was immediate, like a “screamer” headline on a cheap tabloid newspaper, only with more typographic elegance and grace. It was a wail that horrified soldier and civilian alike. It was a turning point of popular opinion. The author himself was not against the war when he wrote the piece, but after this experience he had little prospect for hope.
As children are routinely casualties of the many vicious conflicts waged by self-proclaimed civilized nations targeting populated residences, markets, schools, hospitals and sites of worship, this demonstrative typographic statement no longer triggers the same response. Humanity has veritably normalized the fact that warfare begets casualties, no venue is off limits, and no age group is immune to the horrors of increasingly more powerful conventional munitions. Seeing George Lois’ classic cover makes Secretary of War Pete Hegsmith’s declaration of “No stupid rules of engagement” mean no limit to war: “We fight to win, and we don’t waste time or lives.”
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