Starship Troopers and the Forever War

In some ways it would seem as if Robert Heinlein's "Starship Troopers" and Joe Haldeman's "The Forever War" should be very similar novels. Both after all are novels about humanity's war against an alien race fought by infantrymen on planetary surfaces, with the use of powered armor. Both were written by military veterans and go into great detail into infantry tactics and the process of fighting an interstellar war. Yet both served as mirror opposites dealing with similar subjects and similar settings, written by somewhat similar authors, from dramatically perspectives.

"Starship Troopers" won the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1960. "The Forever War" won the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1976 and the Nebula Award in 1975. While he Hugo Award (named after Hugo Gernsback) is given out by fans, the Nebula Award is given out by the industry professionals of the SFWA. This should not itself be viewed as reflecting the opposition of writers to "Starship Troopers" because of the simple fact that "Starship Troopers" predated the award by five years. Yet it serves as a reminder that Haldeman's work enjoyed a popularity among fellow writers that Heinlein's did not.

Consider that while Robert Heinlein's novels were nominated several times for a Nebula Award, including for "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" which featured a lunar uprising, terrorism and lynch law, "Job: A Comedy of Justice" which satirized Evangelical Christianity, "Friday" which focused on a disembodied United States, "Time Enough for Love" which featured controversial sexual matters-- not one of these novels received the award. By contrast beginning with "The Forever War", Joe Haldeman would go on to win a string of Nebula awards for Best Novel, through the sequel to "The Forever War", "Forever Peace" and the recent "Camouflage".

From the day it was first released, "Starship Troopers" was tarred as warmongering and fascistic. Its depictions of human soldiers slaughtering aliens they contemptuously nicknamed, "Bugs" and "Skinnies"-- paralleling real life racial slurs in Asian wars like "Gooks" that "Starship Troopers" appeared to be directed at. The transformation of the novel's main character, Johnny Rico, into a full fledged Federation Marine through indoctrination and brute force, as well as the Terran Federation government which is run by the military and which only grants the voting franchise to military veterans-- seemed to entirely justify the fascistic label.

The debate went on as the years passed and sections of Science Fiction fandom split down over their views of "Starship Troopers". For many of the more military minded and conservative readers and writers, "Starship Troopers" represented a powerful and timely message about the importance of defending the patria, the homeland, and how wars needed to be fought and what it took to become a soldier and a responsible citizen of a human society. By contrast for the more progressive and liberal minded writers and fans, "Starship Troopers" represented the triumphant celebration of war, ruthless brutality, territorial expansionism, military dictatorship and armed conquest of every race which could be represented or misrepresented as "Other".

In addition to the controversy "Starship Troopers" generated, it generated its share of equally fictional rebuttals and parodies, including Harry Harrison's prominent satirical masterpiece, "Bill the Galactic Hero", which depicted a clueless mentally challenged main character in the form of Bill, who is drafted to fight a war on behalf of an Empire led by an imbecilic child Emperor against the alien Chingies and is repeatedly tricked, abused and lied to until he finally becomes transformed at the end of the novel into the very sort of Sergeant who drafted him and drafts his own brother into service.

When "Starship Troopers" was adapted to film, "Robocop" director Paul Verhoeven who tended to take a pointedly social satiric look at American society-- transformed it into an explicit presentation of a fascist society clumsily fighting a pointless war.

But first and foremost of the fictional works that served as a rebuttal to "Starship Troopers" would be penned by a Vietnam Veteran and Science Fiction writer, Joe Haldeman. That book would be "The Forever War". Unlike many of the fictional responses to "Starship Troopers", "The Forever War" is the only one that would be able to stand on its own feet and its own merits, going to acclaim entirely separate from any role in relation to "Starship Troopers".

"The Forever War" would also follow a course of the training of an infantryman from civilian to officer as he fights an alien race in defense of humanity but would serve to invert many of the themes of "Starship Troopers" and dramatically skew others. "Starship Troopers" featured a humanity in military service, volunteering and going off bravely to fight. "The Forever War" begins with a handful of educated professionals and students drafted into compulsory service. "Starship Troopers" shows the power of the armored exoskeleton suits which the marines use to demolish the alien enemy. "The Forever War" displays the armored suits as dangerous and often useless, as likely to kill their wearers or friendlies-- as the enemy. "Starship Troopers" shows the training as professionals gearing potential soldiers for war. "The Forever War" shows that same training as useless and irrelevant and senseless.

In "Starship Troopers" the army is professional and competent. In "The Forever War", the army is incompetent, ignorant and contemptuous of its soldiers' lives. In "Starship Troopers" the war is a fundamental necessity in the name of humanity. In "The Forever War", the war is a mistake and a miscommunication created by a military looking for a war in the name of their own authority. (It is noteworthy that Ed Neumeier's script for Starship Troopers and Paul Verhoeven's direction agreed on all these points with Joe Haldeman's The Forever War ,rather than the conventional narrative of Starship Troopers itself.)

The overriding worth in "Starship Troopers" is found in military service. In "The Forever War", it is found in love. It is also significant in this regard that "Starship Troopers" began as a juvenile and is devoid virtually of romance and love-- except the love of military service.

The differing perspectives of the two novels may also be tied to their respective wars. Where Starship Troopers was written by a WW2 veteran after the Korean War, a war that seemed to have ended indecisively but with an American victory overall, The Forever War came after the Vietnam War and was written by a Vietnam War veteran after an American defeat. To what extent these differing attitudes of Joe Haldeman and Robert Heinlein were shaped by their wartime experiences can only remain a matter of debate-- yet like the overall debate over these works, it is one that goes on.