Finally Mailer turns to what he holds is the “ saddest conclusion ” of the Vietnam War , namely it highlighted the country 's deep state of schizophrenia . The nation 's state of schizophrenia had been a theme of Mailer 's work , appearing in such pieces as '' The White Negro '' . In '' Why are We in Vietnam ? '' Mailer noted , “ The average American , striving to do his duty , drove further every day into working for Christ , and drove equally further each day in the opposite direction — into working for the absolute computer of the corporation ... So the average good Christian American secretly loved the war in Vietnam . It opened his emotions . He felt compassion for the hardships and the sufferings of the American boys in Vietnam , even the Vietnamese orphans . ” Mailer sets Christian ethics in opposition to America 's corporate mentality . He argues that these ethics , the Christian and the corporate , are diametrically opposed . However , despite their incompatibility , the average American has managed to live with both in a remarkable feat of cognitive dissonance . The mental gymnastics required by this resulted in the nation 's state of schizophrenia . Vietnam , and conflict at large , presented a type of catharsis which satisfied the moral and material ethics of the nation . The war presented the corporate ethic with the opportunity to expand its influence and technology , while it gave the American Christian outlets for their emotional urges such as pity . Mailer ultimately views these systems of ethics as logically incompatible , yet intertwined in the American psyche . He notes , “ America needed the war . It would need a war so long as technology expanded on every road of communication , and the cities and corporations spread like cancer ; the good Christian American needed the war or they would lose their Christ . ” The year '' Armies '' was published , 1968 , Mailer would begin work on another project , '' Miami and the Siege of Chicago '' , after witnessing the Republican and Democratic National Conventions that year . Mailer 's recounting , though quite different in terms of his self-portrait , takes on a comparable rhetorical approach to evoking what he saw as historical underpinnings
Democratic National Conventions
1968 Democratic National Convention
The Armies of the Night