From Here to Eternity_ The Restored Edit - Jones, James [292]
“In other words,” Prew said, “you mean I can prove they were lying by admitting what they say is true.”
“Well,” the lieutenant said, “you can put it that way, yes. But I didnt say they were lying. Maybe they’re telling the truth.”
“How can they be telling the truth if I’m telling the truth when I say I wasn’t drunk?”
“Well in one sense they are lying, if you werent drunk. But in another sense they may be telling the truth, in that they really believe you were drunk. So actually, you both may be telling the truth, as you see it, and still disagree. See?”
“Yeah,” Prew said. “Its deep, aint it?”
Lt Culpepper nodded. “And a lawyer has to take all those things into account for you. Thats why they appoint one. But all that is beside the point. The point is what is in the testimonies. The court wont believe you if you say you werent drunk. They may not come right out and say it, but in their minds they will. Because every criminal always protests he is innocent. Thats SOP. That only helps convict you, you see? What you’ll really be doing is only trading a worthless fiction for three or four months in jail. The truth has nothing to do with the legal code a court martial runs by, or with the human relations that run the legal code. You see?”
“I guess so,” Prew said. “But I——”
“Now wait a minute. I had this typed out, saying you were drunk and didnt know what you were doing.”
Lt Culpepper opened the new yellow leather briefcase with the zipper on three sides and hunted in it and pulled out a paper and handed it to him. Then he closed the zipper lovingly.
“You read it over, to see its not putting you in a hole. I wouldnt want you to sign anything without reading it. Never sign anything without reading it, Prewitt. It’ll get you in trouble someday, if you do. And then after you’ve read it and signed it, we’ll turn it in out of the blue at the trial and I’ll ask for clemency with the court. Then they cant honorably give you more than a month and two-thirds, maybe only the two-thirds fine with no jail time.”
“I was always told military courts never accepted appeals for clemency,” Prew said.
“Thats it,” Lt Culpepper said enthusiastically. “Now you’re getting it. I bet its never been done before in the history of courts martial. If it has, I never heard of it. We’ll floor them.”
“But I dont——”
“Now wait,” Lt Culpepper admonished. “You haven’t heard the tipoff yet. Nobody,” he paused; “in the Army,” he paused; “considers drunkenness a misdemeanor or a sin, now do they? You know thats true. Its illegal but everybody does it. I get teed up myself up at the Club all the time, they all do it. In fact, although they never publish it in a Special Order of course or anything like that, most commanding officers like their wild and woolly boys by far the best because they know that kind of devil-may-care attitude is what makes the best soldiers. Actually, most officers feel that a soldier who doesnt get drunked up and go on a rampage now and then isnt worth his salt and is a suspicious character. Right?”
“I dont see how that has anything to do with me pleading guilty,” Prew said.
“Well my God, man, dont you see? If you admit you were drunk and were just feeling your oats was all, then we turn the tables right back on them, because the getting drunk itself is tacitly considered more of a virtue than a sin, to a real soldier. The court, who understand and believe that, couldnt honestly give you three months, let alone the limit, just for being a hell-for-leather wild-and-woolly soldier. Of course, legally you would be guilty; but we dont care about that What we’re aiming for is to influence the human relations of the court that underlie the legal code and in reality are what determine their decisions.”
Lt Culpepper looked at Prew triumphantly brilliantly and got out his Parker 51 pen for him to sign with, but Prew would not take the pen.
“That sounds like a swell idea, Lootenant,” he said grudgingly. “And I hate to disappoint you after you figured it all o