We'd all heard about the man in the Highlands who was "building his own gook," parts were the least of his troubles. In Chu Lai some marines pointed a man out to me and sweore to God they'd seen him bayonet a wounded NVA and then lick the bayonet clean. There was a famous story, some reporters asked a door gunner, "How can you shoot women and children?" and he'd answered, "It's easy, you just don't lead them so much." Well, they said you needed a sense of humor, there you go, even the VC had one. Once after an ambush that killed a lot of Americans, they covered the field with copies of a photograph that showed one more young dead American, with the punch line mimeographed on the back, "Your X-rays have just come back from the lab and we think we know what your problem is."

on the Vietnam War, from Dispatches by Michael Herr.

Categories: personal
Posted by diego on August 12 2002 at 8:43 PM