If the thing they were fighting for was important enough to die for then it was also important enough for them to be thinking about it in the last minutes of their lives. That stood to reason. Life is awfully important so if you've given it away you'd ought to think with all your mind in the last moments of your life about the thing you traded it for. So did all those kids die thinking of democracy and freedom and liberty and honor and the safety of the home and the stars and stripes forever? You're goddamn right they didn't. They died crying in their minds like little babies. They forgot the thing they were fighting for the things they were dying for. They thought about things a man can understand. They died yearning for the face of a friend. They died whimpering for the voice of a mother a father a wife a child They died with their hearts sick for one more look at the place where they were born please god just one more look. They died moaning and sighing for life. They knew what was important They knew that life was everything and they died with screams and sobs. They died with only one thought in their minds and that was I want to live I want to live I want to live. He ought to know. He was the nearest thing to a dead man on earth.
He ran as he'd never run before, with neither hope nor despair. He ran because the world was divided into opposites and his side had already been chosen for him, his only choice being whether or not to play his part with heart and courage. He ran because fate had placed him in a position of responsibility and he had accepted the burden. He ran because his self-respect required it. He ran because he loved his friends and this was the only thing he could do to end the madness that was killing and maiming them.
I spent half my childhood trying to be like my dad. True for most boys, I think. It turns with adolescence. The last thing I wanted was to be like my dad. It took becoming a man to realize how lucky I’d been. It took a few hard knocks in life to make me realize the only thing my dad had ever wanted or worked for was to give me a chance at being better than him.
I don't have anything to give you, except to show you a way to better yourself.
'Matterhorn' is my metaphor of the Vietnam War - we built it, we abandoned it, we assaulted it, we lost, and then we abandoned it again.
I'd love to go to Indonesia, Bali, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Cambodia.
In 1961, the United States began chemical warfare in Vietnam, South Vietnam, chemical warfare to destroy crops and livestock. That went on for seven years. The level of poison - they used the most extreme carcinogen known: dioxin. And this went on for years.
I would not trade you a billion dollars for the kids I led to combat in Vietnam or in fact any of the Marines that I served with for a quarter of a century.
The American claim that the bombing of North Vietnam was directed against military targets does not withstand direct investigation.
Millions also perished in the Chinese camps, and there have been terrible genocides in Cambodia and Vietnam.
I had a lot of fun in Cambodia, much more so in Cambodia than Vietnam.
I always felt more emotionally attached to Cambodia than I did to Vietnam.
This is the voice of Vietnam Broadcasting from Hanoi, capitol of the Democratic republic of Vietnam.
When the soldiers came home from Vietnam, there were no parades, no celebrations. So they built the Vietnam Memorial for themselves.
To me, Columbine is just as awful as Vietnam, and it's just as awful as anything else.
War is war. Vietnam is no different from the Crusades.
My father is American and deserted the Vietnam War.
As Bill Clinton said so eloquently at the convention, during Vietnam there was a chance to serve; there was a chance not to serve.
To win in Vietnam, we will have to exterminate a nation.
There's never been anything like the so-called Vietnam Syndrome: it's mostly a fabrication.
