Vietnam Quotes

“If in our daily life we can smile, if we can be peaceful and happy, not only we, but everyone will profit from it. This is the most basic kind of peace work.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Being Peace

“Có những người mình yêu
Nhưng mà không gần được.
Có những người yêu mình
Nhưng mà không ừ được.”
― Nguyễn Thiên Ngân

“It was my view then, and still is, that you don't make war without knowing why. Knowledge of course, is always imperfect, but it seemed to me that when a nation goes to war it must have reasonable confidence in the justice and imperative of its cause. You can't fix your mistakes. Once people are dead, you can't make them undead.”
― Tim O'Brien, The Things They Carried

“Look at that! The entire Australian kit dates from the 1940s and the uniforms are falling apart at the seams, the fucking boots you have issued to us are the same and everything is rotten. As for bloody weapons, we are issued with the Owen sub-machine gun. While the gun is still a very good weapon, the 9mm ammunition it uses is old WW2 stock and its propellants have deteriorated to the point where I doubt if the round will penetrate the back-pack of a fleeing Noggie!”
― Michael G. Kramer, A Gracious Enemy

“Tôi, 24 tuổi, thức dậy chỉ thấy hư vô. Không thể mất mát trong hư vô.
Không người con gái nào để thương yêu
Không có người đàn ông nào để trọng
Không có kẻ thù nào để ác
Không có tội lỗi nào để phạm
Không có cả một nỗi buồn để khóc
Cũng chẳng có chiến lũy nào để chết
Chúng ta làm gì cho hết buổi chiều nay?”
― Lưu Quang Vũ

“I also fear an attack directly upon us which shall be considerably aided by the French colonists! I therefore support your plan to act first and stage a preemptive strike against the French by launching “Operation Bright Moon”, which is now the code name for the Japanese coup d ětat which will disarm the Vichy French Forces by or during the 9th of March 1945!”  

(A Gracious Enemy & After the War Volume Two)”
― Michael G. Kramer

“Sergeant Max Franklin replied, “Just go back to your post at number six and keep your wits about you. The word from the Americans in “Big Red One” is that the Noggies are coming to us. I hope not, but it could be what you have been hearing.”
― Michael G. Kramer, A Gracious Enemy

“One thing that became very clear during my own war service is that those who are actively taking part in war-like activities very seldom hate their former enemies. The reverse is the case with a great respect developing among the veterans, even if they happened to be on opposing sides.”
― Michael G. Kramer, A Gracious Enemy & After the War Volume One

“The receiving radio operator immediately said, “Please tell Sunray Delta Six that Sunray Six is being located and informed immediately. Expect his answer very soon!” A short time later, Harry Smith was summoned to the HQ Delta Company radio. He went to it and was told, “Sir, Lieutenant Colonel Townsend is waiting to speak to you.”
― Michael G. Kramer, A Gracious Enemy

“On the 30th of April 1975, American helicopters flew out of Saigon in an ignominious retreat as the tanks of the People’s Liberation Army of Vietnam rumbled into the grounds of the American Embassy in Saigon.

(A Gracious Enemy & After the War Volume Two)”
― Michael G. Kramer

“As well, they used their B-52 bombers to drop thousands of tons of bombs which included napalm and cluster bombs. In a particularly vile attack, they used poisonous chemicals on our base regions of Xuyen Moc, the Minh Dam and the Nui Thi Vai mountains. They sprayed their defoliants over jungle, and productive farmland alike. They even bull-dozed bare, both sides along the communication routes and more than a kilometre into the jungle adjacent to our base areas.
This caused the Ba Ria-Long Khanh Province Unit to send out a directive to D445 and D440 Battalions that as of 01/November/1969, the rations of both battalions would be set at 27 litres of rice per man per month when on operations. And 25 litres when in base or training.
So it was that as the American forces withdrew, their arms and lavish base facilities were transferred across to the RVN. The the forces of the South Vietnamese Government were with thereby more resources but this also created any severe maintenance, logistic and training problems.
The Australian Army felt that a complete Australian withdrawal was desirable with the departure of the Task Force (1ATF), but the conservative government of Australia thought that there were political advantages in keeping a small force in south Vietnam.
Before his election, in 1964, Johnston used a line which promised peace, but also had a policy of war. The very same tactic was used by Nixon. Nixon had as early as 1950 called for direction intervention by American Forces which were to be on the side of the French colonialists.
The defoliants were sprayed upon several millions of hectares, and it can best be described as virtual biocide. According to the figure from the Americans themselves, between the years of 1965 to 1973, ten million Vietnamese people were forced to leave their villages ad move to cities because of what the Americans and their allies had done.
The Americans intensified the bombing of whole regions of Laos which were controlled by Lao patriotic forces. They used up to six hundred sorties per day with many types of aircraft including B52s.
On 07/January/1979, the Vietnamese Army using Russian built T-54 and T-59 tanks, assisted by some Cambodian patriots liberated Phnom Penh while the Pol Pot Government and its agencies fled into the jungle. A new government under Hun Sen was installed and the Khmer Rouge’s navy was sunk nine days later in a battle with the Vietnamese Navy which resulted in twenty-two Kampuchean ships being sunk.”
― Michael G. Kramer, A Gracious Enemy

“The Minister of Army answered, “Bob, I thought that you would have been an astute and clever enough a politician to think of this yourself, but seeing how you have asked me, I suggest that you wait until eight in the night on Thursday 29/April/1965 to announce that Australia will send the First Battalion Royal Australian Regiment to fight in South Vietnam. By you waiting until the evening of 29/April/1965 to announce this in Parliament, the labour opposition leader of Arthur Caldwell and his deputy leader of Gough Whitlam should be absent, as will be most of the entire parliament, because the following day is the beginning of a long week-
end. You are legally not required to give advanced warning to the house, so you can easily get away with this!”
― Michael G. Kramer, A Gracious Enemy & After the War Volume One

“Locating the village elders, he said to them, “I think that we are in for a bad time. The American Sky Soldiers are coming by helicopter and the usual things the Americans do of air strikes by fighter-bombers and by B52 large bombers is starting at Long Phuoc! I fear the worst!”
― Michael G. Kramer, A Gracious Enemy

“On the 30th of April 1975, American helicopters flew out of Saigon in an ignominious retreat as the tanks of the People’s Liberation Army of Vietnam rumbled into the grounds of the American Embassy in Saigon.”
― Michael G. Kramer, A Gracious Enemy & After the War Volume One

“The adrenaline rush subsides as it becomes harder to catch your breath. You become light headed, then dizzy and confused as the air runs out. Reason and sense evaporate as the darkness claims you. That is how it felt to be a Tunnel Rat.”
― Michael G. Kramer, A Gracious Enemy

“This stated, “Dear Mr. Prime Minister, I am delighted by the decision of your government to provide an infantry battalion for service in South Vietnam at the request of the Government of South Vietnam” The simple fact about this was that no such request was ever received by the Australian Government.”
― Michael G. Kramer, A Gracious Enemy

“The artillery fire which helped in holding off the enemy advance against the Australian positions appeared to be getting always closer. A radio operator called Vic Grice somehow replaced the antenna on Buick’s radio. That had been shot off, thus rendering the radio in-operational.”
― Michael G. Kramer, A Gracious Enemy

“A French lieutenant was asked by the commander of the French forces, “Jean, it seems to me that many people are only saying the things they think that I want to hear. Accordingly, what I am getting is not information, it is fucking bullshit!”
― Michael G. Kramer, A Gracious Enemy & After the War Volume One

“            It was stated by an Australian Army Officer, “Phuoc Tuy offers the perfect terrain for guerrilla warfare. It has a long coastline with complex areas of mangrove swamps, isolated ranges of very rugged mountains and a large area of uninhabited jungle containing all of the most loathsome combinations of thorny bamboos, poisonous snakes, insects, malaria, dense underbrush, swamps and rugged ground conditions that the most dedicated guerrilla warfare expert could ask for.”
― Michael G. Kramer, A Gracious Enemy

“Captain Scultetus said, “Sir, I am the commander of the Swakopmund Coast Guard. My name and rank  are Captain Oskar Scultetus! I respectfully beg you not to open fire upon my city!”
― Michael G. Kramer, His Forefathers and Mick

“Anyone who isn't confused really doesn't understand the situation.”
― Edward R. Murrow

“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.”
― Dalton Trumbo, Johnny Got His Gun

“During the Vietnam War... every respectable artist in this country was against the war. It was like a laser beam. We were all aimed in the same direction. The power of this weapon turns out to be that of a custard pie dropped from a stepladder six feet high.”
― Kurt Vonnegut

“There was something that resonated on a deep… spiritual level… about cutting a man in half.”
― William Kely McClung, Super Ninja: The Sword of Heaven

“I'm skimming across the surface of my own history, moving fast, riding the melt beneath the blades, doing loops and spins, and when I take a high leap into the dark and come down thirty years later, I realize it is as Tim trying to save Timmy's life with a story.”
― Tim O'Brien, The Things They Carried

“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.”
― Karl Marlantes, Matterhorn

“Có những người yêu đã ra đi bỗng một ngày nào đó trở lại. Vì sao? Không vì sao cả. Vì một chọn lựa tưởng rằng đúng cuối cùng sai. Và đã trở lại với một người mình đã phụ bạc để muốn hàn gắn lại một vết thương. Một vết thương đã lành lặn lâu rồi bất chợt vỡ òa như một cơn tỉnh thức. Tỉnh thức trên vết thương. Trên một nỗi đau tưởng đã thuộc về quá khứ. Nhưng không, không có gì thuộc về quá khứ cả. Thời gian trôi đi và vết thương vẫn còn đó. Nó vẫn chờ được thức dậy một lúc nào đó để sống lại như chính bản thân nó là một vết thương.

Nhưng vết thương khi đã được đánh thức thì nó không còn là vết thương cũ vì giờ đây nó là một vết thương tỉnh thức. Một vết thương tỉnh thức là một vết thương biết rõ nó là một vết thương. Nó đã thức dậy và nó nhận ra rằng nó đã được khai sinh trên tâm hồn một con người và đã có một thời gian dài làm đau đớn con người đó. Vết thương tỉnh thức là con mắt sáng ngời. Nó nhìn ngược về quá khứ và ngó thẳng đến tương lai. Nó mách bảo cho chủ nhân nó rằng không có một vết thương nào vô tư mà sinh thành cả. Nó là một nỗi đớn đau như trời đất trở dạ làm thành một cơn giông bão.”
― Trịnh Công Sơn

“Yea though I walk through the Valley of the shadow of Death, I shall fear no evil...because I am the meanest motherfucker in the Valley.”
― Bruce H. Norton, Force Recon Diary, 1969: The Riveting, True-to-Life Account of Survival and Death in One of the Most Highly Skilled Units in Vietnam

“Ái chà Bố bật cười. Thì ra là vậy. Bố thấy đẹp lắm Nó làm nụ cười của con khác với những đứa bạn. Ðáng lý con phải tự hào vì nó. Mỗi đứa trẻ có một điều kỳ lạ riêng. Có người có một đôi mắt rất kỳ lạ. Có người có một cái mũi kỳ lạ. Có người lại là một ngón tay. Con hãy quan sát đi rồi con sẽ thấy. Con sẽ biết rất nhiều điều bí mật về những người xung quanh mình.”
― Nguyễn Ngọc Thuần, Vừa Nhắm Mắt Vừa Mở Cửa Sổ

“My chances of returning to America were small, and I thought with regret about all the things I would miss about America: the TV dinner; air-conditioning; a well-regulated traffic system that people actually followed; a relatively low rate of death by gunfire, at least compared with our homeland; the modernist novel; freedom of speech, which, if not as absolute as Americans liked to believe, was still greater in degree than in our homeland; sexual liberation; and, perhaps most of all, that omnipresent American narcotic, optimism, the unending flow of which poured through the American mind continuously, whitewashing the graffiti of despair, rage, hatred, and nihilism scrawled there nightly by the black hoodlums of the unconscious. There were also many things about America with which I was less enchanted, but why be negative?”
― Viet Thanh Nguyen, The Sympathizer