Looking Back on Vietnam

I cannot help but think of the people I came to know during my three trips out to that tragic land. What anguish must they be going through?—they who gave their blood, risked their lives, lost their friends and families, who dreamed that their efforts would somehow bring freedom, security, and happiness to the tortured Vietnamese, who believed that the war was worth fighting. They were simple soldiers or peasants, a few officers, and a businessman. They had one thing in common: they wanted an independent Vietnam.

The first to come to mind is Dan Butler, a Special Forces advisor to a South Vietnamese marine unit. I had met him in Hué, that hauntingly nostalgic city on the banks of the perfumed river, with its serene world of heavily scented lotus ponds, multitiered pagodas, and imperial palaces. It was spring 1972; the North Vietnamese had just launched their massive offensive and overrun Quang Tri in the north.

TT

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Taki Theodoracopulos

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I cannot help but think of the people I came to know during my three trips out to that tragic land. What anguish must they be going through?—they who gave their blood, risked their lives, lost their friends and families, who dreamed that their efforts would somehow bring freedom, security, and happiness to the tortured Vietnamese, who believed that the war was worth fighting. They were simple soldiers or peasants, a few officers, and a businessman. They had one thing in common: they wanted an independent Vietnam.

The first to come to mind is Dan Butler, a Special Forces advisor to a South Vietnamese marine unit. I had met him in Hué, that hauntingly nostalgic city on the banks of the perfumed river, with its serene world of heavily scented lotus ponds, multitiered pagodas, and imperial palaces. It was spring 1972; the North Vietnamese had just launched their massive offensive and overrun Quang Tri in the north.