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Huế 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam QUOTES

Huế 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam QUOTES

81 " But Che was neither as innocent nor as friendly as she looked. She knew nothing of the global clash of ideas that brought American soldiers to Vietnam, but the war was her life. Her position in it was dead certain. With all the passion of youth, she hated the Saigon regime, the Republic of Vietnam. This enmity was largely an inheritance. Before she was born, her father had fought with the Viet Minh against the French, and when she was a child he had been imprisoned for years by the Saigon regime, which had followed the French. In her mind they were the same, only now the shadow behind the local oppressor was not France, but the United States. Her father, a bricklayer, had been fighting his whole life. For Che, the war had turned even more personal two years earlier, when the ARVN killed her big sister, a leader in the VC underground. She knew the regime’s soldiers as nguy (fake), a word that in Vietnamese suggested a familiar Asian face masking an alien soul.3 "

― Mark Bowden , Huế 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam

82 " How could a nation built upon ‘Give me liberty or give me death,’ ‘all men are created equal,’ and ‘of the people, by the people, for the people’ have ended up waging a shameful, disgraceful war against a people who had done us no harm nor ever would or could?” he wrote. "

― Mark Bowden , Huế 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam

83 " it is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out then will be to negotiate, not as victors, but as an honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy, and did the best they could. This is Walter Cronkite. Good night. "

― Mark Bowden , Huế 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam

84 " The Americans landed in Vietnam, were killed in Vietnam, and others have continued to come here without having good reasons. "

― Mark Bowden , Huế 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam

85 " How do you bomb a nation into the Stone Age when, in modern industrial terms, they are not that far removed from it? "

― Mark Bowden , Huế 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam

86 " Increasingly the United States found itself isolated. Having for two decades enjoyed its status as champion of the free world, it was increasingly the target of bitter criticism abroad and at home, where a growing number of prominent intellectuals and church leaders denounced the bombing campaign as barbaric. The military might disdain the fickle nature of public sympathy, but a democracy cannot sustain a war effort without it, and moral revulsion was growing. "

― Mark Bowden , Huế 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam

87 " Beware of men with theories that explain everything. Trust those who approach the world with humility and cautious insight. "

― Mark Bowden , Huế 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam

88 " Many of those who survived are still paying for it. To me the way they were used, particularly the way their idealism and loyalty were exploited by leaders who themselves had lost faith in the effort, is a stunning betrayal. It is a lasting American tragedy and disgrace. "

― Mark Bowden , Huế 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam

89 " History is not easy,” Hue told me. “People are still confused why a huge force like the United States was defeated. But if you don’t know your enemy, you will lose every time. "

― Mark Bowden , Huế 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam

90 " So for Ho, the point of war was to force the United States to negotiate. "

― Mark Bowden , Huế 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam

91 " We do not doubt the outcome,” he said. “The duty of peace is burdensome. It is a duty many generations of Americans have chosen as their own. It is a duty many other young men have borne as you bear it now. In the discharge of that duty, none have honored themselves—none have honored their nation—so nobly, or so bravely, as the United States Marines. "

― Mark Bowden , Huế 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam

92 " When the New York Times confirmed the truth about Hue on its front page, word was definitely out: trapped marines . . . smoking city . . . five battalions of enemy troops. A huge fight was shaping up inside the old fortress. Suddenly nearly every reporter in the country was trying to get to Hue. "

― Mark Bowden , Huế 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam

93 " the AirCav now rode to battle on helicopters, usually Hueys,85 which could carry a full squad; or on the newer, giant twin-engine Chinooks, "

― Mark Bowden , Huế 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam

94 " The United States should interact with other nations realistically, first, not on the basis of domestic political priorities. Very often the problems in distant lands have little or nothing to do with America’s ideological preoccupations. Beware of men with theories that explain everything. Trust those who approach the world with humility and cautious insight. "

― Mark Bowden , Huế 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam

95 " Beware of men with theories that explain everything. Trust those who approach the world with humility and cautious insight "

― Mark Bowden , Huế 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam

96 " On the same convoy were two marine “snuffies,” or combat correspondents, Steve Berntson and Dale Dye. "

― Mark Bowden , Huế 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam

97 " Snuffies didn’t bug out, and they didn’t write shit about you, either. "

― Mark Bowden , Huế 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam

98 " He was disappointed on his first Vietnam tour in 1965 when he’d seen little action. Now, with his own company, he was eager to be put to use. His ears stuck out on either side of his high-and-tight and he wore US Marine Corps–issued glasses in thick black plastic frames. In his wallet, he carried a formal portrait of his wife, Missy, and daughter, Marianne, both wearing pink. The politics of the war didn’t concern him at all. He was a marine; there was a war on. "

― Mark Bowden , Huế 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam

99 " The United States had complete control of the air over all of Vietnam, and could presumably deliver a decisive blow at will. The failure to do so was blamed on the very notion of “limited war.” America was fighting with one hand—or so the story went. "

― Mark Bowden , Huế 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam

100 " ...but the rank and file had sized up the coming fight inside the Citadel as the shit storm to end all shit storms. "

― Mark Bowden , Huế 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam