A Bright Shining Lie Page #6

For you.

That's a picture.

- I'm in love.

- How old is she, 17?

17? She's 18, goes to college.

You have your teacher friend translate for you?

(Laughs) Well, you know me,

I can't help falling in love.

Yeah.

What?

My mother's dead.

(Bell rings, woman calls out)

John.

Come on. If you don't get moving

you're gonna miss the Tokyo connection.

It's your mother, John, you owe it to her.

That's funny.

I owe her.

My mother was a whore

and I'm her bastard son.

You know what my birth certificate says on it?

John Le Gay, a son of a b*tch.

That's why those god damned WASPs

at West Point wouldn't let me in.

F***ing bunch of hypocrites.

When I was a little kid growing up in Norfolk,

I used to see her screwing them in their cars.

Grunting and carrying on.

You know how she died?

Somebody cracked her skull open

with a whiskey bottle.

Go home and bury her, John.

(Man, muted)... whosoever believeth

shall not perish, but have everlasting life.

The father loveth the son

and hath given all things into his hand.

- Amen.

- (All) Amen.

(Sighs, sobs)

(John) Thank you.

(Man) My condolences.

- Thanks for coming.

- Sorry, son.

Hey, you need some money for a haircut?

What's the matter with him?

He's against the war.

You don't say.

(Sighs) I better have a word with him

before I head back tomorrow.

Wait a minute. I, erm...

What is it?

John, I wanna file for a divorce.

- I just need to be free from you.

- Baby, come on, I need you.

You don't need anybody,

Myrtle made sure of that.

- And you have the war.

- Johnny.

- I'm truly sorry.

- Thank you.

- Your mama was very special to me.

- I appreciate that.

- You don't remember. I'm your cousin Artie.

- Oh, yeah, yeah.

I'd like to introduce you to some friends

of mine. Danny Dykes.

- Our condolences.

- Thanks for coming.

- I'm sorry for your loss.

- This here's my wife Bella.

- How do you do?

- (Artie) I've been reading about you

in the Norfolk Leader,

all those battles he's been winning.

It's a great thing you're doing, son.

God knows it's a great thing.

Imagine Myrtle's boy

advising the United States Army.

Who would ever have thought that?

Yeah, you need a hand,

you know who to call...

(Burnett) 1967, the year of delusion.

465,000 American troops fought

major battles from the delta to the DMZ,

while Westmoreland declared

the end was coming into view.

Vann knew better.

- (John) I thought we cleared this area.

- We had, sir,

then we discovered these tunnels. Here...

here... and here.

And here, sir, is where

we found the documents.

- What do they say?

- Last month we destroyed the Vietcong here

but according to this document

another VC battalion has replaced them.

(John) Where did they get

the manpower to do that?

I don't know, sir, I thought

we had killed them all.

I'm afraid we are back

to where we started, Mr Vann.

(John) Well, God damn it,

we'll just have to clear it out again.

Hey, get away.

Jesus, John,

now we're fighting schoolteachers.

She was never VC

until her village got bombed.

Er, John, how the hell do we have

a Thanksgiving dinner with these things?

- (Doug) What's the news?

- Spencer Tracy died.

Huh. Who said this? "I don't have

no personal quarrels with those Vietcong."

- Cassius Clay.

- Muhammad Ali.

His new name's Muhammad Ali.

I don't care what he calls himself. He dodges

the draft, no Negro soldier's gonna fight.

- Lock his ass up.

- Hey, can I just say, John,

what an extraordinary pad you've got here?

It's called harnessing

the best houses in Saigon.

- That's the new US aid programme.

- What the hell's that supposed to mean?

It's odd to see you in this context, that's all.

When I met you, rice paddies

and peasants and now...

What are you saying?

You accusing me of selling out?

- I read your articles.

- Oh, have you?

- Yeah. You're ready to surrender.

- Since when is criticism surrender?

Screw that. Nobody's been more critical

of how this war's been fought than me.

But you think it's your duty to spread

this defeatist loser crap.

Oh, winning and losing,

that's what it's all about, isn't it?

A soldier's sole purpose is to win.

I got no argument but you're

not a soldier, you're a civilian.

- (Doug) Come on, guys.

- (Door opens)

Mr Vann?

Excuse me.

What sort of a man are you?

She was a good student. Now...

she's pregnant.

I love your daughter. I will take care of her.

Shall we?

(Lyndon Johnson, on radio)

I have asked General Westmoreland

what more he needs to meet

this mounting aggression.

He has told me and we will meet his needs.

There's incipient uprising in this country in

opposition to this war and it's gonna get worse.

This talk about sending over 100,000

to 200,000 more troops,

you're going to create a very serious difficulty

in this country if you go through with that.

- Captain, where can I find Doug Elders?

- Right over there.

- Thank you.

- You're welcome.

- Hey, Dr Doug.

- Hey.

- Jeez, you look like sh*t.

- Thanks.

I brought you something.

For the revolution.

- I'm going home, John.

- Home? What are you talking about?

- It's jaundice, you'll be out in a week.

- You see this sh*t?

Those are Marines.

Now we're the ones burning them out.

- It's just one damn photo.

- It's more than one photo.

- We're losing our souls here.

- Hell, do you think I agree with it?

I don't want to fight with you, John.

Come on, man,

we've been through a lot together.

John, I'm going home.

OK. OK.

Well, I'm not real good at goodbyes.

Don't get killed.

Gentlemen, as you all know,

until now the fifth division of the Vietcong

has had sole control

of the Saigon operational area.

- These captured VC documents indicate...

- Attention.

Carry on, gentlemen. Fred.

Please continue, Mr Vann.

I was saying that the intelligence

we now have indicates clearly

that divisions formerly positioned in the area

on the Cambodian border have been moved

to here, here, here and here

and now all share

the Saigon theatre of operations.

General, there's aerial evidence

of advanced movement to support this.

And what is your conclusion?

Well, sir, our conclusion is

the enemy is about to strike at the capital.

Gentlemen, that is exactly

what the enemy wants us to think

because they are going to lay siege

to the Marines here with regular forces,

trick us into believing that they are going

to invade the capital with the Vietcong,

we hold back our forces, they overrun

the Marines for a spectacular victory

just like they did the French.

That's not gonna happen

on my watch, gentlemen.

Fred, I want you to have every available man

ready to move at a moment's notice.

Sir, I don't believe

a strategist like General Giap

would risk his troops openly against us.

I appreciate your input, Mr Vann.

101st, 199, you have them ready, Fred.

Lee, what's wrong?

I haven't seen you for so long.

I'm worried.

Look, there's a lot going on right now.

Let's go away together. For Tet?

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