Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam Page #3

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You look young.

How old are you?'

They usually like you to be 21 and 23,

but I tell them 19.

Then they say,

'You baby-san!'

Which means, 'Have you ever been

to bed with a woman?"'

"A baby-san's a virgin.

Ha, come on!"

I wish I could report to you

that the conflict is

almost over.

This I cannot do.

We face more costs,

more loss,

and more agony,

for the end is not yet.

I cannot promise you

that it will come this year...

or come next year.

Our adversary still believes,

I think, tonight

that he can go on fighting

longer than we can,

and longer than we

and our allies

will be prepared to stand up

and resist.

Roger. If they come up

to where you are,

I'll be going at them

in the same direction.

I want to try

to flank them.

That's why I'm asking

what direction you're firing in.

It sounds to me like

you're firing east. Over.

This is Elmo, did not copy.

Repeat, over.

What direction

are you firing in?

- Come in on the other flank. Over.

- That's affirmative.

You can fire that way.

Negative! Don't fire any way.

We're surrounded by friendlies.

Return incoming fire

from there!

- Returning fire, sir!

- What did he say?

Escort platoon, they're trying

to overrun these woods.

"Dear Madeline,

it's good to have someone

to tell your troubles to.

I can't tell them to my parents

or Darlene 'cause they worry too much,

but I tell you truthfully

I doubt if I'll come out of this alive.

In my original squad

I'm the only one left unharmed."

"In my platoon there's

only 13 of us.

It seems every day another young guy,

18 or 19 years old

like myself,

is killed in action.

Please, help me, Mad.

I don't know if I should stop

writing my parents and Darlene or what."

Come on!

"Oh, and one more favor,

I'd like the truth now.

Has Darlene been

faithful to me?

I know she's dating

other guys,

but does she still

love me best?

See if it's God's will.

I have to make it out

of Vietnam though,

because I'm lucky.

I hope.

Ha ha.

Love, Ray."

Okay, watch out.

Okay, up!

I've got it.

"Dear Doug,

we were cut off

from our base

and requested a helicopter

evacuation with a priority.

We were

all in sad shape now.

I know that at one point,

my feet about to crack open,

my stomach knotted by hunger

and diarrhea,

my back feeling like a mirror made

of nerves shattered in a million pieces

by my flack jacket pack, and extra

mortars and machine-gun ammo...

my hands a mass of hamburger

from thorn cuts,

and my face a mass of welts

from mosquitoes,

I desired greatly

to throw down everything and sob.

I remember a captain,

an aviator, who observing

a group of grunts

toasting the infantry

in a bar said,

'You damned infantry think

you're the only people who exist.'

You're damned right

we do."

- How many men did you have?

- Ten, sir.

- How many came out of the battle?

- Four, sir.

- Four. Rest of them killed or wounded?

- One killed.

One killed, rest wounded. Some of the

wounded will be back for duty, I assume?

Yes, sir. We got them all out.

All of them came back.

- Uh-huh. All your weapons too?

- Yes, sir.

What were

you doing, lad?

Sir, I was a medic

on a point.

- Mm-hmm. Think you saved some lives?

- Yes, sir.

"September 1967.

David, morale's very high

in spite of the fact that most men think

the war's being run incorrectly.

One of the staggering facts

is that most men here believe

we will not win the war,

and yet they stick

their necks out every day,

and carry on as if

they were fighting

for the continental security

of the United States."

Were you men in the battle? I know you

were, weren't you, Fitzgerald?

- Yes, sir.

- What did you do?

What did I do? I ran around and shot

just like everybody else.

What did you shoot?

What type of weapon?

- I'm on an M-60, sir.

- An M-60.

"We were taking

a fierce beating over here.

They don't have

enough men.

We must have more men.

At least twice as many,

or we are gonna get

the piss kicked out of us this winter

when the rains come."

Ever since Hill 80-81 and 86-20

you feel something

in the air...

uh, about the build-up.

I don't know. You can almost feel them

working around you at night.

"Dear Ellen,

we really have been preparing

for this all-out offensive by the gooks.

I guess you might have read

about it in the papers.

There's supposed

to be a truce in Vietnam

during the Chinese

Tet New Year.

Khe Sanh is the only area

not observing it

because of the build-up.

I'll try to write again soon.

Love, Jim."

Incoming!

"Dear Mom and Dad,

I guess by now you're

worried sick over my safety.

Khe Sanh village

was overrun,

but not the combat base.

The base was hit and hit hard

by artillery, mortars and rockets.

All my gear and the rest

of the company's gear was destroyed.

I am unhurt

and have not been touched.

But with all the death

and destruction I've seen

in the past week

I've aged greatly.

I feel like an old man now.

I've seen enough of war

and its destruction.

I'm scared by it,

but not scared enough to quit.

I'm a Marine and I hope someday

to be a good one.

Please pray for us all

here at Khe Sanh.

Your son and Marine,

Kevin."

It's Tet,

the Oriental New Year,

and it's a new war.

The Vietcong

simultaneously attacked

just about every major city

and town in South Vietnam.

In one day, they'd increased

the scope of the war dramatically.

Howard Tuckner was there.

The war came to Saigon

early in the morning

of January 31st.

The first target was the symbol

of the American presence in Vietnam,

the United States embassy.

About 20 Vietcong had

invaded the embassy compound

and were now battling American

Marines and military police.

There are two men

over in that direction.

The Vietcong had

penetrated to the center

of what was supposed to be

the most secure city in Vietnam.

What's the hardest part of it?

Trying to know where they are,

that's the worst.

Riding around, they run in the sewers,

in the gutters, anywhere.

They can be anywhere. Just hope you

can stay alive from day to day.

Everybody just wants

to go back home and go to school.

- That's about it.

- Have you lost any friends?

Quite a few.

We lost one the other day.

The whole thing just stinks,

really.

Awful of sick it.

I'll be so glad to go home.

I don't know.

This is the worst area we've been in

since I've been

in Vietnam.

Do you think

it's worth it?

Yeah...

I don't know.

They say we're fighting

for something. I don't know.

General, there's a lot

speculation on the Hill

that ultimately we may have to use

nuclear weapons.

What can you say

on that subject?

I do not think that nuclear weapons

will be required

to defend Khe Sanh.

Incoming!

Marines just sitting here

taking it like dopes.

Yeah,

that's what gets me.

That's not they way

we're supposed to...

We're supposed to be

hard chargers.

We're supposed to

go out and get them.

If they pulled a good search

and destroy, we could clear them away.

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