Hearts and Minds Page #10

And there were many occasions...

in the 10-day period

after the decision was made...

when I wondered whether

this country really supported it.

After having met each one of our

honored guests this evening...

and after having talked to them,

I think that all of us...

would like to join

in a round of applause...

for the brave men that took

those B-52s in and did the job.

My eight-year-old

daughter was killed.

And my three-year-old son.

A son, three years old, killed.

Nixon, murderer of civilians.

What have I done to Nixon so that

he comes here to bomb my country?

My daughter died right here.

She was feeding the pigs.

She was so sweet.

She is dead. The pigs are alive.

My mother and my children

took shelter here.

Here they died.

The planes came from over there.

No targets here.

Only rice fields and houses.

I'll give you

my daughter's beautiful shirt.

Take it back to the United States.

Tell them what happened here.

My daughter is dead.

She will never wear

the shirt again.

Throw the shirt in Nixon's face.

Tell them she was only

a little schoolgirl.

Well, the Oriental...

doesn't put the same high price

on life as does a Westerner.

Life is plentiful,

life is cheap in the Orient.

And, uh, as the, uh,

philosophy of the, uh,

of the Orient, uh,

uh, expresses it, uh,

uh, life is, uh,

is not important.

During the missions,

after the missions,

the result of what I was doing...

the result of this-this game,

this, uh, exercise

of my technical expertise...

never really dawned on me.

That reality of the screams

or the people being blown away...

or their homeland being destroyed,

uh, just was not a part

of what I thought about.

Uh, we, as Americans,

have never experienced that.

We've never experienced

any kind of devastation.

When I was there, I never saw

a child that got burned by napalm.

I didn't drop napalm, but I

dropped other things just as bad.

I dropped C.B.U. s, which

can't destroy anything.

It's meant for people.

It's an antipersonnel weapon.

We used to drop canister upon

canister of these things...

with 200 tumbling little balls in

there about this big around...

with something like

600 pellets in each ball...

that would blow out

as soon as it hit the ground,

uh, and shred people to pieces.

They couldn't be gotten out

in many cases.

People would suffer. They would live,

but they would suffer, you know?

Then often they would

die afterwards.

This would cause people to have

to take care of them, you know?

But I look at my children now...

and, uh, I don't know what

would happen if, uh...

uh, what I would think about

if someone napalmed them.

Do you think we've learned

anything from all this?

I think we're trying not to.

I think I'm trying

not to sometimes.

I can't even cry easily.

From my, uh, my manhood image.

I think Americans have tried...

We've all tried very hard...

to escape

what we've learned in Vietnam,

to not come to the logical conclusions

of what's happened there.

You know, the military

does the same thing.

They don't realize that, um,

people fighting for

their own freedom...

uh, are not gonna be stopped...

by just changing your tactics,

adding a little bit more

sophisticated technology over here,

improving the tactics we used last time,

not making quite the same mistakes.

Uh, you know, I think history operates

a little different than that.

And I think that those kind of

forces are not gonna be stopped.

I think Americans have

worked extremely hard...

not to see, uh, the criminality,

uh, that their officials

and their policy makers,

uh, have exhibited.

Number one! Number one!

It's your country, not a toilet,

you bastards!

They oughta go to Cuba. That's

where they belong. Or Russia.

Boo!

You motherfuckers!

Man, let me talk to somebody.

I was in Vietnam.

I was a platoon leader over there.

What is this?

What the hell is this?

We were the ones that got shot.

You guys were over there too

with your damn cameras.

Holy... Make my day!

Come on, smile a little bit!

Come on! Smile! Smile!

Be happy! Smile!

Everything isn't bad!

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes