Hearts and Minds Page #5

You got to tell them

they're number one, no matter what.

- You're number one.

Wow. Why don't you just say "wow"?

- Say what?

- 'Toy hoy" means "wow"?

- Toy hoy?

- Yeah.

Like, toy hoy means,

like, wow, you know?

- Look at the hickeys I gave this chick.

- You gave her hickeys?

- Yeah.

- I can imagine. Where?

Uh, one on each side.

- It's a place where she can't hide 'em.

- Oh, really?

See, this one? I gave her this one.

And this one,

this is the first one right there.

It came out kind of

nasty, you know.

- And... No can do, I know.

- Maybe he's dead.

- He's not dead. Wake him up.

- No can wakey up.

Why?

- Wakey him up. He no hard.

- Huh? Why he's no hard?

- Uh-huh.

- 'Cause you no wake him up.

Hey, Charles.

You getting anything out of yours?

This one's, uh, kind of sour on me,

you know? Uh...

- Well, keep her going, man.

- Huh?

- Keep her going.

- I'm trying to.

You know what it is about

these chicks down here,

like, they're, uh...

Well, what would you want to do...

except for, you know,

have a ball with them.

- And, uh... Right?

- Right.

You're number one.

This one's got

a set of knockers, man.

This one does, too, but she

won't take her goddamn bra off.

Take it off for her.

Take it off for her?

- That's the name of the game.

- Here, you don't want this.

I know. I know what you want.

- Hey. Hey, Charles. Charles.

- What?

Yeah? It's about time.

Ah, you don't be mad at me, okay?

It took you long enough,

you know that?

- Oh, yeah. Check it out, baby.

- Check it out later, man.

Check it out later? Mm!

You know, if my chick at home could

see this now, man, she'd flip.

One more. Yeah, this man here.

Hurry up down that tunnel.

Let's make a quick

check and let's go.

Okay, well, hurry it up

and check it out quickly.

Some people enjoy it, some don't.

Some just go out and do it as a job.

It's a daily grind.

- What is it for you?

- I enjoy it.

Now I know that he will have a very

important message for each one of us,

so I want you all

to listen very attentively...

to what he has to say to you.

- Lieutenant Coker.

- If you ever have to go to a war,

and unfortunately, someday you

probably will have to fight a war,

you'll find out

that life becomes very simple.

Because the only thing you're

concerned about is living and dying.

Everything else is unimportant, because

suddenly your life is at stake.

And that's what it's like to be

when you become a prisoner,

particularly, a prisoner of war.

Because the thing that got us through

were the things we learned...

before we were ten years old.

I'd like to open up

to questions now.

Just raise your hand or yell it out and

you can ask any question you want.

And I'll do the best I can

to answer them.

How did you feel when

the Vietnam war was over?

How did I feel

when the war was over?

I felt real good. Real good.

It was a long war and a very

difficult war to understand.

But the reason we went there

was to win this war.

I volunteered to go.

I'd go again if I had to.

And we wanted to win.

That was our number one ambition.

That's what we really wanted,

was to win this war.

And it took us a long time.

So when we knew that we had won,

we felt great;

we really felt great.

- What did Vietnam look like?

- What did Vietnam look like.

Well, if it wasn't for the people,

it was very pretty.

Uh, the people over there are

very backward and very primitive.

And they just make a mess

out of everything.

How did you... How did you, um...

What do you feel about

the people that, um,

went and burned their draft cards

and went into Canada?

We don't agree with them. I think

these people were legally wrong.

I think sometimes

they were cowards.

If they wanted to leave

and go to Canada, that's okay.

But they can't come back, though,

because they have disagreed.

They say, "We don't like your

country, we don't like your people."

They're saying that to you and me.

"I don't like you, so I'm leaving."

Well, fine, that's okay. There's

no reason to hate a guy for that.

'Cause that's also his right,

but he can't come back.

Instead of helping and aiding

the Vietnamese people,

I saw that we were party to their

deliberate and systematic destruction.

The Vietnamese were considered,

less than humans, inferiors.

We called them "gooks," "slopes."

Their lives weren't worth anything to us

because we'd been taught to believe...

that they were all fanatical

and that they were all V. C...

or V.C. sympathizers,

even the children.

Many of us, however,

began to understand...

through our personal

experiences in Vietnam...

the depth of the lies and

deceptions practiced upon us,

and the American people,

by our country's leaders.

It was they who trained us

to kill without question...

and to hate our enemy...

the Vietnamese.

They concocted such phrases

as "kill ratios", "search and destroy",

"free fire zones",

"secure areas", and so on...

to mask the reality

of their combat policy in Vietnam.

I make no apology

for this act of resistance.

I could do nothing else

at the time.

But underground life

has become intolerable to me.

So I'm here today to draw attention

to the true facts concerning my case...

and the cases of tens of thousands

just like me.

We are not criminals

to be hunted and imprisoned.

Over a half million of us have

deserted the military since 1965.

Most of us have already returned

to the military...

to be punished with jail

and bad discharges...

that will be carried around

for the rest of our lives.

And it is a supreme irony to be

prosecuted by the very same men...

who planned and executed

a genocidal war in Indochina.

Now, inside this hearing room,

Eddie Sowders has surrendered himself.

Urged on, he says, by a hand-to-mouth

underground existence...

that still nags at many

of his fellow deserters...

who continue to look

over their shoulders.

Paul Udell, NBC News, Washington.

- How was your sound?

- One more time.

Let me respectfully

tell the American people...

that this is their dirtiest

and longest war.

The Vietnamese fight

only in self-defense.

Ultimately, the Americans

will see the light.

If not, they will

defeat themselves.

You know, Vietnam, uh,

reminded me of a... of a child,

the developing of a child.

The laws of nature control

the development of this child.

A child has to sit up

before it crawls.

It has to crawl before it walks.

It has to walk before it runs.

No matter how

many decades America fights,

I'm telling you so that you will go

back and repeat it to President Nixon.

Over here, as long as there is

rice to eat, we'll keep fighting.

And if the rice runs out, then we'll

plow the fields and fight again.

I know very little about it

over there, I'll tell ya.

And the less I know,

the better off I'll be.

It has not affected me a whole lot.

I mean, the American...

The way of life is still here.

And if you work for it,

it's there for you.

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