We were the group that built the roads by day that the Vietcong traveled at night.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
With Vietman, we found ourselves involved there before we really understood what was going on.
When I visited Vietnam for Oxfam, the thing that really struck me was how the local farmers had to prepare to evacuate or climb to their mezzanines with their valuable family possessions.
When the soldiers came home from Vietnam, there were no parades, no celebrations. So they built the Vietnam Memorial for themselves.
In Vietnam, we took a hill and defeated the enemy; then we retreated and let the enemy take over.
Gradually I became aware of details: a company of French soldiers was marching through the streets of the town. They broke formation, and went in single file along the communication trench leading to the front line. Another group followed them.
In 1975, the Americans suffered a spectacular military defeat at the hands of North Vietnam and the Vietcong, with U.S. helicopters seeking to rescue leading U.S. personnel from the tops of buildings as Vietnamese guerrillas closed in on the centre of Saigon.
I carry the memories of the ghosts of a place called Vietnam - the people of Vietnam, my fellow soldiers.
The Vietnamese see their history as an unending series of struggles of resistance to aggression, by the Chinese, the Mongols, the Japanese, the French, and now the Americans.
I got no quarrel with them Vietcong.
We moved in to help the Vietnamese defend their country and confront the Viet Cong.