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Vietnam War Quotes

Vietnam War quote from classy quote

And in this moment, I realize one reason it's so great to have a best friend is sometimes, like right now, Cal and I are thinking the very same thing.

~ Kimberly Willis Holt

Kimberly Willis Holt Coming Of Age Death Friendship Vietnam War

The chanting went on, the musicians giving in to the rhythm of their own being, finding healing in touching that rhythm, and healing in chanting about death, the only real god they knew.

~ Karl Marlantes

Karl Marlantes Death Music Vietnam War

It seems like our town has closed down these days leading up to the funeral. Old people still sit on their porches and talk, but their conversations aren't sprinkled with laughter anymore. Since the new, little kids haven't played outside, as if their moms are afraid someone might snatch them out of their yards and send them off to war.

~ Kimberly Willis Holt

Kimberly Willis Holt Coming Of Age Death Friendship Vietnam War

The Mozart sonata Dad picked out begins to play. When we hear the first note, we open the sacks and the ladybugs escape through the opening, taking flight. It's as if someone has dumped rubies from heaven. Soon they will land on the plants in search of bollworm eggs. But right now they are magic-red ribbons flying over our heads, weaving against the pink sky, dancing up there with Mozart.

~ Kimberly Willis Holt

Kimberly Willis Holt Coming Of Age Death Friendship Spirituality Vietnam War

A president who is burdened with a failed and unpopular war, and who has lost the trust of the country, simply can no longer govern. He is destined to become as much a failure as his war.

~ Glenn Greenwald

Glenn Greenwald George W Bush Governance Iraq War Lyndon B Johnson Politics United States Vietnam War War

In World War One, they called it shell shock. Second time around, they called it battle fatigue. After 'Nam, it was post-traumatic stress disorder.

~ Jan Karon

Jan Karon Battle Fatigue Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Ptsd Shell Shock Veterans Vietnam War War World War 1 World War One World War Two

Too young for Korea, too old for Vietnam.

~ Don Delillo

Don Delillo Autobiography Korea Korean War Robert Mccrum Vietnam Vietnam War War

As a child, I thought that war and peace were opposites. Yet I lived in peace when Vietnam was in flames and I didn't experience war until Vietnam had laid down its weapons. I believe that war and peace are actually friends, who mock us.

~ Kim Thúy

Kim Thúy History Inspirational Peace Vietnam Vietnam War War

We could see in our own country as late as the 1960's and 1970's how good Christian and Jewish men, the pillars of our society, when they acceded to political and military power, could sit calmly and cooly in their air-conditioned offices in Washington and cold-bloodedly, without a qualm or a moral quiver, plan and order the massacre of hundred of thousands of men, women and children and the destruction of their homes, farms, churches, schools and hospitals in a faraway Asian land of poor peasants who had never threatened us in the slightest, who were incapable of it. Almost as savage was the acceptance by most of us citizens of such barbarism, until, toward the end, our slumbering - or should one say, cowardly? - consciences were aroused.

~ William L. Shirer

William L. Shirer Militarism Power Vietnam War Violence War

The old refrain is that there are no atheists in foxholes. That's nonsense. They are there by the millions. There is little in combat that will lead one to look upon the Creator with favor. What can't be there, instead, is the individualist, the selfish, the self-consumed, the self-centered, the aloof loner. Such a man cannot long survive. The terror of combat cannot be described by fear of death. There are worse things. The world can suddenly become a very cold place...He needs warmth, a fire, to survive: His discipline, his training, his duty, honor and country, his family, and ultimately the very oak of his manhood are thrown into the blaze, but they are not enough to save him. At the end, he needs the warmth of his comrades. Otherwise, all he will have with which to face the cold dark will be his own spent soul.

~ Frank Boccia

Frank Boccia Manhood Military U S History Vietnam Vietnam War War

But to a Vietnamese peasant whose home means a lifetime of back-breaking labor, it will take more than presidential promises to convince him that we are on his side.

~ Morley Safer

Morley Safer 1960S Class Warfare Imperialism Politics Racism Vietnam Vietnam War War

When I crawled down the rabbit hole into the pivotal event of my life--indeed the pivotal event of my generation--to write Escape from Saigon - a Novel I never expected it to be such an emotional journey into a life I left four decades ago.

~ Dick Pirozzolo

Dick Pirozzolo Air Force History Media Press Saigon Veterans Vietnam Vietnam War War

They say in death our war is over. I don't believe that.

~ Paul Allor

Paul Allor Belief Death Paul Allor Paul Tucker Sinh Tet Vietnam War War War Story

Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on Brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights? No I’m not going 10,000 miles from home to help murder and burn another poor nation simply to continue the domination of white slave masters of the darker people the world over. This is the day when such evils must come to an end. I have been warned that to take such a stand would cost me millions of dollars. But I have said it once and I will say it again. The real enemy of my people is here. I will not disgrace my religion, my people or myself by becoming a tool to enslave those who are fighting for their own justice, freedom and equality. If I thought the war was going to bring freedom and equality to 22 million of my people they wouldn’t have to draft me, I’d join tomorrow. I have nothing to lose by standing up for my beliefs. So I’ll go to jail, so what? We’ve been in jail for 400 years.

~ Muhammad Ali

Muhammad Ali Equality Freedom Jail Slavery Vietnam War

During World War II the top secret “Norden XV” or “Blue Ox” otherwise known the Army Airforce’s “Norden M Series Bombsights,” were used up to and including the Vietnam War by all American military aircraft with bomb carrying capabilities. This bombsight was considered a “Canonical Tachometric Design” meaning that it had the ability to measure the aircraft's direction and ground speed. In time the Norden improved its original design by using a computer that constantly calculated the aircraft’s flight characteristic and external wind forces to determine the bomb's impact point. When the B-17 Flying Fortress was designed, it came equipped with a Sperry A-3 Autopilot that only corrected angular deviations in the aircraft’s straight and level course. In time most bombsights were replaced by video displays on the instrument panel. Dumb or gravity bombs were mostly replaced with in-flight guidance bombs, such as laser-guided bombs or those using a GPS system. The last combat use of the Norden bombsight was by the US Navy during the covert “Operation Igloo White” mission when OP-2E Neptune aircraft dropped electronic sensors to detect enemy activity along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Project CHECO Southeast Asia Report was declassified on May 5, 2013.

~ Captain Hank Bracker

Captain Hank Bracker History Military Aviation Vietnam War World War Ii

We live in the post-trash, man. It'll be a real short eon. Down in the ectoplasmic circuitry where humanity's leaders are all linked up unconsciously with each other and with the masses, man, there's been this unanimous worldwide decision to trash the planet and get on to a new one.

~ Denis Johnson

Denis Johnson Environmentalist Peace Vietnam War

I remember my father, who had served in Vietnam, once talking to me about how real courage is when you're scared out of your mind but you do what you have to do anyway. I didn't feel very courageous at the moment. I felt like a small mouse in the mouth of a lion.

~ Anna M. Aquino

Anna M. Aquino An Ember In Time Back To The Future Christian Church Fiction Novel In Time Pastors Quantum Leap Science Fiction Scifi Series Time Travel Vietnam Vietnam War

The American soldiers were brave, but courage is not enough. David did not kill Goliath just because he was brave. He looked up at Goliath and realized that if he fought Goliath’s way with a sword, Goliath would kill him. But if he picked up a rock and put it in his sling, he could hit Goliath in the head and knock Goliath down and kill him. David used his mind when he fought Goliath. So did we Vietnamese when we had to fight the Americans.

~ Vo Nguyen Giap

Vo Nguyen Giap Courage David Goliath Guerilla War Viet Nam Vietnam Vietnam War

Truth has a resonance to it that fills the cracks where falsehoods lie.

~ Rick Destefanis

Rick Destefanis Adventure Country Music Fiction Gomorrah Principle Goodreads Love Story Military History Novel Rick Destefanis Sniper The Phoenix Program Thriller Veterans Vietnam War

Being stubborn won't make you fluent. Practicing will! The more mistakes you make, the more you'll learn not to.

~ Thanhha Lai

Thanhha Lai Childrensbooks Classic Hope Hope And Despair Insideoutandbackagain Learning Life Vietnam War Vietnamese

They tell me the letters I write to you and leave here at this memorial are waking others up to the fact that there is still much pain left, after all these years, from the Vietnam War. But this I know. I would rather to have had you for 21 years, and all the pain that goes with losing you, than never to have had you at all.

~ Bernard Edelman

Bernard Edelman Loss Vietnam War

I’ve seen a lot of stuff… maybe I’ve seen too much. I see most humans in a bad light because I’ve seen what they can do, how evil they can be… I’ve seen the Holocaust and I’ve seen Jonestown, I’ve seen the Vietnam War and I’ve seen Hiroshima… I’ve seen the Chernobyl disaster… I’ve seen the World Trade Center attack… I’ve been alive too long, over a hundred years is a long time to be alive,” Alecto sighed, staring at the cigarette he was holding.

~ Rebecca Mcnutt

Rebecca Mcnutt 9 11 Alive Chernobyl Death Disaster Dying Earth Evil Grief Hazardous Hippie Holocaust Human Jonestown Kami Lonely Nature Nuclear Personification Pollution Sad Smog Steel Vietnam War

As modern neurobiologists point out, the repetition of the traumatic experience in the flashbacks can be itself re-traumatizing; if not life-threatening, it is at least threatening to the chemical structure of the brain and can ultimately lead to deterioration. And this would also seem to explain the high suicide rate of survivor, for example, survivors of Vietnam.

~ Cathy Caruth

Cathy Caruth Flashbacks Mental Illness Neurobiology Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Ptsd Retraumatization Suicidality Suicide Suicide Rates Veterans Affairs Vietnam Veterans Vietnam War

When I was last in Paris I was dirt poor, hiding from the Vietnam War. One night, in an old church, I considered taking my life. I didn't know how to be so young and not belong anywhere, stuck among so many perplexing melodies.

~ Philip Schultz

Philip Schultz Failure Feeling Lost Suicide Vietnam War

The brave men and women, who serve their country and as a result, live constantly with the war inside them, exist in a world of chaos. But the turmoil they experience isn’t who they are; the PTSD invades their minds and bodies.

~ Robert Koger

Robert Koger Cia Combat Ptsd Dea Fbi Mental Illness Military Mystery Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Ptsd Veterans Vietnam Vietnam War

He was telling war stories. The funny, innocuous ones that made everyone forget that war could leave you without fingers, or legs, or a soul.

~ Sabrina Fedel

Sabrina Fedel Kent State Sabrian Fedel Vietnam War Young Adult

Some people think 1963's a long time ago; when a dead American in the jungle was an event, a grim thrilling novelty. It was spookwar then, adventure; not exactly soldiers, not even advisors yet, but Irregulars, working in remote places with little direct authority, acting out their fantasies with more freedom than most men ever know.

~ Michael Herr

Michael Herr Adventure Soldiers Vietnam Vietnam War

They stared at each other. Every ocean, every river, every minute they had walked together was in their gaze. He said nothing and she said nothing. She kneeled by him, her hands on him, on his chest, on his heart, on his lungs that took air in but could not move air out, on his open wound; her eyes were on him, and in their eyes was every block of uncounted, unaccounted-for time, every moment they had lived since June 22, 1941, the day war started for the Soviet Union. Her eyes were filled with everything she felt for him. Her eyes were true.

~ Paullina Simons

Paullina Simons Death And Dying Hurt Love Memories Past Lives Shura And Tatiana The Summer Garden Vietnam War

Stories can save us.

~ Tim O'brien

Tim O'brien Mgg Stories The Things They Carried Tim O Brien Vietnam War

Stories are for joining the past to the future.

~ Tim O'brien

Tim O'brien Mgg Stories The Things They Carried Tim O Brien Vietnam War

What stories can do, I guess, is make things present.

~ Tim O'brien

Tim O'brien Mgg Stories The Things They Carried Tim O Brien Vietnam War

Know what an optimist is, Major? A pessimist without much experience.

~ Nicholas Proffitt

Nicholas Proffitt Life Optimism Vietnam War

If wars create vast sums of money for the global elite, is it possible the Soviets, the Viet Cong and Muslim extremists were, or are, also fabricated enemies of the West along with North Korea? Or at least exaggerated threats?

~ James Morcan

James Morcan False Flag Attacks Islam Vietnam War

A nation forgetting its own laughter is in a sad state of affairs

~ Sherry Marie Gallagher

Sherry Marie Gallagher 1960S 1970S Addiction Addiction And Recovery American Culture American Identity Boulder Brothers And Sisters Colorado Contemporary Counter Culture Family Hippie Era Hope And Despair Humor Relationships Immigrants Inspirational Lost Generation Love Story Loyalty Musicians Nixon Era Romance Love Heartache Twins Vietnam War

The Americans won't win. They're not fighting for their homeland. They just want to be good. In order to be good, they just have to fight awhile and then leave.

~ Denis Johnson

Denis Johnson America Vietnam War

It’s not that I had more important things to do or that I didn’t want to help with whatever problems were interfering with her students being successful—rather, it’s this horrible truth that life has taught me: misplaced hope is the most devastatingly painful thing you can give someone.

~ Tucker Elliot

Tucker Elliot Education Indonesia Jakarta Leadership Students Teaching Vietnam War

As his boots walked towards the old station, he felt as though he were hallucinating. Scary apprehension increased the beat of his heart and the sweat upon his forehead was cold. The reality of where he stood created a sinking feeling inside of him. An old man everyone called Uncle Tucker once owned this place. His sole existence behind the counter all of the time, day and night. He could have been a creature out of a fairy tale, with his long white beard and equally long white hair. Merlin. The overalls and the ball cap perched upon his head, along with the half-smoked cigar with an endless burning orb positioned in his mouth. It made him a fixture in time. He wondered if Tucker would still be alive. Tucker with his endless stories of the 1960s, the Vietnam War, and flower children. A man that never left a country thousands of miles away where bicycles filled the capital. A man who never left those fields where killing occurred.

~ Jaime Allison Parker

Jaime Allison Parker Age Aging Flashbacks Ptsd The Past Time Trauma Vietnam War

I tell the squad a joke: Stop me if you're heard this. There was a Marine of nuts and bolts, half robot--weird but true--whose every move was cut from pain as though from stone. His stoney little hide had been crushed and broken. But he just laughed and said, 'I've been crushed and broken before.' And sure enough, he had the heart of a bear. His heart functioned for weeks after it had been diagnosed by doctors. His heart weighed half a pound. His heart pumped seven hundred thousand gallons of warm blood through one hundred thousand miles of veins, working hard--hard enough in twelve hours to lift one sixty-five ton boxcar one foot off the deck. He said. The world would not waste the heart of a bear, he said. On his clean blue pajamas many medals hung. He was a walking word of history, in the shop for a few repairs. He took it on the chin and was good. One night in Japan his life came out of his body--black--like a question mark. If you can keep your head while others are losing theirs perhaps you have misjudged the situation. Stop me if you've heard this...

~ Gustav Hasford

Gustav Hasford Death Existentialism Joke Vietnam War

In your dream you call for Chaplain Charlie. You met the Navy chaplain when you interviewed him for a feature article you were writing. Chaplain Charlie was an amateur magician. With his magic, Chaplain Charlie entertained Marines in sick bays and distributed spiritual tourniquets to men who were still alive, but weaponless. To brutal, godless children Chaplain Charlie spoke about how God is merciful, despite appearances, about how the Ten Commandments lack detail because when you're writing on stone tablets with lightning bolts you've got to be brief, about how the Free World will conquer Communism with aid of God and a few Marines, and about free fish. One day a Vietnamese child booby-trapped Chaplain Charlie's black bag of tricks. Chaplain Charlie reached in and pulled out a bright ball of death...

~ Gustav Hasford

Gustav Hasford Death Existentialism Religion Vietnam War

An equation: 40,000 dead young men = 3,000 tons of bone and flesh, 124,000 pounds of brain matter, 50,000 gallons of blood, 1,840,000 years of life that will never be lived, 100,000 children that will never be born (the last we can afford: there are too many starving children in the world already).

~ Dalton Trumbo

Dalton Trumbo Conflict Military Vietnam War War
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