The Vietnam Reader (90 page)

Marvin—
slang for any ARVN or South Vietnamese soldier

medevac—
a medical evacuation flight by a helicopter, usually a Huey

MLR—
main line of resistance

NCO—
noncommisioned officer

NDP—
night defensive position

nuocmam—
a powerful-smelling fish sauce

NVA—
North Vietnamese Army, or any soldier belonging to the PAVN, or People’s Army of Vietnam

OD—
olive drab

PBR—
patrol boat, river

poge—
support personnel at rear area bases, also known as REMFs

PT—
physical training

Puff the Magic Dragon—
a C-47 cargo plane outfitted with mini-guns

punji stakes,
also
pungi
—sharpened stakes, usually of bamboo, anchored in pits to injure foot soldiers

PZ—
pickup zone

recoilless rifle—
a portable heavy weapon much like a bazooka

REMF—
rear-echelon motherfucker; anyone stationed in the rear

re-up—
to enlist for another tour, usually with the (shaky) promise that you won’t have to serve as many months in combat

ricky-tick—
fast, quickly

Rome plow—
huge bulldozer used to clear away forest

RPD—
Soviet light machine gun used by the VC and the NVA; similar to the U.S. M-60

RPG—
rocket propelled grenade

RTO—
Radio-Telephone Operator

ruck,
or
rucksack
—the Army-issue backpack

Saigon cowboy—
young South Vietnamese male involved in the street life and black market of Saigon, usually taking on Western styles

sapper—
enemy commando who sneaks into American facilities, often on a suicide mission

SDS—
Students for a Democratic Society; vocal, high-profile antiwar protesters

Shithook
(see
Chinook
)

short,
also
short-timer
—a U.S. soldier with few days left in-country

short round—
an artillery round or bomb that falls short of the target, often on one’s own troop positions

sit-rep—
situation report

six—
radio call sign for any unit commander

slack—
the number-two man in a patrol, walking immediately behind the point man

slick—
a UH-1 helicopter with no protruding armament; or, any Huey

slope—
racial slur, applied to Vietnamese; or any Asian person

SOP—
standard operating procedure

squid—
a member of the Navy

Starlight scope—
an optical device that amplifies moonlight and starlight to allow the user to see in the dark

TAOR—
Tactical Area of Operational Responsibility

thumper—
M-79 grenade launcher

ti-ti,
also
titi
—little, tiny, small

TOC—
Tactical Operations Center

TOT—
time on target

Victor Charlie—
the military phonetic spelling of VC, or Viet Cong

web gear,
also
webb gear
—the belt and harnesslike suspenders from which a soldier’s ammo, grenades, smoke canisters, canteen, etc., hang

WIA—
Wounded in Action

Willie Peter,
also
WP
—white phosphorous

XO—
executive officer

zip,
also
zipperhead
—racial slur, applied to Vietnamese; or to any Asian person

zoomie—
a member of the U.S. Air Force

Selected Additional Bibliography

Anderson, Douglas.
The Moon Reflected Fire.
Cambridge, Mass.: Alice James Books, 1994.

Balaban, John.
After Our War.
Pittsburgh, Pa.: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1974.

Balaban, John.
Coming Down Again.
New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1985.

Beidler, Philip.
American Literature and the Experience of Vietnam.
Athens, Ga.: University of Georgia Press, 1982.

Beidler, Philip.
Re-Writing America: Vietnam Authors in Their Generation.
Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1991.

Broyles, William.
Brothers in Arms.
New York: Knopf, 1986

Bryan, C. D. B.
Friendly Fire.
New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1976.

Butler, Robert Olen.
A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain.
New York: Holt, 1992.

Butler, Robert Olen.
On Distant Ground.
New York: Knopf, 1985.

Caputo, Philip.
Indian Country.
New York: Bantam, 1987

Currey, Richard.
Crossing Over.
Cambridge/Newton, Mass.: Apple-wood Press, 1980.

Currey, Richard.
Fatal Light.
New York: E. P. Dutton/Seymour Lawrence, 1988.

Dodge, Ed.
Dau.
New York: Macmillan, 1984.

Ehrhart, W. D. To
Those Who Have Gone Home Tired.
New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 1984.

Emerson, Gloria.
Winners and Losers.
New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1976.

FitzGerald, Frances.
Fire in the Lake.
New York: Random House, 1972.

French, Albert.
Patches of Fire.
New York: Anchor, 1997.

Greene, Graham.
The Quiet American.
Harmondsworth, England: Penguin, 1955.

Groom, Winston.
Better Times Than These.
New York: Summit Books, 1978.

Halberstam, David.
The Best and the Brightest.
New York: Random House, 1972.

Halberstam, David.
The Making of a Quagmire.
New York: Random House, 1965.

Hasford, Gustav.
The Short-Timers.
New York: Bantam Books, 1979.

Heinemann, Larry.
Close Quarters.
New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1977.

Hellman, John.
American Myth and the Legacy of Vietnam.
New York: Columbia University Press, 1986.

Karlin, Wayne, Le Minh Khue, and Truong Vu, eds.
The Other Side of Heaven.
Willimantic, Conn.: Curbstone Press, 1995.

Karlin, Wayne, Basil T. Paquet, and Larry Rottmann, eds.
Free Fire Zone: Short Stories by Vietnam Veterans.
New York: McGraw-Hill, 1973.

Karnow, Stanley.
Vietnam: A History.
New York: Viking Press, 1983.

Klein, Joe.
Payback.
New York: Knopf, 1984.

Kopit, Arthur.
Indians.
New York: Hill & Wang, 1969.

Lang, Daniel.
Casualties of War.
New York: McGraw-Hill, 1969.

Lomperis, Timothy J.
Reading the Wind: The Literature of the Vietnam War.
Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1987.

Marshall, Kathryn.
In the Combat Zone: An Oral History of American Women in Vietnam.
New York: Harper and Row, 1984.

McDonald, Walter.
After the Noise of Saigon.
Amherst, Mass.: University of Massachusetts Press, 1988.

Moore, Harold G., and Joseph L. Galloway.
We Were Soldiers Once … and Young.
New York: Random House, 1992.

Myers, Thomas.
Walking Point: American Narratives of Vietnam.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.

Page, Tim.
Tim Page’s Nam.
New York: Knopf, 1983.

Pratt, John Clark, ed.
Vietnam Voices.
New York: Penguin, 1984.

Rabe, David.
Streamers.
New York: Knopf, 1977.

Ringnalda, Donald.
Fighting and Writing the Vietnam War.
Jackson, Miss.: University Press of Mississippi, 1994.

Rottmann, Larry, Jan Barry, and Basil Paquet, eds.
Winning Hearts and Minds.
Brooklyn, N.Y: 1st Casualty Press, 1972.

Schroeder, Eric James, ed.
Vietnam,
We’ve
All Been There: Interviews with American Writers.
Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 1992.

Searle, William J., ed.
Search and Clear: Critical Responses to Selected Literature and Films of the Vietnam War.
Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1988.

Sheehan, Neil.
A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam.
New York: Random House, 1988.

Stone, Robert.
Dog Soldiers.
Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, 1973.

Weigl, Bruce.
Song of Napalm.
New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1988.

Selected Additional Filmography

The Anderson Platoon
(1966)

Bat 21
(1988)

Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam
(1988)

84
Charlie MoPic
(1989)

Gardens of Stone
(1987)

Go
Tell the Spartans
(1978)

Hearts and Minds
(1974)

In Country
(1988)

Jackknife (1989)

Streamers
(1984)

Vietnam; A
Television History
(1983)

Vietnam: The Ten Thousand Day War
(1980)

Vietnam: The War at Home
(1978)

Reading Questions

I’ve gathered these sample reading questions for students as well as general readers as a way of interrogating these pieces. They’re only leads, possible directions to pursue, not a prescription. I’ll be the first to admit that their concerns are mine, and that readers, teachers, and students all can come up with better ones. Mine are just an easy way into the work, a first step. The important thing is to question the texts.

Early in the war, the opposition to the U.S. involvement accused the government of lying, falsely representing both America’s actions and motives. Likewise, supporters of the war alleged that the antiwar movement grossly overstated its case, blowing isolated incidents out of proportion. Though the official story of the war seems to have been discredited early on (and continues, with Kennedy and Johnson administration officials such as Clark Clifford and Robert McNamara recently confessing that well before Tet the inner circle knew it was a losing cause), it was clear then and it’s clear now that both sides bent the facts in hopes of enforcing their political points. The ends, it seemed, would justify the means.

That is no less true today, as each author—participant or not—creates and relates his or her version of the war. It’s no coincidence that Tim O’Brien’s “How to Tell a True War Story” is this anthology’s keystone. With so many issues of truth and authority swirling around any representation of America’s involvement in Vietnam, it’s important that the reader not simply accept at face value what one or even several authors claim. As in any popular literature, stereotypes abound here. The veteran and the conduct of the war itself are continually subject to a dramatic warping. Twenty-five years after the last ground troops pulled out, Americans are still fighting to legitimize their mutually exclusive views of the war and what it meant, whose fault it was, why it happened the way it did, and even—astonishingly—the question
of who really won. Because it split American society so deeply, the war will continue to be heatedly debated, perhaps always. By questioning the selections in this book, the reader will not only be able to join in that debate but to understand the issues that created and sustain it.

1. Green

1. Compare the narrators’ attitudes toward soldiers and soldiering.