“Follow me if I advance! Kill me if I retreat! Revenge me if I die!” Ngo Dinh Diem on becoming president of Vietnam (1901 to 1963) (1954, from The Concise Columbia Dictionary of Quotations) Ngo Dinh Diem was a Vietnamese political leader who served as president, with dictatorial powers, of what was then South Vietnam,… Read More
“After three days on the train, their worries about going to the Sino-Vietnamese border were confirmed when the train stopped at Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province. About 120 CA-10 trucks picked up thousands of men at the station and took them to the border. Many recruits cried on the road. The next morning, a… Read More
“Private Xu Xiangyao joined the PLA in his village in Hebei on March 19, 1984. After a few weeks of intensive training, he was assigned to an infantry company in the Thirteenth Army. That summer, his regiment moved south by train. Inside their boxcar, one of twenty-one, no one talked. “We were so nervous and… Read More
“It’s a small war, God, but it’s the only one we’ve got.” Anonymous sign over a chaplains bunker at Con Thien, Vietnam, 1967
“In all honesty, we didn’t achieve our main objective. As for making an impact on the United States, it had not been our intention – but it turned out to be a fortunate result.” Tran Do (1923 to 2002), speaking about the Tet Offensive A retired general, decorated Vietnam War veteran and former head of… Read More
“The politicians in Washington just had no idea about the complexity of the situation in South Vietnam.” William Westmoreland (1914 to 2005) William Childs Westmoreland was a US Army general who commanded US forces in the Vietnam War from 1964 to 1968.
“I always thought we could go on like this. I didn’t think these people had the capacity to fight this way … to take this punishment.” Robert McNamara (1916 to 2009) Robert Strange McNamara was the US Secretary of Defence from 1961 to 1968 who revamped Pentagon operations and who played a major role in… Read More
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