George Watkins, The reason this guy caught my attention was because he lost his legs and his eyes in the ugliness that was the Vietnam war, he said he didn’t have much bitterness. He just wished it would have never happened.  He also told a story about the old farmer that his unit kept moving out of a valley. Every time they found this farmer living there they would take him (and I think it was his daughter also) and burn down his hut. Then a few weeks later they would have already built a new hut on nearly the same spot. He could only speak on how determined the people were and how he didn’t hate them. I liked that because in war time the enemy is usually dehumanized, but George didn’t fall victim to that.

I find the speakers to be reliable, trustworthy and believable. The main reason being is that this is war. The stories that are accounted in the first section of this book have forever been burned into the minds of these people. With the passing of time i can see small details of their accounts being skewed (like the amount of people there, what time it was etc etc) but the overall account is not forgotten. Being that they were there, and had a firsthand account of what happened I believe them to be credible.

I was disappointed with Henry Prunier story, more specifically at the end of his account when he was talking about writing about his time he spent with Ho Chi Mihn and how everyone suspected him of being a communist because of the way he spoke about him. After he was called a communist he stopped writing, and that’s a bummer because im sure he had great things to say. But I also understand where he’s coming from, being accused of being a communist at the time was similar to being called a witch back in the time of the puritans.

There is some good that came from henrys story though, it doesn’t sound like he fell victim of the dehumanization that happens during war time. Throughout the time of the war up to when the interview with him was done he had the same view he had always had about Ho Chi Mihn. He had a positive experience with the guy and didn’t change it when the war broke out. So that’s the goodness that I see, not Ho Chi Mihn, but Henry, who didn’t let the ugliness of war leave a bitter taste in his mouth.