"It was my view then, and still is, that you don't make war without knowing why. Knowledge of course, is always imperfect, but it seemed to me that when a nation goes to war it must have reasonable confidence in the justice and imperative of its cause. You can't fix your mistakes. Once people are dead, you can't make them undead."
— Tim O'Brien (The Things They Carried)

"If one morning in the Spring, a stranger came and said to me, Your mother, father, brother, sister, uncle, lover, friend, is dead. From a b-52, napalm bombing, search and destroy mission, air attack, Tet offensive, My Lai massacre, failed escape, I would not scream but make of my body a net, a tarp, stretched taut across the sky, the sea, over every village and hamlet. Prepared to catch everything from the sky, shade everything on the ground, rain water and receive you, war, with arms outstretched."
— Lê Thi Diem Thúy

"Nobody gives way to anybody. Everyone just angles, points, dives directly toward his destination, pretending it is an all-or-nothing gamble. People glare at one another and fight for maneuvering space. All parties are equally determined to get the right-of-way--insist on it. They swerve away at the last possible moment, giving scant inches to spare. The victor goes forwards, no time for a victory grin, already engaging in another contest of will. Saigon traffic is Vietnamese life, a continuous charade of posturing, bluffing, fast moves, tenacity and surrenders."
— Andrew X. Pham (Catfish and Mandala: A Two-Wheeled Voyage through the Landscape and Memory of Vietnam)

"As I come to understand Vietnam and what it implies about the human condition, I also realize that few humans will permit themselves such an understanding."
— Alan Moore (Watchmen)

"You want a toe? I can get you a toe, believe me. There are ways, Dude. You don't wanna know about it, believe me. Hell, I can get you a toe by 3 o'clock this afternoon... with nail polish."
— Walter Sobchak

"Was your old man in the war?"
"He was in the air force. He built runways."
"The fucking air farce. He ever tell you about it? Did he live?"
"Yes, he lived. He spoke once about Vietnam."
"If he only spoke about it once, he wasn’t lying.
"
— Anthony Swofford (Jarhead)

"Senator Kerry carries shrapnel in his thigh, as distinct from President Bush, who carries two fillings in his teeth from his service in the Alabama National Guard, which seems to be his only time that he showed up."
— John Podesta

"If they didn't want to know, they shouldn't have asked."
— James Webb (Fields of Fire)

"If in our daily life we can smile, if we can be peaceful and happy, not only we, but everyone will profit from it. This is the most basic kind of peace work.(Thay)"
— Thich Nhat Hanh