Laos File Quotes

“An inch?” Minh held his fingers apart trying to judge the unfamiliar measurement. Shake took his hand and squeezed the fingers closer together.           “By such small amounts...we win or lose.”           “Nobody won in that fight, Minh. We both lost.”           “The dreams...”           “Yes. I have them too...and you are always there.”           “Where is all the hate?”           “Gone. It always goes...when you realize your enemy is just another man...just another soldier trying to do his duty.”           “That’s how you think of me?”           “It is now. Before this you were the black-eyed monster of my nightmares.”           “And you were the green-eyed monster...”           They smiled and studied the glow of the candle.           “You stayed in your Marine Corps...”           “Yes. I had nothing in common with civilians. Didn’t like them much. I was comfortable as a Marine...among others who understand me.”           “I understand you...”           “I believe you do, Minh.”           “Did you marry? Have children?”           “I was married but that is finished now. This is my daughter...my only child.”Shake reached for his wallet and pulled out Stacey’s high school graduation picture in cap and gown.           “A scholar. She is very beautiful.”           “Yes...she is everything to me.”           “And if I had killed you that night up on those walls, she would never have been born.”Minh handed the photo back and nodded. “I wish I had known this. It makes me feel better.”
― Dale A. Dye, Laos File

“Shake accepted a yellowed slip of paper and unfolded it. It was a page torn from a copy of Julius Caesar. Minh had underlined a passage and written a rough Vietnamese translation in the margin.           “`Cry `Havoc!' and let slip the dogs of war.' Yes. It’s what I was thinking. It’s what happened on the Long Mountain March, isn’t it?”           “Yes...”           “It wasn’t the first time. It won’t be the last. Do you remember My Lai, Minh?”           “I remember what we heard. Quang Ngai Province. Civilians were executed by American soldiers.”
― Dale A. Dye, Laos File

“It sounds so stupid...after all this time...to just say I’m sorry...but I am.”           “Sorry? You are sorry?”           “Yes. Sorry it was you...sorry it was me. Sorry for all the pain. Sorry it had to happen at all.”           Minh stared into the monster’s green eyes and for the first time saw something besides hate, lunacy and blood-lust. He saw himself: the same anguish, pity and pain reflected in his own eyes when he allowed himself to look deeply into a mirror. It is not so obvious, he realized, but this man is also terribly scarred.           “I don’t know your name...”           “Davis...Sheldon Davis.”
― Dale A. Dye, Laos File