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P. 153
Muõ Ñoû 72 153
We were advancing to recapture Quang Tri
From the North Vietnamese Army.
The “Easter Offensive of 1972”
Proved to be the fercest battles of the war:
Three separate fronts, 150,000 enemy in the attack.
South Viet Nam was fghting for its survival.
Two major battles in the south had been won.
Now, we needed to recapture Quang Tri.
The NVA had attacked south along the coast.
They had come very close to capturing Hue.
I had fought in the “Kontum Battle”.
Now, we must defeat their main thrust.
We were moving north toward Quang Tri.
We were tasked to destroy the NVA.
We crossed a river and we saw death.
The bridge had been destroyed by the NVA.
Refugees feeing war were stopped at the river,
The NVA systematically killed them with gunfre.
The killing had been done several days before.
The vehicles were burnt out, the bodies mummifed.
A macabre view of war, death and destruction.
Even tough soldiers can cry at horror and brutality.
Stunned, I wandered through the death scene.
I picked up a little shoe with a foot in it,
I could not fnd the rest of the child’s body.
Everything had been destroyed and by-passed.
A line of destroyed vehicles fve kilometers long,
Twenty fve thousand dead; innocents feeing war.
Only the vultures and rats visited here.
“What the hell is this war about?” I voiced.
No one answered, the dead do not talk.
Inhumanity does not respond, no press coverage.
The voices were silenced, bodies decaying in the sun.
Nhöõng ngöôøi vôï lính - Vaän nöôùc, phaän ngöôøi
We were advancing to recapture Quang Tri
From the North Vietnamese Army.
The “Easter Offensive of 1972”
Proved to be the fercest battles of the war:
Three separate fronts, 150,000 enemy in the attack.
South Viet Nam was fghting for its survival.
Two major battles in the south had been won.
Now, we needed to recapture Quang Tri.
The NVA had attacked south along the coast.
They had come very close to capturing Hue.
I had fought in the “Kontum Battle”.
Now, we must defeat their main thrust.
We were moving north toward Quang Tri.
We were tasked to destroy the NVA.
We crossed a river and we saw death.
The bridge had been destroyed by the NVA.
Refugees feeing war were stopped at the river,
The NVA systematically killed them with gunfre.
The killing had been done several days before.
The vehicles were burnt out, the bodies mummifed.
A macabre view of war, death and destruction.
Even tough soldiers can cry at horror and brutality.
Stunned, I wandered through the death scene.
I picked up a little shoe with a foot in it,
I could not fnd the rest of the child’s body.
Everything had been destroyed and by-passed.
A line of destroyed vehicles fve kilometers long,
Twenty fve thousand dead; innocents feeing war.
Only the vultures and rats visited here.
“What the hell is this war about?” I voiced.
No one answered, the dead do not talk.
Inhumanity does not respond, no press coverage.
The voices were silenced, bodies decaying in the sun.
Nhöõng ngöôøi vôï lính - Vaän nöôùc, phaän ngöôøi
