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Show 5*m I suspected he had been spouting them into Brian's ear throughout the afternoon. "You sound l i k e you've been i n d o c t r i n a t e d , " I said. Brian's eyes f l i c k e r e d . "I don't get indoctrinated," he spat. "I'm a l i t t l e more discriminating than you a r e ." h i s manner I should have been used to A , but I was not. Tears sprang into my eyes. Brian sighed. "I saw p a r t s of Vietnam burn to nothing. The chemicals we used will make that land useless for at least twenty-five years. Those people will starve. That is war A a kind of genocide." I spoke slowly, u n c e r t a i n l y , not l i f t i n g my head. "Maybe something had to burn, to make way for something new and b e t t e r. Now those people w i l l have a chance at democracy - if we hang in there." I wanted to help Brian to deflect the g u i l t he felt over Vietnam. Often he awakened in the night, breathing heavily, and I would reach out to find him wet with perspiration, his pillow soaked. And then, a t e r r i b l e dense fear would descend,ominrous with r e t r i b u t i o n , as I heard the g i s t of his night-mare. Always i t had to do with Vietnam. "Brian's mouth contorted with disgust. "Democracy. Is that what we c a l l t h i s exercise in greed? Look, those people had a system - i t worked b e t t e r than ours because i t was based on nature. They lived in communes - not a p o l i t i c al •Machine, but a t r i b a l order, based on ancestry -- the kind °f thing your father would approve. The Vietnamese have Uved that way for centuries ~ i t was the best and only way to survive. And i t worked - u n t i l we came along and blew xt away." |