"A certain amount of bribery and embezzlement was necessary for Vietnam. According to him, it humanized the relationships between the citizens and the various hierarchies: military, political, administrative, religious. Subtle bonds were created which were not based simply on self-interest. Actually, bribery and embezzlement were the best guarantee of liberty because pure, harsh, intransigent virtue could only lead to the loss of all liberty."
"War, with its rules of courage and
honor, its dangers and insignia and medals was simply the most complicated
game. At least until he'd discovered that once the combat is over, the
dead don't get up again, and there are no neat and careful rules. They
kill civilians, women, and children. Even trees. War is only interesting
to old men and cynics. Simpletons like Paul, or like himself, are only
there to be exploited and fleeced and betrayed. The recruits are tender
meat they send to the butcher, though they take some precautions to gloss
over this fact because this particular meat can vote and its fathers can
vote."
"I don't give a shit for your crucified hero. Love each other, he said. Result: Those who listened to him became sheep. The wolves had only to eat them up. I think he was in league with them."
"We'd go climbing together in the mountain pastures, through the goat paths and the sheep meadows. We'd hear the angry hissing of the woodchucks around the black, still lakes that collect the blessed waters of the glaciers like holy water fonts. We'd watch the mountaineers dance and rub their otter fur skins on the last patches of winter snow. Huddled around a fire, heating cans of soup, we'd find that all was well, and that life was, after all, simple. Just before dawn, we'd set out again toward the pink mountains and then the dazzling white ones - first the maids of honor and then the brides of this great wedding of nature. We'd marry ourselves to them that night, a pitch black night, hanging onto the sides of the great mountains in our sleeping bags, listening to the grumbling of an approaching storm, We'd leave, more consumed than by any woman, more exalted than by any conquest. And we'd sing at the top of our lungs as we came down the mountain to the valley."
"There are no just or unjust wars, only wars that you lose or win."
"Because we're all in the same condition; we're all suicides. We take death in small doses just by living in Vietnam or we swallow it all in one gulp by going to war. We're like drunks; we can't get along with out it. Because all of us are frightened, we feel abandoned; we've let go of our parent's hands because they lied to us and proved themselves bankrupt, because we have no country of our own except our youth, and that's no homeland because it doesn't last. We have nowhere to cling to. We're here in Vietnam simply to die..."
"We find in drugs exactly what we bring to them. Those who succumb were already conquered even before they tried them for the first time."
"You're going to quit the army?"
"You better believe it. I'm not even
going to wait until I get my brigadier's star. And I assure you, I'll
never join the American Legion or any committee for or against the war
in Vietnam. I'm going to live like a foreigner in my own country - no
voting, no reading newspapers or watching television. The only things
I'm going to worry about are cows, horses and fences. You couldn't understand
how absolutely fed up I am with leading boys to their death in a rotten
war. After lying to them just like I did to Ron Clark. We've spent millions
of dollars in this country to equip divisions who don't want to fight,
and to bribe people who betray us. But we've never had the guts to commit
the effort and sweat of the soldiers, who are the only ones who can win
wars like this. The soldiers and their parents have to be handled carefully;
they're voters."