Index...

 

 

 

End of Tet -
the marks on her back, a letter
I'd rather not read.

 

At the conclusion of the Tet Offensive in 1968, a girl who worked as
a laundrywoman on our base returned after a three week absence. Her
back was covered with hideous burns. Her family had been tortured
and murdered. It was a reprisal by the Viet Cong for her working on
our base. She, of course, was an innocent. She worked for us to help
support her economically strapped family. Her alliance was to her
family, not to a political belief. Like many living in the rural prov-inces
of Vietnam, she wanted to live a simple life free from another's
tyranny.

 

 

 

 

Vietnam Ruminations - Robert D. Wilson
Copyright Robert D. Wilson, 2003