Vietnam Civilian Quotes & Sayings

I try to express with the camera what the story is, to get to the heart of the story with picture. In battle I look at things first in terms of people, second in terms of strategies or casualties ... To tell a story, you don't photograph one hundred dead civilians to prove there were one hundred dead civilians. You photograph one dead civilian with an expression on his face that says, This is what it's like if you're a dead civilian in Vietnam. — Horst Faas

The intellectual and moral failures common to America's general officer corps in Vietnam and Iraq constitute a crisis in American generalship. Any explanation that fixes culpability on individuals is insufficient. No one leader, civilian or military, caused failure in Vietnam or Iraq. Different military and civilian leaders in the two conflicts produced similar results. In both conflicts, the general officer corps designed to advise policymakers, prepare forces and conduct operations failed to perform its intended functions. — Paul Yingling

Venice is not only a city of fantasy and freedom. It is also a city of joy and pleasure. — Peggy Guggenheim

Over the past five decades, civilian officials have favored the use of military force over the opposition of their military counterparts. In doing so, the 'best and brightest' have blundered into long-term engagements in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan that didn't favor U.S. national security interests ... Paradoxically, the military is far less likely than their civilian counterparts to resort to the use of force. — Melvin A. Goodman

My parents used to throw great New Year's Eve parties. They invited such an eclectic mix of showbiz people. All those cool people were always hanging out at our apartment. — Ben Stiller

The hearts that love will know never winter's frost and chill. Summer's warmth is in them still. — Eben E. Rexford

If we are going to survive, we must build communities of caring and connection. CECILE ANDREWS — Mark Sanborn

My own apathy is bone chilling. — Lionel Shriver

Neoconservatives and the Pentagon have good reason to fear the return of the Vietnam Syndrome. The label intentionally suggests a disease, a weakening of the martial will, but the syndrome was actually a healthy American reaction to false White House promises of victory, the propping up of corrupt regimes, crony contracting and cover-ups of civilian casualties during the Vietnam War that are echoed today in the news from Baghdad. — Tom Hayden

Think of what big governments have gotten up to in this century : not one, but two world wars, the gulag, the holocaust, aerial bombing of civilian population centers, the Berlin Wall, nuclear explosions, the post office. A wicked individual might want these, but he wouldn't have the cash and connections to get them. A villainous corporation could afford them but has to market the products. The Vietnam draft would be a tough sell for even the most fiendish businessmen. "Get shot! Get killed! Get diseases from foreign women who despise you in their hearts!" — P. J. O'Rourke

The much-discussed estimate of twenty-two vets a day committing suicide in the United States is deceptive: it was only in 2008 that - for the first time in decades- the suicide rate among veterans surpassed the civilian rate in America, and though each death is enormously tragic, the majority of those veterans were over the age of fifty. Many were Vietnam vets and, generally speaking, the more time that passes after a trauma, the less likely a suicide is to have anything to do with it. — Sebastian Junger

Our emotions can be either corrupted or elevated. Human love was not created to be without premeditated purpose. — Manis Friedman

McCain fought in Vietnam - I think that he has enough civilian blood on his hands. — Vladimir Putin