I am convinced that the French could not win the war because the internal political situation in Vietnam, weak and confused, badly weakened their military position.

When people speak to you about a preventive war, you tell them to go and fight it. After my experience, I have come to hate war. War settles nothing.

The reflection upon my situation, and that of this army, produces many an uneasy hour, when all around me are wrapped in sleep. Few people know the predicament we are in, on a thousand accounts; fewer still will believe, if any disaster happens to these lines, from what cause it flows.

A great and lasting war can never be supported on this principle [patriotism] alone. It must be aided by a prospect of interest, or some reward.

I am not a bit afraid of Siegfried Sassoon. That man can think. I am afraid only of people who cannot think.

We were all sure we were getting sent over there. Everybody got their orders and I'd say 85 percent of the guys went to Vietnam. When I got the orders for Germany, my father was really happy.