ABSTRACT
In Vietnam, everything was different. The Vietnamese people themselves figured in every aspect of the war. The subject of relationships between soldiers and the Vietnamese was one almost every respondent addressed in detail. Some men and women feel a profound and deep sorrow over events in rural Vietnam. Rural Vietnam was a complex and profoundly divided political cauldron, brutalized by a generation of civil war. There were very few American units in Vietnam that were put into closer and more sustained contact with rural Vietnamese than the 25th Division. Any American veteran of Vietnam would echo Thomas Giltner's sentiments. The struggle in Vietnam was extremely harsh, and acts of cruelty on the part of American soldiers toward civilians were common. Vietnamese roads were poor by American standards, and the US Army used an astounding number of vehicles. The Vietnamese frequently caused accidents with American vehicles, and Vietnamese vehicles, rarely well driven and never models of safety, often crashed into each other.
