KNOEBL : Victor Charlie (fülszöveg)
Americans know the Viet-Cong as a faceless enemy, resourceful and ruthless, and committed to the savage war in the rice fields and jungles of Viet-Nam. But who, in reality, are the Viet-Cong? What has enabled these men to organize, fight, and fight again, to defy the furious pounding of bombs and the inferno of napalm?
Kuno Knoebl has seen the face of war ín Viet-Nam at first hand. In VICTOR CHARLIE, he writes with understanding and compassion for all the participants of the Viet-Nam conflict, Americans as well as North and South Vietnamese. Drawing upon his experiences as a European journalist with access to both sides in Viet-Nam, he presents an intimate view of life behind the lines and in the villages of the Viet-Cong. He reveals them not as the sinister enemy or the anonymous "Victor Charlie" referred to in U.S, military parlance, but as human beings, men and women, young and old, capable of sustaining a desperate struggle against the forces of the world's strongest military power. He tells what happens when total war comes to a village, what the people think, how they eat and survive and carry on with their lives, what their attitudes are toward Americans and toward the cause for which they fight (or are forced to fight).
The stark reality of Viet-Nam is unfolded as Mr. Knoebl describes . . .
his first meeting with the Viet-Cong –
"The two youngsters registered my presence, stared at me, sized me up, and then turned away. One addressed my escort briefly in a soft, surprisingly high-pitched voice. 'Let's go,' my interpreter translated. The soldiers turned around sharply and started across the field with quick steps. I had thought my first meeting with the Viet-Cong, the soldiers of the National Liberation Front, would be different and not so matter-of-fact."
the frustrations of an American soldier –
" 'We ran into a damned beautiful Communist ambush,' Major Henry told me. 'We had been saddled with a lousy job. The Communists were in back of us, and the bombs and shells of our own air force and artillery were hitting us instead of Charlie.'"
a "search-and-destroy" mission against North Vietnamese troops –
"The march through the jungle to the abandoned village was a miserable one for Halloway's company, Lieutenant Parker's group, and Captain Conway's men. There were signs of the enemy everywhere, but there was no enemy . . . "
his reception by "business-like" officials in Saigon –
"They swamped me with documents, figures, statistics, reports, and analyses that didn't omit the slightest detail. I found a brochure describing the best way of meeting a Vietnamese woman; and there was the ten-point program for GI's who had just landed, beginning with the sentence: 'You are a guest here.'"
and the misery and poverty of Southeast Asia –
"I was no stranger to the misery and poverty of Southeast Asia, but what I saw here shocked me. A few ramshackle huts built on short stilts surrounded the center of the hamlet where the shabbily dressed villagers had gathered for our arrival. The people were grimy with dirt, appeared starved and sick."
In describing the Viet-Cong, VICTOR CHARLIE offers an honest appraisal of the enemy that has long and successfully fought South Vietnamese and American forces, revealing not only the nature of the people but the sources of their military and psychological strength.
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