Da Nang Air Base, 1966:
On
K-9 patrol with Blackie at the north end of Perimeter Road, at dusk, when
I noticed a cloud of knats swirling their drunken dance above the barbed
wire. Wanting to gage their direction, so I could alter mine, I stared
with growing interest as they drew closer until the cloud became a
towering twister-like funnel. Hey ... they're not knats ... what
the ... and then a fluttering blizzard of confetti swept across the
minefield, over the bunkers and fence line and across the runway toward
the ammo dump. Choi safe-conduct leaflets by the thousand wafted
down, from who knows where, and trashed across the field.
Many years passed before I learned the
literal translation of the leaflet, which follows, courtesy of a web
friend and scholar: Ba Nguyen. Mr. Nguyen was sixteen years of age when I
was in-country in 1965-1966, and his translation follows:
To: Don
Poss
Subject: Re: Propaganda Leaflets translation
Dear Don Poss,
In the leaflet in your homepage, the paragraph written in Vietnamese
means the same thing as the English and the Korean counterparts: A pass
for any VC or North Vietnam soldier who wants to take advantage of the
"Open Arm" campaign launched by the government of the Republic
of Vietnam. He can surrender at any government's agencies or at allied
forces (U.S. and Korea). These leaflet were dropped from airplanes into
the rural areas and jungles.
Hope this help you understand the leaflet.
V/R
Ba
