Major
General Homer D. Smith April 1975
Defending an American
Viet Vet
(A sonnet for my Papas San)
“The Girl in the Photograph,” Kim Phuc’s called,
June 8, nineteen seventy-two: war, hell;
It hit the nine-year-old girl …. a bombshell.
Associated Press got Pulitzer Prize,
Our American Vietnam vets were spat.
The media helps Kim Phuc patronize:
“I forgive that pilot” – but who and what?
Voilà! Kim Phuc’s Foundation, fundraising,
Speak of “Napalm” but mute “the Viet pilot.”
Kim stirs up Americans’ guilt-feeling,
They could not help but open the wallet.
There is a lie beneath her sad burnt skin;
Papa, her money trail has done you in.
Linh Duy Vo
Sunday, 3 June 2012©
“The Boy in the Poem”
Poet's Note: On Sunday, December 14, 1997, of John Plummer’s claim that he “ordered” the Vietnamese pilot to drop the Napalm -- you and I can verify that with the South Vietnam pilot who lives in Northern California -- The Baltimore Sun investigative article by Tom Bowman, he wrote: “Veteran’s Admission to Napalm Victim A Lie.”
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