The Cost of War
(No Gun
Ri)
ABC, Nightline, Thursday, October 21, 1999
The slides of the blown-up bridge, that morbid day of July 1950
The narration of the American Korea vets
Telling the sad stories of the dead refugees clad in white--
The Associated Press finally dug up the graves of No Gun Ri.
A flashback of My Lai, Tet Offensive 1968
The VC snipers pierced the thin air with killer bullets
Cut down the puzzled young American GIs
The tragedy of war again took a toll, like of the Korean villagers--
The Associated Press finally dug up the graves of No Gun Ri.
In Central Vietnam, a province called Binh Dinh,
The Korean Tiger Division were protecting the treacherous frontier
Infiltrated by the diabolic Viet Cong
Who cut peasants' throats and mingled with them--
The Associated Press finally dug up the graves of No Gun Ri.
The wrath of war surged within the South Korean soldiers
They turned their M-16s at the hamlets
Cutting down the moving shadows
Each time one of them was killed by the Viet Cong snipers
Just like the graves of No Gun Ri the AP finally dug up.
The Tiger burned the straw huts and the mud houses
To keep the Viet Cong from infesting amongst women and children
The Vietnamese villagers turned against the evil communists
Who caused the Korean tigers to roar...
The Associated Press finally dug up the graves of No Gun Ri.
Linh Duy Vo
(The Boy in the Poem)
October 21, 1999 ©
"Linh, thank you for the beautiful poem. Cheers, Martha Mendoza, Associated Press." 10/22/1999
--A note from Martha Mendoza, 2000 Pulitzer Prize winner for her co-report on No Gun Ri.
© Copyright by Linh Duy Vo. All rights reserved.