Michael Herr wrote much of Captain Willard’s narration in A.N. The scene at the Do Lung Bridge where a soldier named Roach kills a sniper with a mortar was taken from Dispatches.
Herr’s vision of Vietnam was a psychadelic rock and roll fueled acid trip.
I was born in 1960. My memories of the Viet-Nam war consist of asking my mother when I was six “why are NORTH Americans fighting for the SOUTH Vietnamese?” Unfortunately, her answer was “I don’t know”.
The rest of my news came from covers of Time or Newsweek which were more interested in covering Hippies than what was happening “over there”.
I didn’t really become interested in politics (and become a conservative) until Carter wanted to re-institute the draft.
That’s when I seriously started studying the war...