Word: viet
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...martial on charges of mass murder. Is he guilty? Will a military tribunal be more vindictive than civilian justice? Can any circumstances mitigate an atrocity? Does a 17-year-old incident still have the power to shock? Indeed it does, and Nelson DeMille, who served as a lieutenant in Viet Nam, knows exactly how to employ his surge within us"), but the military scenes have the gunmetal ring of authenticity. This is The Caine Mutiny of the '80s, a long, over-the-shoulder look at a time that grows larger as it recedes from sight...
Whose revolution is it, anyway? This solemn, incoherent, brown film is set in New York and Pennsylvania in 1776-81, but it often looks determined to analogize, one more time, the Viet Nam War. Local boys are indentured at saber point to fight in the woods, streams and back alleys--guerrilla warriors against the imperial power. Atrocities abound on both sides. There are no flaming heroics, no real winners: the visitors just get worn out before the home team does. The Americans are given a slight moral edge because the land is theirs. Well, it really belonged to the Indians...
...Reagan Administration has given top priority to building up Special Forces, increasing their budget from $441 million in 1982 to $1.2 billion this year, and the number of troops from 11,000 to nearly 15,000. At the very least, the Administration has rescued special operations from the post-Viet Nam era of neglect, which was so ignominiously exposed in the wreckage of Desert One during the failed Iranian hostage rescue mission...
...organized in 1952 during the Korean War, and popularized the green beret many commandos had already informally adopted as their symbol. The Green Berets' role was counterinsurgency: to defend freedom by helping developing (and pro-Western) nations ward off Communist-backed guerrilla movements. The great test was to be Viet Nam. But as the war escalated, counterinsurgency was shoved aside as the U.S. resorted more and more to conventional tactics of massed firepower. Special Forces were increasingly miscast, used as garrison troops defending lonely outposts in the jungle...
Scouten moved to the chief usher's job in 1969. The most elaborate White House dinner of modern times was given by the Nixons on the South Lawn for almost 1,400 people when the Viet Nam POWs returned in 1973. Scouten's crews laid out 37,000 items for the table settings alone. When Jimmy Carter restricted his public appearances in 1980 because of the American hostages held in Iran, Scouten helped bring the country to Carter. There were 377 public events in the White House that year, the most in history...