TIGER POND 
Vietnam



A nice place to visit but I would not want to live there.


Leadership Advice to New Marine 
2nd Lieutenants going to the Nam:


When in Danger,

When in Doubt,

Run in Circles,

Scream and Shout.



Make Love, Not War

Introduction

The Air Vietnam Airbus set down smoothly on the Danang Airstrip. I was returning to Vietnam for the first time since June 1971. In the profound words of that famous philosopher Yogi Berra, it was "déjàvu all over again". A flood of conflicting memories cascaded through my mind as our plane made its final approach over the South China Sea. To the right I saw Hill 327 and on the left was Monkey Mountain.

My strongest and best memory was of Mai Trung, a beautiful Vietnamese-French Viet Cong with whom I had fought, loved and lost. I was not sure exactly what I hoped to find in Vietnam. I had been with Mai very briefly in 1971, with no contact since that year. Our brief affair had been the most intense love of my life and almost got me killed. We spent several intense days in Tiger Pond, making love and war. I maintained a long shot hope that we could meet again and rekindle our romance.

There was something about this early intense love that was seared into my memory. I had loved and I had lost. Now I hoped to find her to see if it was possible to rekindle the flame.

Finding her was not going to be easy. She could be dead. Or she could be a great grandmother with beetle nut stains on her remaining teeth. The last time I saw her she was shooting at me as I ran for my life, and she might still want to kill me.

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