I've seen the coat for me
I'll track him 'til he drops
Then I'll pop him one he won't see
He's big and pink, and not like me
He sees no light
He sees no reason for the fighting...
ND: "I've often seen soldiers who pick a target. They get it in their mind that they're gonna kill that man because there's something about him. And he'll track him and track him and track him in an engagement. And that happened to me a couple of times. When a man is actually targeting and trying to kill you it's quite frightening, something you have to be very wary of..."
I had not seen his face
'til I'm only feet away
Unbeknown to my prey
I look in American eyes
I see little life
See little wife
He's striking violence up in me...
ND: "I would always try to go to the extreme front line because that's where the best film is. You can't get the spontaneity of action if you're not there. You can't get it if you're a hundred meters behind the soldiers trying to get it with a telephoto lens. You don't see the face, the expressions on their faces. You don't see the compassion that they may show for their wounded comrades or their enemy, for that matter. I wanted to show all those things, and the only way to show them was being in the front line, the real front line."
Just one thing in it
Me or him
And I love life!
(Pull out the pin)
ND: "I was covering a grenade thrower, the man I knew as the grenade thrower... South Vietnamese... and I'd known him before... It was a big action, overall... but the big action is like a small action - you're only concerned about what happens to you... And we're in a village in an overgrown graveyard... and the V.C. were in that graveyard... And he had a little plastic sewing pack in which he carried his grenades... he crawled out to the closest tombstone which gave him some cover and then he would just pick them off one after the other quickly and spray them where he knew the V.C. were..."
ND: "I liked to work alone because I didn't want to be responsible for the life of any other person. I felt that I had enough to do just to stay alive for myself. If you have to make a decision just for yourself, right or wrong, you stay by that decision. I was never afraid of being killed because that's that..."
ND: "I preferred to go with the South Vietnamese forces because it was their war. It meant a great deal to them, and they were fighting it on their own terms. I know it was fashionable for the Americans and the other allies to blame the South Vietnamese army for the losses in Vietnam over the years, but in fact they fought very well and the Viet Cong acknowledged that..."
Who need radar? We use scent
They stink of the west, stink of sweat
Stink of cologne and baccy, and all their Yankee hash...
ND: "The Americans, they used to call 'The Elephants'. They said they bumble around, you can hear them coming a mile off... and they could smell them too - smell their shave-cream and toothpaste, cigarettes and things like that..."
(I'm pulling on the pin,)
Ooh, I pull out, pull out the pin
(pulling on the pin, oh...)
ND: "Americans were burdened down with about 70lbs of equipment... On one occasion I suddenly heard an American yelling out in great fear as he was because his hand grenades he'd attached to his pack... and a twig went through the pin of the grenade and he went on and it pulled the pin out and he had no hope to get to it and he was clawing around trying to get to it, and of course it blew up and killed him."
Cambodia was a peaceful country before it was dragged into the war. For years, the Cambodian leader, Prince Norodom Sihanouk, had tried to be neutral. He knew that favouring one side or the other would invite disaster. President Johnson's administration had ignored the Viet Cong sanctuaries in Cambodia, but President Nixon thought clearing the sanctuaries could shorten the war. Within five years, Cambodia lay in ruins. Twelve hundred years of Cambodian culture and civilisation had been destroyed.
ND: "When the war started, the Cambodian army only numbered thirty thousand... they were thrown straight in against the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong... but there was a great feeling of patriotism because they were fighting against their traditional enemies, the Vietnamese... They had no need to draft their soldiers. They had too many volunteers, including young boys and girls... Cambodians, they wanted intelligence of just where the Communist forces were. The soldier put on civilian clothes, tucked a couple of grenades into his belt and cycled off down the road to the Communist positions. If he was lucky, he escaped and came back... they were fighting an enemy who paid scant regard to the old-fashioned way of fighting..."
You learn to ride the Earth
When you're living on your belly and the enemy are city-births...
ND: "As a cameraman, there was only one position to be in this type of fighting and that was right up with the soldiers - you were much more likely to be hit if you were waiting fifty or a hundred yards behind them. The only way across open paddy fields is to run across them - you can't stand in the middle, you must get to that next paddy field dug, even though it may be only twelve or eighteen inches high, and you get to it in any way possible - slither like a snake if you have to..."
With my silver Buddha
And my silver bullet...
ND: "When danger threatens, their Buddha idols that they all wore round their necks went straight into their mouths, to bring Buddha as close as possible to them, to protect them, or to lead them into a new life..."
Just one thing in it
Me or him
And I love life!
ND: "I was only ever twice put in a position where I had to use a weapon. I fired some shots on one occasion, the situation was in Cambodia and our position was being over-run by the Communists. At least one third of the defending troops were killed, many more were seriously wounded. And four or five Cambodian soldiers and myself were cut off and there was no way but to pick up a weapon and help defend the position, which we fortunately did successfully, or, to be more exact, it enabled us to escape. I always thought that such a situation would pose a moral question. In actual fact, there was no moral question in my mind - it was either be killed or defend myself. I chose to defend myself."
Neil Davis' Vietnam Part I http://www.mefeedia.com/watch/29474723
I've seen the coat for me I'll track him 'til he drops Then I'll pop him one he won't see He's big and pink, and not like me He sees no light He sees no reason for the fighting...
ND: "I've often seen soldiers who pick a target. They get it in their mind that they're gonna kill that man because there's something about him. And he'll track him and track him and track him in an engagement. And that happened to me a couple of times. When a man is actually targeting and trying to kill you it's quite frightening, something you have to be very wary of..."
I had not seen his face 'til I'm only feet away Unbeknown to my prey I look in American eyes I see little life See little wife He's striking violence up in me...
ND: "I would always try to go to the extreme front line because that's where the best film is. You can't get the spontaneity of action if you're not there. You can't get it if you're a hundred meters behind the soldiers trying to get it with a telephoto lens. You don't see the face, the expressions on their faces. You don't see the compassion that they may show for their wounded comrades or their enemy, for that matter. I wanted to show all those things, and the only way to show them was being in the front line, the real front line."
Just one thing in it Me or him And I love life! (Pull out the pin)
ND: "I was covering a grenade thrower, the man I knew as the grenade thrower... South Vietnamese... and I'd known him before... It was a big action, overall... but the big action is like a small action - you're only concerned about what happens to you... And we're in a village in an overgrown graveyard... and the V.C. were in that graveyard... And he had a little plastic sewing pack in which he carried his grenades... he crawled out to the closest tombstone which gave him some cover and then he would just pick them off one after the other quickly and spray them where he knew the V.C. were..."
ND: "I liked to work alone because I didn't want to be responsible for the life of any other person. I felt that I had enough to do just to stay alive for myself. If you have to make a decision just for yourself, right or wrong, you stay by that decision. I was never afraid of being killed because that's that..."
ND: "I preferred to go with the South Vietnamese forces because it was their war. It meant a great deal to them, and they were fighting it on their own terms. I know it was fashionable for the Americans and the other allies to blame the South Vietnamese army for the losses in Vietnam over the years, but in fact they fought very well and the Viet Cong acknowledged that..."
Who need radar? We use scent They stink of the west, stink of sweat Stink of cologne and baccy, and all their Yankee hash...
ND: "The Americans, they used to call 'The Elephants'. They said they bumble around, you can hear them coming a mile off... and they could smell them too - smell their shave-cream and toothpaste, cigarettes and things like that..."
(I'm pulling on the pin,) Ooh, I pull out, pull out the pin (pulling on the pin, oh...)
ND: "Americans were burdened down with about 70lbs of equipment... On one occasion I suddenly heard an American yelling out in great fear as he was because his hand grenades he'd attached to his pack... and a twig went through the pin of the grenade and he went on and it pulled the pin out and he had no hope to get to it and he was clawing around trying to get to it, and of course it blew up and killed him."
Neil Davis' Vietnam Part II http://www.mefeedia.com/watch/29474722
Cambodia was a peaceful country before it was dragged into the war. For years, the Cambodian leader, Prince Norodom Sihanouk, had tried to be neutral. He knew that favouring one side or the other would invite disaster. President Johnson's administration had ignored the Viet Cong sanctuaries in Cambodia, but President Nixon thought clearing the sanctuaries could shorten the war. Within five years, Cambodia lay in ruins. Twelve hundred years of Cambodian culture and civilisation had been destroyed.
ND: "When the war started, the Cambodian army only numbered thirty thousand... they were thrown straight in against the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong... but there was a great feeling of patriotism because they were fighting against their traditional enemies, the Vietnamese... They had no need to draft their soldiers. They had too many volunteers, including young boys and girls... Cambodians, they wanted intelligence of just where the Communist forces were. The soldier put on civilian clothes, tucked a couple of grenades into his belt and cycled off down the road to the Communist positions. If he was lucky, he escaped and came back... they were fighting an enemy who paid scant regard to the old-fashioned way of fighting..."
You learn to ride the Earth When you're living on your belly and the enemy are city-births...
ND: "As a cameraman, there was only one position to be in this type of fighting and that was right up with the soldiers - you were much more likely to be hit if you were waiting fifty or a hundred yards behind them. The only way across open paddy fields is to run across them - you can't stand in the middle, you must get to that next paddy field dug, even though it may be only twelve or eighteen inches high, and you get to it in any way possible - slither like a snake if you have to..."
With my silver Buddha And my silver bullet...
ND: "When danger threatens, their Buddha idols that they all wore round their necks went straight into their mouths, to bring Buddha as close as possible to them, to protect them, or to lead them into a new life..."
Just one thing in it Me or him And I love life!
ND: "I was only ever twice put in a position where I had to use a weapon. I fired some shots on one occasion, the situation was in Cambodia and our position was being over-run by the Communists. At least one third of the defending troops were killed, many more were seriously wounded. And four or five Cambodian soldiers and myself were cut off and there was no way but to pick up a weapon and help defend the position, which we fortunately did successfully, or, to be more exact, it enabled us to escape. I always thought that such a situation would pose a moral question. In actual fact, there was no moral question in my mind - it was either be killed or defend myself. I chose to defend myself."