WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.540 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.540 --> 00:00:02.175 align:middle line:84% Another repulsive thing about this war 00:00:02.175 --> 00:00:04.050 align:middle line:84% that I don't remember in the Second World War 00:00:04.050 --> 00:00:06.600 align:middle line:84% was the business of counting up the bodies in the newspapers. 00:00:06.600 --> 00:00:09.810 align:middle line:84% 35 Viet Cong killed today, 29 yesterday. 00:00:09.810 --> 00:00:12.690 align:middle line:84% We're supposed to send the Pentagon 00:00:12.690 --> 00:00:16.910 align:middle line:84% wonderful congratulations cards with little roses on them. 00:00:16.910 --> 00:00:18.800 align:middle line:84% We didn't count up the Germans in that way. 00:00:18.800 --> 00:00:21.290 align:middle line:84% And I remember in the Minneapolis Tribune, 00:00:21.290 --> 00:00:24.770 align:middle line:84% there was a picture of a search and kill Marine mission having 00:00:24.770 --> 00:00:26.510 align:middle line:84% gone out on a search and kill mission, 00:00:26.510 --> 00:00:29.810 align:middle line:84% returning to base with the first Viet Cong soldier 00:00:29.810 --> 00:00:34.500 align:middle line:84% that they'd killed draped over the hood, exactly like a deer. 00:00:34.500 --> 00:00:36.300 align:middle line:84% Exactly like Detroit hunters coming back 00:00:36.300 --> 00:00:37.830 align:middle line:90% from the woods with a deer. 00:00:37.830 --> 00:00:40.770 align:middle line:84% And a friend sent me the same photograph in the Indianapolis 00:00:40.770 --> 00:00:43.500 align:middle line:84% Star, in which they'd understood it perfectly, 00:00:43.500 --> 00:00:46.290 align:middle line:84% and they had put it underneath Big Game. 00:00:46.290 --> 00:00:49.410 align:middle line:84% So every time that the war takes a step in escalation, 00:00:49.410 --> 00:00:52.020 align:middle line:84% it also takes a step in the desensitization 00:00:52.020 --> 00:00:54.990 align:middle line:90% of the American. 00:00:54.990 --> 00:00:57.730 align:middle line:84% And when Guernica was bombed, when 00:00:57.730 --> 00:01:01.080 align:middle line:84% they had the first bombing of an undefended village, 00:01:01.080 --> 00:01:03.650 align:middle line:84% do you know what a howl went up all over the world? 00:01:03.650 --> 00:01:06.760 align:middle line:84% Picasso did his great painting, Guernica, 00:01:06.760 --> 00:01:09.160 align:middle line:84% and there was howls in all the newspapers. 00:01:09.160 --> 00:01:11.140 align:middle line:84% Do you know how many undefended villages 00:01:11.140 --> 00:01:12.430 align:middle line:90% that we have bombed so far? 00:01:12.430 --> 00:01:15.700 align:middle line:84% The whole nation is without defense of South Vietnam. 00:01:15.700 --> 00:01:18.250 align:middle line:84% The most serious step was not the bombing in North Vietnam, 00:01:18.250 --> 00:01:20.890 align:middle line:84% it was the bombing of South Vietnam. 00:01:20.890 --> 00:01:22.540 align:middle line:90% Now nobody cares. 00:01:22.540 --> 00:01:25.945 align:middle line:84% We make a mistake one time, and we say, we're sorry, 00:01:25.945 --> 00:01:27.572 align:middle line:84% we didn't intend to bomb that one. 00:01:27.572 --> 00:01:28.280 align:middle line:90% We're very sorry. 00:01:28.280 --> 00:01:29.020 align:middle line:90% It fell through. 00:01:29.020 --> 00:01:30.640 align:middle line:90% We'll give them all $84. 00:01:30.640 --> 00:01:32.798 align:middle line:84% Give the families $84, that will take care of it. 00:01:32.798 --> 00:01:34.090 align:middle line:90% And everyone says, that's fine. 00:01:34.090 --> 00:01:35.140 align:middle line:90% That takes care of it. 00:01:35.140 --> 00:01:37.300 align:middle line:84% Very nice of the American government. 00:01:37.300 --> 00:01:40.510 align:middle line:84% So it's a desensitization that is going on. 00:01:40.510 --> 00:01:42.760 align:middle line:84% So I think there's something also with the fact 00:01:42.760 --> 00:01:44.500 align:middle line:84% that the bodies of Asians are so small. 00:01:44.500 --> 00:01:47.340 align:middle line:90% Americans expect big things. 00:01:47.340 --> 00:01:49.960 align:middle line:84% So here's a little poem called "Counting Small-boned Bodies." 00:01:49.960 --> 00:01:52.600 align:middle line:84% "Let's count the bodies over again. 00:01:52.600 --> 00:01:57.510 align:middle line:84% If we could only make the bodies smaller, the size of skulls, 00:01:57.510 --> 00:02:00.090 align:middle line:84% we could make a whole plain white 00:02:00.090 --> 00:02:03.180 align:middle line:90% with skulls in the moonlight! 00:02:03.180 --> 00:02:06.150 align:middle line:84% If we could only make the bodies smaller, 00:02:06.150 --> 00:02:10.410 align:middle line:84% maybe we could get a whole year's kill in front of us 00:02:10.410 --> 00:02:12.530 align:middle line:90% on a desk! 00:02:12.530 --> 00:02:14.870 align:middle line:84% If we could only make the bodies smaller, 00:02:14.870 --> 00:02:18.830 align:middle line:84% we could fit a body into a finger-ring 00:02:18.830 --> 00:02:23.560 align:middle line:84% and wear it like a keepsake forever."