Dispatch Number Eight
On the Run to Paris,
Mr. Miles Stops
For Chips and War.
DATELINE:
Wednesday, November 22, 2000, at 1200 hours CDT.
By Mickey Miles
SPECIAL to CornDancer.com
EDITOR'S NOTE: Mr. Miles is a professional journalist and political operative who moved to London in summer, 2000, to explore a new line of endeavour.
Now it's on to Paris. Before I go, here's a quick Dispatch, filed very much on the run.
Tonight in the pub where I go from time to time -- no one knows me there -- I sat in a corner, nursing a beer and eating fish and chips. At a nearby table, four British men were discussing America and repeating word-for-word what I said in the previous Dispatch: Americans are disengaged, insular, don't know beans about the world, and don't care.
Finally they got around to wars and started talking about Viet Nam. I just listened. They kept saying America had lost the war.
Finally, I heard about all I wanted to hear. I spoke up, said, "Well, that's not quite correct."
They stopped their chatter and looked at me as one. They knew by my accent that I was an American. "We didn't lose the war, didn't lose one major battle. We killed a million NVA and VC. We just took our weapons and body bags and came home. The South Vietnamese would either fight for their country, or surrender."
The rest is history.
One of the Brits gave me the perfect set-up as I stood to leave.
"Well, mate, how do you know?"
"I was there."
C'est la mort. Cheers.
EDITOR'S NOTE:
WATCH FOR DISPATCH NUMBER NINE
on Wednesday, November 29, 2000.
Mickey's weekly Dispatch from London
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