or the enemy, and especially the circumstances, altered their behavior in such a way that their actions reflected those of justly evil human beings. On the other hand, some of the innocent Vietnamese deaths were only by mistake.
             During a routine mission a group of American soldiers were advancing into a small Vietnamese village. It was silent and seemed completely empty of human life. All of a sudden a soldier saw movement on the porch of and immediately fired his magazine off at the figure. Unfortunately, it proved to be an elderly Vietnamese woman. The soldier was horrified at what he had done, but his squad leader tried to ease his pain using a logical explanation. "Don't be sorry...She knows the rules. She shoulda been in her bunker. It's her own fault," (Appy, 200). Obviously, innocent death was far too common to fret over. The woman made the mistake of coming outside, and paid the ultimate price. Nevertheless, most of the front line tales dealt with U.S. injuries and casualties, parables of men watching a comrade's death or nearly fatal injury.
             During the Vietnam War hundreds of air strikes were ordered which were the result of many American deaths. One particular soldier recalls how the air strikes affected not only the NVA, but the United States as well.
             ...The only place for us to hide was under these scraggly
             little bushes. We got our asses kicked. Any time somebody
             tried to move, they got hit. We lay out in the hot sun all day,
             and I mean it was baking! A few guys died from sunstroke.
             When we pulled one guy out later we couldn't find a single
             wound on him; he just died from exposure...we lost twelve
             men in that friggin' riverbed, (Appy, 230).
             These air strikes were quite affective, but only when the United States soldier's had ample time to flee the selected area. This particular time the air strike did not even kill a single Vietnamese so...