As the first gleaming Stratoliner took off with its load of pilots [back to the USA], an old friend—a Vietnamese historian—murmured, "Truly, times have changed. When we defeated the Mongols, we usually sent them back to China on our own horses or boats, with sufficient rations to see them on their way. We then sent delegates to Peking—once with a golden statue of the commanding general who had been killed—always with generous tribute and our excuses for having defeated their armies in regrettable incidents during which they had crossed our borders. ‘Please spare us this in the future,' we said. Now at least there is an invader who sends his own transport to remove the captives, and even sends us an emissary to discuss the amount of their tribute."

— Wilfred Burchett, from Tết Of Peace

Chapter 12 of Grasshoppers & Elephants: Why Viet Nam Fell (Outback Press, Melbourne, 1977), pp. 171-180.

REBEL JOURNALISM, THE WRITINGS OF WILFRED BURCHETT