Vietmath War: DEAR AMERICA: LETTERS HOME FROM VIETNAM
Archimedes Plutonium
My favorite two Vietnam movies are the series VIETNAM WAR: A TV HISTORY
and recently I saw DEAR AMERICA: LETTERS HOME FROM VIETNAM
As I watch these movies I analogize with my own fight of moving the
Mathematics community. They still believe their old ways of Naturals =
Finite Integers. So, what better way to point out the errors of their
old habits than by making a satire of the math community.
I am a revolutionary, and I believe Naturals = P-adics = Infinite
Integers. I believe that a concept of a number being purely finite is a
sham and that all numbers need a component of infinity. A Real Number
such as .500... is true because it has infinite digits, but a purely
finite number such as 5 which the math community wants you to accept ,
to me that finite number is a fake. There is no finite number of 5 but
that all numbers, in order for them to exist, must have infinite
digits. And so 5 is a fake, but ....00005 exists and is a p-adic.
I usually look for lines in these movies to incorporate into my
satire-harangue of telling the math people that they need to reexamine
their foundations. Upon seeing this movie of DEAR AMERICA, I was too
moved by its human compassion to want to incorporate passages and I did
not want to use other people's lived emotions for these are genuine
letters and not some fiction plot.
But I perhaps am vicariously experiencing some of the emotions that
these people went through as I battle the world mathematics community.
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Dear Red, ( or Dear Dad, southern accent cannot make it out)
Anyone over here who walks more than 50 feet through elephant grass
should automatically get a purple heart. Try to imagine grass
possessing razor sharp edges big, to 15 feet high, so thick as to cut
visibility to 1 yard. Then try to imagine walking through it while all
around you are men possessing the latest automatic weapons who
desperately want to kill you. You would be amazed how much a man can
age on but one patrol.
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58,132 Americans were lost to the Vietnam War.... and nearly 3 million
came home.
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Dear Folks,
.... All trickle into Supply and disbursed as needed... I've read
where officers were cordially saying "this is the only war we got,
don't knock it"
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December 31, 1965
US Troops in Vietnam 184,300
Killed in action to date 1,363
Wounded in action to date 7,645
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"We own the day, Charlie owns the night"
-- a G.I. saying
Dearest Beth,
Last night we had the VC all around us. Beth, don't ever tell them
this but there are times I feel I am never coming home. The VC are
getting much stronger. So I think this war is going to get worse before
it gets better. The days are fairly peaceful, but the nights are pure
hell. I look up at the stars and it is so hard to believe that the same
stars shine over you and in such a different world as you live in. All
my love, Al
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December 31, 1965
US Troops in Vietnam 184,300
Killed in action to date 1,363
Wounded in action to date 7,645
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December 31, 1966
US Troops in Vietnam 385,300
Killed in action to date 6,644
Wounded in action to date 37,738
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Dear Mom and Dad,
You know that joke about how hard it is to tell the good guys from
the bad guys over here ..... The enemy in our areas of operations is a
farmer by day and a VC by night. Every man we pick up says,
" Vietnamese number 1, VC number 10."
So, we have to let him go. By the way, number 1 means real good and
number 10 means real bad.
Other handy phrases are:
Titi -- very little
Boo Koo -- which means very much
Didi Mow -- get out of here
What more do you need to know?
Love always, Mike
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LBJ, Jan 12, 1967, State of the Union Address : I wish I could report
to you that the conflict is almost over. This I cannot do We face more
cost, more loss, and more agony, for the end is not yet. I cannot
promise you it will come this year or come next year. Our adversaries
still believe, I think tonight, that he can go on fighting longer than
we can. And longer than we and our Allies will be prepared to stand-up,
and resist.
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Jan 21, 1968 Khe Sanh
Almost 40,000 NVA regulars have surrounded 5,600 Marines. The siege
begins.
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To defend KheSanh, the US mounts the most intense bombing in the
history of war. The equivalent of 5 Hiroshima-size bombs are dropped
within a mile of Khe Sanh.
General Earle Wheeler, Chmn., Joint Chiefs of Staff : I do not think
that nuclear weapons will be required to defend Khe Sanh.
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Although the enemy's Tet Offensive has failed militarily, it succeeds
in changing public opinion in the US
The War has reached a turning point.
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{Silent Night sung here }
December 31, 1968
US Troops in Vietnam 536,100
Killed in action to date 30,160
Wounded in action to date 192,850
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" One thing worries me .... Will people want to hear about it? Or will
they want to forget the whole thing happened. " -- Lt.J.G. Richard
Strandberg