Saturday, May 13, 1972
When The Guy Has A Gun, You Pay...
NORTH OF LAI KHE (S & S Vietnam Bureau) --"You buy!?" Probably the first and only two words of English the young South Vietnamese soldier knew.The road to Chon Thanh, Highway 13, and to points further north is a narrow black strip of pavement that slides through a barren wasteland much like the desert that rolls away from Highway 66 in the southwest United States.But Highway 13 has some "extras." Good and bad guys have often squared off along this road in some dandy knock-down drag-out contests.Spent shell casings glitter like gold and gnaw at balding tires. Off the roadway, twisted remnants of tanks, personnel carriers and civilian buses lie in smoldering monuments to a dirty war.Newsmen from Saigon race up and down Highway 13 daily in a strange and steady procession to "The Front", to get the news.The tendency is to rivet your eyes to the middle of the road and try not to wrench the steering wheel from the column at every scary sound. The squeak of soft pavement on tire treads sounds like the whisper of incoming. The pop of air rushing through a sleeve rattles the nerves.And there are the "roadblocks" and check points."There were about a half-dozen armed men standing side by side across the highway. They were a disheveled dirty collection. They were masters of this part of Highway 13.The beat up, dusty and grimy station wagon eased into their midst. Inside, the reporters began practicing "handy Vietnamese phrases." The soldiers would poke into the car and maybe want to search the vehicle and hustle a cigarette. Be cool.A few seconds of studied silence. The South Vietnamese, grim-faced, circled the car slowly. One kicked a tire."Maybe we can sell it here," quipped one of the writers weakly.Suddenly a dusty ARVN thrust his sweaty face into the car and waving a green slip of paper, shouted: "You buy! You buy?!""No can do," replied one reporter.Another focused on the slip of paper, choked, cursed his partner and then produced a fistful of Vietnamese currency.The exchange was made simultaneously. A cheer went up around the car.There, in the middle of nowhere, danced a few happy ARVN soldiers.The "toll" was a U.S. greenback. Ten dollars, American."When the Guy Has A Gun, You Pay...", by S&S Vietnam Bureau published in the Pacific Stars and Stripes Saturday, May 13, 1972 and reprinted from European and Pacific Stars and Stripes, a Department of Defense publication copyright, 2002 European and Pacific Stars and Stripes.