Word: saigon
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...Since Saigon fell to the Communists in 1975, more than 1.2 million people have fled Indochina, most of them risking perilous journeys overseas in rickety fishing craft. Horrified by the plight of the boat people, a number of countries in Asia and the West liberalized their immigration policies to accommodate the flood of refugees. American policy has been one of the most generous: as of March, 589,000 of the homeless had been resettled in the U.S., compared with 593,000 for the two dozen other nations accepting refugees. Last week, however, Washington announced a more restrictive policy...
Part of the peculiar physics of rock 'n' roll, however, is the ability to fuse opposites. What happened between The Charlie Daniels Band and Dan Daley and his demo tape is a hit song called Still in Saigon, featured on Daniels' new album, Windows, already 24 on the singles charts and climbing fast. At this bleak and uncertain moment for rock 'n' roll, Still in Saigon is not only the best single of the year so far; it would be a standout in the most bountiful of times...
Harsh, haunted, as chilling as a fever dream, Still in Saigon is music made from the silence of the dead. Like John Fogerty in his great songs for Creedence Clearwater Revival (Run Through the Jungle, Fortunate Son, Who'll Stop the Rain), Daley writes with ruthless simplicity. Still in Saigon has no patience with protest. Its power comes from undeflected imagery and reflective compassion: "The ground at home/ Was covered with snow/ And I was covered with sweat/ My younger brother calls me a killer/ And my Daddy calls me a vet .../ Damned if I know...
Some have argued that the unlikely success of such a song demonstrates that the war in Viet Nam is now, securely, a safe issue. But Still in Saigon does not play it safe in the writing or in Daniels' slightly rowdy, defiant delivery. This is a war memorial of present and continued agony, about flashbacks that never stop and bad dreams that do not end with daylight: "Every summer when it rains/ I smell the jungle/ I hear the planes/ I can't tell no one/ I feel ashamed/ Afraid some day/ I'll go insane...
...Willwerth, who served 14 months as a correspondent in Viet Nam, covering the Salvadoran insurgency has revived old and unwanted memories. "The countryside is strikingly similar to Viet Nam's," he says. "One afternoon, another reporter, also a Saigon press veteran, and I were sitting on a porch in northern Morazán province, looking out over a garden filled with tropical flowers. Just then a U.S.-made 'Huey' helicopter flapped overhead. We looked at each other, startled. Both of us had flashed back ten years to Viet Nam." Caribbean Bureau Chief William McWhirter, on his third...