Quotestones October 2003 Page 1Stone01 - VietnameseAlthough we have at times been strong,At times weak,We have at no time lacked heroes.

From a poem by Nguyen Trai, "Binh NgoDai Cao" (1428). Many nations sentsoldiers to fight in the wars forIndochina. This Quotestone honors allthe unremembered heroes.

Stone02 - English...And you will hearThe wailing of the woundedand the whisper of death.

From a sign at Malinta Tunnel hospitalon Corregidor, from the early days ofWorld War II. These words are alsofitting for the Philippine contingent inVietnam - Operation Brotherhood andPHILCAGV, Medical and Civic ActionTeams.

Stone03 - LaoThe gnat lives as best it canOn what nature provides.But how can a great white elephantBe interested in a little bamboo shoot

like me?

From a teasing, courtship dancebetween young lovers. This little songspeaks volumes about the gentle Laoway of life. Vietnam War belligerentswere interested in Laos only because ofits strategic importance and the accessit gave to the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Laosbecame a reluctant participant andsuffered greatly.

Quotestones October 2003 Page 2Stone04 - ChineseSacrifice the plum tree for the peach

tree.

One of the 36 ancient Chinesestratagems. Sacrifices are made in allwars. A squad is thrown into a suicidalassault so that the company maysucceed elsewhere, or escape withminimal losses.

Stone05 - LaoWhen buffaloes fight it is the grass that

suffers.

The Lao people were caught betweenthe West's anti-communist crusade andthe North Vietnamese revolution. TheFrench, U.S. and North Vietnamese"buffaloes" laid bare the "grass" of Laos.Laos and her people were unwillingparticipants and paid a horrible price.

Stone06 - VietnameseWhen dreams and wishes fail and don't

come true,they turn to stones and just sit there,

stock-still.They weigh so heavy on my brain, my

heart -I want to shrug them off but often can't.

From a collection of poems, "Flowersfrom Hell" by Nguyen Chi Thien,composed during his imprisonment inNorth Vietnamese re-education camps.Many thousands of ARVN soldiers andpolitical prisoners went through yearsof the war's ugly aftermath.

Quotestones October 2003 Page 3Stone07 - EnglishLet us once again be what we were...something which no longer exists...and will never return.

Tribal minorities in Indochina facedwrenching changes in their way of lifeafter the U.S. left Southeast Asia.Because many of them were closelyallied with the U.S. effort and theircultures were in conflict with the moremodern socities of the lowland people,they lost everything.

Stone08 - EnglishAnd how can men die betterThan facing fearful oddsFor the ashes of their fathers,And the temples of their Gods?

From the poem, "Horatius," by ThomasB. Macaulay (1800-1859). In honor ofall those who fought for the Republic ofVietnam and their view of"Independence and Freedom," and inhonor of Americans who shared theirbattles in the hopes that they mightachieve that freedom.

Stone09 - GermanMy regiment, my homeMy mother I have never knownMy father fell early on in the fieldI am alone in the world.

From a French Foreign Legion song. TheFrench Foreign Legion served inIndochina during 1883-1891 and againfrom 1946-1954. Many Legionnairesdied fighting France's wars inIndochina.

Quotestones October 2003 Page 4Stone10 - NepaliIt's a bullet, a bulletHear it ricochet by your earIt's beckoning war...

From a well-known Gurka soldier'spoem. British, Indian, and Gurkhatroops occupied Indochina immediatelyafter World War II. The Gurkhas playeda major part in suppressing theVietnamese until the arrival of Frenchforces in 1946.

Stone11 - VietnameseWinds howl and growl at ghosts of those

war' killed -on soldiers' faces shines the stalking

moon.O men, alive or dead, has anyone

portrayed your faces or invoked yoursouls?

From the 18th Century poem "Song of aSoldier's Wife" by Dang Tran Con (c.1710-1745), originally written inChinese. The themes of the poem - warand the sorrows caused by war - areappropriate for so many periods inhistory.

Stone12 - ArabicWe come from the SultanMay God forgive our sins.

From a marching chant of the MoroccanTirailleurs. This Quotestone is in honorof Arab North African soldiers whomade up part of the French UnionForces in Indochina.

Quotestones October 2003 Page 5Stone13 - ArabicIt is Written...

This phrase begins many passages inthe Koran, and can be interpreted tomean "It is the Law." Philosophically,Islam looks at everything aspredestined... whatever will be is thewill of Allah. Hence, Arab soldiersserving in Vietnam was the will of Allah.The Armee d' Afrique, France's army ofNorth-West Africa, served withdistinction in the Indochina War. Theirnumbers reached high levels especiallyin the 1950s, as the French struggled tomaintain control of the region.

Stone14 - English/German"Left behind in the Tonkin Delta.""Died for France?""Yes, died for France."

Following World War II, a large numberof the soldiers introduced intoIndochina as part of the French UnionForces were ex-German soldiersrecruited from Allied POW camps.Later, as fighting in the region escalatedin 1950, General Jean de Lattre deTassigny was installed as the Frenchmilitary commander in Indochina.Though he inspired his forces to inflictheavy defeats on the Vietminh, thesesuccesses were only temporary.

Quotestones October 2003 Page 6Stone15 -Upper half - EnglishAnd how can men die betterThan facing fearful oddsFor the ashes of their fathers,And the temples of their Gods?

From the poem, "Horatius," by ThomasB. Macaulay (1800-1859). In honor ofall those who fought for the Republic ofVietnam and their view of"Independence and Freedom," and inhonor of Americans who shared theirbattles in the hopes that they mightachieve that freedom.

Lower half - HmongSho, hey! You have left for good,You come to the mountain in the

burning sky,The mountain wide open to the winds

where the wild wind howls.

From the Hmong chant for initiation ofthe dead, Kr'ua Ke, or Showing theWay.

This stone is unique in that it is theonly stone with two different quotationson it. The quotations are seeminglyunrelated.The quotation on Stone 08 is the sameas the upper half of this stone.

Stone16 - KoreanWe know not where we go,Leaves blown, scattered,Though fallen from the same tree,By the first winds of autumn.

The Republic of Korea sent troops to aidSouth Vietnam, starting in 1964; in all,over 4,000 Korean soldiers died there.The lines here, from the poem"Requiem" by Master Wolmyong (c. 742-765), could well have been written forthose Korean soldiers.

Quotestones October 2003 Page 7Stone17 - EnglishIt is a worthy thingto fight for one's freedom:it is another sight finerto fight for another man's.

For the Americans who dreamedimpossible dreams, who "tried" withnoble altruism, to help others lessfortunate to achieve a shared vision offreedom with prosperity within theirown cultural values ... and for thosewho endured the agony without losingtheir integrity and sense of honor.

Stone18 - GermanNo high mass will they be chanting,and no kaddish will they say.Nothing will be said or chantedon my own memorial day.

From a German poem by HeinrichHeine (1797-1856). In the yearsfollowing 1945, the majority of FrenchForeign Legion recruits were German.This Quotestone is in respect for theGermans who filled the ranks of theForeign Legion in Indochina.

Stone19 - FrenchTranslation not available

From the chorus of a marching song.The Moroccan Goums, units of mixedfoot and mounted personnel, werefrequently made up of tribal scouts fromthe Atlas Mountains of Algeria andMorocco. These irregulars, as well asregulars, of the Armee d' Afrique wereused often in Indochina.

Quotestones October 2003 Page 8Stone20 - Urdu, HindiTo all who served...

The 20th Indian Division under BritishGeneral Douglas Gracey was among thefirst to confront the newly-organizedVietminh army as the Allies sought totake control of Vietnam immediatelyafter World War II.

Stone21 - VietnameseWho could say that "Heaven" is blind?

Quotestones October 2003 Page 9Stone22 - FrenchThey were from Ouaga, Conakry, and

DakarNigeria, Mali, and the Ivory Coast.They were soldiers of France of

yesteryear.Who can close his door on one of their

children?

From a song written well after theFrench war in Indochina, about thepoor treatment of the veterans of BlackAfrica who served in La Coloniale, thearmy formed to garrison Frenchcolonies in Africa and elsewhere. Thesong and this Quotestone are in honorof the Tirailleurs Senegalais, theSenegalese Riflemen. More than tenTirailleurs Senegalais battalions fromFrench West and Equatorial Africaserved in Indochina in the early 1950s.

Stone23 - KhmerIf my disciples were silenced,the stones themselveswould cry out.

This passage from the Bible forms theepigraph of the book "The Stones CryOut," by Molyda Szymusiak, whichdescribes the horrors of "post-war"Kampuchea under the Khmer Rouge.Many people tied to the old regime werebrutally executed.

Quotestones October 2003 Page 10Stone24 - Pali SanskritThose who have gone to the Buddha as

refugewill not go to the realms of deprivation.On abandoning the human body,they will fill the company of the gods.

From "A Refuge in Awakening," the lastrecorded sermon of Phra Ajaan Lee.Often, before Thai soldiers were sentinto battle, they were blessed bybuddhist monks.Thais were not only involved inVietnam, but Laos as well. At peak,18,000 Thais served in Laos in a widevariety of roles. In Vietnam, Thaisprovided a Royal Thai Contingent whichgrew from regimental to divisionalstrength.

Stone25 - JapaneseI go to a lonely grave...in a land far across the sea...

From a World War II Japanese soldier'ssong, sung before soldiers, recoveredfrom battle wounds, were returned tothe front. Several hundred Japanesesoldiers died in combat under Britishcommand after World War II, in effortsto reinstall French authority inVietnam.

Quotestones October 2003 Page 11Stone26 - EnglishStill in death lies Everyone,And the Battle's Lost.

From a weather-worn sign in theAustralian outback.

Stone27 - FrenchA friend says at the edge of the grave a bit of a prayer.Two pieces of wood in the form of a

cross ...a name...Does it matter if the name is not the right name?It's a Legionnaire.

From a Foreign Legion poem. Manynationalities made up the FrenchForeign Legion. Many of these soldierswere lost in Indochina. It is said thatsome 10,500 Legionnaires were killed inaction during the Indochina War, 1946-1954.

Stone28 - French...dying,so that honor at least may be saved....

Paratrooper volunteers of manynationalities, including Vietnamese,jumped into a doomed bastion at DienBien Phu, even though they knew theend was at hand and captivity or deatha surety.

Quotestones October 2003 Page 12Stone29 - Bahnar (Montagnard)In front the snake Behind the tiger.

The Dega people, more often referred toas Montagnards, have for centuriesconsidered the lowland people, theVietnamese, to be their naturalenemies. To the Dega, who felt they hadfew friends among the Vietnamese, the"snake" might be the South Vietnamese,the "tiger" the North Vietnamese.During the Indochina wars, the Degasaw the French, and later theAmericans, as friends who might help intheir struggle for tribal independence.The West saw in the Dega the best ofguerrilla soldiers. The Dega ... and theHmong in northern Laos ... were thebackbone of para-military forcesarrayed against Ho Chi Minh Trailactivity.

Stone30 - EnglishA people who do not weigh heavyIn the palm of the Mekong;A people who have, as fortresses,Only temples in ruins;Who have, for an army,Only their Thoughts and Faith.

From a poem by Khmer Poetess MakhaliPhal. Fighting between different factionsin Cambodia increased in the early1970s, and on April 17, 1975,Phnompenh fell to the Khmer Rouge,who renamed the country DemocraticKampuchea. Much of Kampuchea'scultural past was destroyed by theKhmer Rouge.

Quotestones October 2003 Page 13Stone31 - VietnameseBetter to die in honor than live in disgrace.

Many soldiers fought well and diedknowing there was no hope. Manyothers took their own lives rather thansurrender. This Quotestone is for thosewho made the supreme sacrifice in thelast days of the Republic of Vietnam.

Stone32 - ArabicEvery soul will know the taste of death.

This quote from the Koran seems veryappropriate for the situation confrontedby soldiers of the Armee d'Afrique.

Quotestones October 2003 Page 14Stone33 - HmongAnguished but not angry, I arrive in this country,without brothers or sisters, like a bewildered, lost dog.

For the Hmong refugees in Ban Vinai,Thailand. This poem expresses theirsorrow at a lost way of life and their losthomeland. Their plight is largely theresult of their involvement in the U.S.war effort. They were recruited in Laosto help rescue American pilots whoseplanes crashed or were shot down. It isestimated that a hundred Hmong liveswere lost for every American pilot saved.When the U.S. withdrew from theVietnam War, it also withdrew supportfor its Hmong allies. Today, in 1995,they continue to suffer as tens ofthousands of Hmong languish in Thaiborder refugee camps.

Waiting for picture.

Stone34 - FrenchWords were engravedin the blood of the stone,They spoke this road:to know and then to die.

From the poem "The Ravine" by YvesBonnefoy. Appropriate in honor of thesacrifices of all French Union soldiers inthe wars for Indochina.

Waiting for picture.

Stone35 - FrenchYou soldiers who sleep under the earthso far away,Whose flowing blood leaves so muchregret,Tell them only, "It's our captainWho remembers us, and counts hisdead."

In 1887, the French formed theIndochinese Union consisting of Tonkin,Annam, Cochin China, and Cambodia.The lines here are from an 1887 poem"Thiebald Striebler" by CaptainVicounte de Borelli, about the battle ofTuyen Quang. The words are asappropriate today as they were then.

Quotestones October 2003 Page 15Stone36 - LaoLike the fallen leaves of Autumnin unregimented ranksCountless unremembered soldiers...rest... ...eternally...

One soldier's "mourning poem" for somany unremembered dead. This feelingwas the basis for, and beginning of, theSOLDIERSTONE Memorial.While so many fought and died inVietnam itself, a number of militaryorganizations also operated in Laosduring 1960-1975. These organizationsincluded the Forces Armees Royales(the Laotian government's regulararmy), Forces Armees Neutralistes, CIAsponsored units, as well as irregularforces.