The Battle of Dien Bien Phu November 1953–May 1954
Buy Issue for $25 at JHUP- The Battle of Dien Bien Phu November 1953–May 1954
Delirium
—field hospital
As one blind Legionnaire leads four more past the wires, Through cratered mud, and past men blinder yet than these, And Viet mortars thud and their artillery fires Salvo on salvo, shaking these dirt walls, what peace As one blind Legionnaire leads four more past the wires . . .
Last Letter
—late April or early May
Devotion to my duty, my service, and my country For twenty years sustained me—a professional. Now, as America both funds us and supplies us, We’re simply mercenaries—God’s truth, running dogs— Dying on now-unrecognizable strongpoints, Counting down rounds and days until the agony ends, Knowing, despite the scuttlebutt, that Yankee bombers Will never fly supporting missions . . . Goodbye, K. [End Page 220]
A Radioman at HQ Overhears Gen. Cogny
“. . . Now, Castries, listen carefully: Cease fire, but no white flags. You see?”
And so, at last, it comes to this: honor reduced to pedantry. [End Page 221]
R. L. Barth is the author of Deeply Dug In (poetry) and the editor of Yvor Winters’s selected letters.
