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On Point
Distinct from the NVA, the Vietcong was a communist organization that organized both guerrilla and conventional military campaigns against the ARVN and American forces during the Vietnam War. It worked closely with the Northern Vietnamese government and the NVA, and it spearheaded the Tet Offensive, a coordinated series of attacks against cities and military establishments all throughout South Vietnam in the early months of 1968. Nicknames for the Vietcong featured in Fallen Angels include the shortened forms “Congs,” VC, and “charlies,” which comes from the NATO phonetic alphabet used by the U.S. military, in which “VC” becomes “Victor Charlie.”
Vietcong/Cong/VC/Charlie Quotes in Fallen Angels
The Fallen Angels quotes below are all either spoken by Vietcong/Cong/VC/Charlie or refer to Vietcong/Cong/VC/Charlie. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 4
Quotes
“You call that a sport?” Monaco asked. “I mean, there you are, you gotta weigh two hundred pounds, and you got a rifle, and you’re against a squirrel that weighs maybe two or three pounds, and he ain’t got nothing.”
“Man, it’s a damn sport!” Simpson protested […]
“The way I figure it,” Monaco went on, “if you hunt a squirrel with a rifle, what do you hunt a bear with? Artillery?”
“Call in some white phosphorous on him,” Brew said. “That’ll get his attention until the jets zero in.”
[…]
“You don’t know nothing about no hunting!” Simpson was getting pissed. “You don’t know what hunting is!”
“What he’s trying to say […] is that the white phosphorous is enough. After it burns the bear’s ass off, then the good sergeant will finish him off with a couple of frag grenades,” [said Lobel].
[…] Sergeant Simpson got up and left the hooch.
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The village was a good ten minutes away and everybody seemed relaxed. I wasn’t. I was scared.
I had never thought of myself as being afraid of anything. I thought I would always be a middle-of-the-road kind of guy, not too brave, but not too scared, either. I was wrong. I was scared every time I left the hooch.
On the way to the chopper, I found myself holding my breath. I kept thinking of the noise I had heard when Jenkins got it. By the time we took off I was panting.
Chapter 6
Quotes
“Hey, Lobel, I didn’t mean anything,” I said. “I guess I’m just a little nervous.”
“No sweat […] I’m a little nervous, too. I’d be real nervous, except I know none of this is real and I’m just playing a part.”
“What part are you playing?”
“The part where the star of the movie is sitting in the foxhole explaining how he feels about life and stuff like that. You never get killed in movies when you’re doing that. Anytime you get killed in a movie, it’s after you set it up.”
“You play a part when we were on patrol?”
“That wasn’t a patrol […] that was a firefight […] Anytime anybody is getting shot at it’s a firefight. […] Anyway, I was playing Lee Marvin as a tough sergeant. That’s my best part.”
Chapter 7
Quotes
An image of the VC we had killed flashed through my mind. I wondered if he had a family? Had he been out on a patrol? When did he know he was going to die?
What was worse than thinking about him dead was the way we looked at him. At least we had cared for Jenkins, had trembled when he died. He was one of us, an American, a human. But the dead Vietnamese soldier, his body sprawled out in the mud, was no longer a human being. He was a thing, a trophy. I wondered if I would become a trophy.
“We won.” Walowick came in after the volleyball game and sat on the edge of the bunk. “They’re paying us off in beer.”
“Way to go,” I said.
“You okay?”
“Yeah.”
“Seeing that dead gook mess you up some?”
“A little,” I said. “Maybe even more than Jenkins.”
“Who’s Jenkins?”
Chapter 11
Quotes
“The guy’s got to be a spook,” Gearhart said. “You know, CIA.”
“What do they do over here?” Monaco asked.
“Below the DMZ they do pacification stuff, look around to see who is infiltrating, that kind of thing. Then they do a lot of stuff above the ’Z. The navy guys slip them in on the west and the Green Berets slip them around the ’Z through Laos. Down here she’s probably his cover.”
“Is the kid a spook, too?” Monaco asked.
“Who knows?” Gearhart answered. “This is a funny war.”
I didn’t like the idea of having people who were civilians around. It just didn’t seem right somehow.
Chapter 14
Quotes
The village looked like the one they had constructed for practice at Fort Devens. Only here there were real people […]
There was a sense of panic in the air. We had our weapons ready. Sergeant Simpson was telling us not to kill the civilians. I didn’t consciously want to kill anybody, anything. But I felt strange. The sight of all the bodies lying around, the smell of blood and puke and urine, made my head spin, pushed me to a different place. I wanted to fire my weapon, to destroy the nightmare around me. I didn’t want it to be real, this much death, this much dying, this waste of human life. I didn’t want it.
Chapter 18
Quotes
Peewee skipped his meals the rest of the day. Monaco tried to talk to him, but he wouldn’t answer. It was Johnson who finally got him to talk.
“Hey, Peewee?”
“What?”
“You care anything about these damn kids over here, man?”
“They got kids over here?” Peewee asked.
“Naw, man, all they got is Congs,” Johnson said. “Congs and mosquitos.”
“And rats,” Walowick added.
“Yeah.”
“Hey, Peewee,” I said. “It’s okay to feel bad about what’s going on over here, man. It’s really okay.”
“Me? Feel bad?” Peewee turned over in his bunk and pulled his sheet up around his shoulders. “Never happen.”
Chapter 19
Quotes
The mortar shells landed behind us. They were long again. Long but walking. They had spotters who saw where the shells were landing, and who were directing the fire. They kept shortening up the range to get closer and closer to us. And the shells were coming fast.
The noise was terrible. Every time a mortar went off, I jumped. I couldn’t help myself. The noise went into you. It touched parts of you that were small and frightened and wanting your mommy. Being away from the fighting had weakened my stamina. It did even more to my nerves. I was shaking. I had to force myself to keep my eyes open.
“He forgot the tags,” Gearhart said. “He left them in the hut.”
“How they gonna let their folks know they dead?” Peewee said.
Gearhart didn’t answer.
What would they do for a body? Would they send home an empty coffin? Would they scrounge pieces from Graves Registration? What would they say to their parents? Their wives? We lost your son, ma’am. Somewhere in the forests he lies, perhaps behind some rock, some tree?
We burned his body, ma’am. In a rite hurried by fear and panic, we burned what was left of him and ran for our own lives.
Yes, and we’re sorry.
Perhaps they would tell them nothing. Not having a body in hand, not having the lifeless form to send with the flat, they would not acknowledge that there was a death at all.
Yes, and we’re sorry.
Chapter 22
Quotes
Thoughts came. What would Morningside Avenue look like now? It would be day and the park would be filled with kids, their screaming and laughter would slide along the light beams into the helter skelter world of monkey bars and swings. On the courts there would be a tough game. Black bodies sweating and grunting to get the points that would let them sweat and grunt in the sun for another game. It wasn’t real. None of it was real. The only thing that was real was me and Peewee, sitting in this spider’s grave, waiting for death.
[…]
Pray.
God….What to pray? What to tell God? That I’m scared? […] That I didn’t want to die? That I was like everybody else over here, trying to cling to a few more days of life?
Peewee moved, adjusted position.
“I got to shit,” he said.
It was Monaco. He was sitting against a tree. He had his head in his hands. His piece was about ten meters in front of him. I wanted to go to him, but Peewee stopped me.
“He ain’t sitting there for nothing,” he said.
I looked around. Nothing. What the hell was wrong with this damn war? You never saw anything. There was never anything until it was on top of your ass, and you were screaming and shooting and too scared to figure out anything.
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Vietcong/Cong/VC/Charlie Term Timeline in Fallen Angels
The timeline below shows where the term Vietcong/Cong/VC/Charlie appears in Fallen Angels. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
...wanders around the Anchorage Air Force base bragging that his alarming reputation scared off any “Congs” that might otherwise have been lying in wait there, Judy Duncan and Richie Perry make...
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...hooch (slang for barracks), Perry asks Gates—who goes by Peewee—if he found any of the “Congs” he was looking for earlier. Peewee points to the Vietnamese woman sweeping the floor. Perry...
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Chapter 2
...He says that he’s going to go home early, as soon as he kills one “Cong” for every pound of his weight. Peewee insists he only has eight to go until...
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...assignment, a sergeant assures them: they just look around for Northern Vietnamese forces or the Vietcong—known as “charlies,” “Victor Charlies,” or “Congs” in army slang—then call in the marines when they...
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Peewee swears he’ll be the first one to kill a “Cong,” and Perry says Peewee can have them all. He admits he’s scared. Peewee says he...
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Chapter 3
...not going to let them get him killed before that. Peewee protests that they’re not “Congs,” and Simpson retorts that he prefers “charlies” to cherries. Perry says nothing but thinks it’s...
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Chapter 4
...as dark fell, Carroll “went wild” and stormed across the road and “wasted” all the “charlies.” That day, he showed his true color—his willingness to put his “ass on the line”...
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...he didn’t die instead. He starts over. Later that day, the platoon brings in a Vietcong fighter for questioning, and when Peewee discovers the enemy in the storage hooch, they strike...
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...over 60. Simpson adds that all the men will be gone, fighting either with the Vietcong army or the Americans’ allies, the South Vietnamese army (ARVN). Most Vietnamese men seem to...
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...to the camp, Brunner says that the villagers will probably be “having supper with the VC” by the time they get back. Johnson demands to know why “VC” has the same...
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Chapter 5
...stories of other units fighting, and Perry wonders what it feels like to shoot a Vietcong fighter.
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...Simpson rounds up Alpha Company as Carroll asks what’s going on. Simpson tells him that Vietcong forces have pinned down Charlie Company a few miles away. Alpha Company must rescue them...
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Chapter 6
...20 minutes before turning back. As they approach the landing zone, Monaco opens fire. One Vietcong fighter lurks among the trees. Then, Lobel sees him too, and the whole squad opens...
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Chapter 7
Jamal, the camp medic, distributes the weekly malaria pills and congratulates Perry on getting three Vietcong fighters. Perry clarifies that they got one. But the medic saw Captain Stewart’s report to...
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That night, Perry can’t sleep because he can’t stop thinking about the dead Vietcong fighter. He tries to think about Kenny instead. They used to imagine traveling the world....
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Chapter 9
...hot food and a box of chicks to distribute. Brunner suspects one person of being Vietcong, but Carroll tells him not to worry about it—for now.
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...the same village. Now the squad must go back and lay an ambush for any Vietcong guerillas in the vicinity. Sergeant Simpson explains that they need to show the villagers that...
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Chapter 10
...little before dark. Simpson arranges them in a line along the path they expect the Vietcong to take to the village, which runs through a small cemetery. They put mines in...
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...fire while Carroll sends up a flare. By its light, Perry sees dead and dying Vietcong fighters on the ground. Peewee finds one body just outside the entrance to the tunnel...
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Monaco and Peewee pump rounds into the village to keep the villagers—and any Vietcong among them—at bay while Johnson sets up his machine gun. Terrified and angry, he and...
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Chapter 11
...anyone either, not until they were lying dead on the ground. He’s convinced that the Vietcong could “sneak they asses clear out the damn country” without anyone noticing. Perry confesses that...
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They take trucks—the only thing worse than helicopters, in Perry’s opinion, because the Vietcong can shoot you right through the walls—to a hamlet, where the civilian team sets up...
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Chapter 13
...encountering North Vietnamese soldiers—who, like the Americans, get training before being sent into battle—rather than Vietcong guerrillas. He worries that the Northern Vietnamese plan to face the Americans directly. Artillery and...
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...doing anything stupid. They’re assigned to an exposed section of road, and Simpson fears that Vietcong have mined the rice paddies and fields on both sides. A shallow trench and some...
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...and Peewee and Perry at the rear, facing toward the rice paddies to prevent the Vietcong from sneaking up behind them. He tells them to “light it up” at the first...
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...they wait on the chopper for an endless half hour, it begins to rain. A Vietcong fighter stumbles into their clearing to relieve himself, and Gearhart silently “waste[s] the Cong.”
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...but Gearhart isn’t the only one who made a major mistake: if one of the Vietcong turned the claymore around, why didn’t it hit the squad when it went off? Perry...
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Chapter 14
...peace talks while they established a position more favorable to themselves, but they worry that Vietcong guerrillas are terrorizing the civilian population to turn them against the Americans. The major warns...
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...hits the ground, Perry sees that some of the huts are already on fire. The Vietcong have already struck.
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...the soldiers to triage the wounded villagers and to make a note of any apparent Vietcong fighters that he can add to his body count. Perry goes looking for An Linh,...
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...mat. Peewee shoots at it twice, then they pull it back to find a wounded Vietcong fighter. Captain Stewart, attracted by the gunshots, enters the hut and finishes the man off....
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...watches the village burn and thinks about the man he killed. He thinks about the Vietcong fighter he and Peewee found, and about how terrifying it must have been to crouch...
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...in light of “all this shit.” Perry can’t sleep. He can’t forget how quietly the Vietcong fighter snuck up on him in the hut, how he escaped death only because the...
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...nightmares about being in the village hut. In his dream, he cannot move while the Vietcong fighter calmly fixes his rifle. In his dream, he stands motionless and weeping while the...
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Chapter 15
Perry tries to write a letter to Kenny about killing the Vietcong soldier, because he wants Kenny to know that he is a good soldier. He finds...
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...is “something else.” Their first mission involves helping two squads of ARVN soldiers ambush a Vietcong road. Tall grass—a perfect hiding ground for enemy fighters—covers the landing zone. And Simpson thinks...
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...part, and in the light of the full moon, he sees an “endless line” of Vietcong fighters walking down the path. The woods are crawling with them. Perry begins to pray,...
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It takes at least 15 minutes for the Vietcong soldiers to pass by, and the squad remains motionless for another half hour after that...
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...the patrols, and at least half the time, they come scurrying back quickly after encountering Vietcong in the woods, sending the whole base on alert. Perry wins $30 in the football...
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...belongings in the hooch. Perry wonders if his own father would be proud of him. Vietcong forces have laced the landing zone with punji sticks—sharpened points hidden in the grass for...
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...his weapon. One the crest of the hill they find a few dead and dying Vietcong but they can’t see where the attack was coming from or any retreating soldiers. Explosions...
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Chapter 16
At the hospital, Perry hears gossip that Vietcong forces in the north now have tanks. He reads books to a soldier in dark...
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...games. He muses on Peewee’s idea that protecting himself is the only reason for killing “Congs.” His injuries heal, and he’s terrified and angry—but not surprised—when his orders to return to...
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Chapter 17
...a few rounds into the darkness. Then he sends up a flare, revealing a dead Vietcong fighter draped across the razor wire. Lobel remarks about the dud grenade, but Dongan explains...
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...no one quite knows what that means. Peewee wonders if they’re supposed to kill each “Cong” twice. Perry wonders if this means they’ll start considering everyone—women, babies, old men—the enemy and...
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Chapter 18
...about the kids “over here.” Peewee and Johnson decide that there are no kids, just “Congs and mosquitos.” Perry tries to tell Peewee it’s okay to feel bad about what’s going...
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...hear enemy mortar fire, but the shells whistle overhead without detonating. He guesses that the Vietcong have faulty equipment or lack the expertise to use it properly. He soon realizes why...
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...time, the shooting starts almost immediately. Dongan speculates that enlisted Northern Vietnamese soldiers, rather than Vietcong guerrillas, defend the hill. The mortar shells fall closer and closer to the advancing soldiers....
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...Gearhart screams for Alpha Company to retreat. Jets scream overhead, dropping napalm on the hill. “Congs” surround them, cutting off all avenues of retreat. Johnson lays down cover with his machine...
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...decent landing zone is in the nearest village, although they’ll have to clear it of Vietcong forces first. Stewart and Gearhart order them to march. Perry knows they’ve reached the perimeter...
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...fires at everything and nothing until he and the rest have cleared the village of Vietcong forces. Near the end, he stares a young VC soldier, who looks just as young...
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Chapter 19
...He fires—accidentally—on the ARVN forces to his right, then turns his attention back to the VC troops, now surrounded in the middle of the clearing.
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...lungs. Cautiously, the American soldiers move into the smoldering clearing. Atop a pile of dead VC bodies, Perry sees a man completely blown open, his organs exposed. Peewee points out the...
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Chapter 20
...while Johnson and Lobel wrestle Monaco’s weapon away from him. Monaco swears he saw some “Congs” pulling a soldier out the door and toward the bushes. After Monaco calms down, Walowick...
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...any people yet; people have names and preferences and responsibilities, unlike the nameless, faceless, interchangeable Vietcong fighters and North Vietnamese Army soldiers and civilians they’ve encountered. If they were real people,...
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...and, occasionally, excitement. That excitement—and the feeling that the Americans are better, somehow, than the “Congs”—keeps him going. But, Perry confesses, he’s getting tired.
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...of the hooch and announces that the squad racked up a body count of 433 “Congs” in the last fight. Walowick and Monaco joke about the body count until Captain Stewart...
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Chapter 21
...everyone giddy. Monaco repeats gossip about some soldiers making necklaces of ears cut from dead Vietcong bodies. Johnson says a soldier who does that is only trying to lie to himself...
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...ridge overlooks the section of stream they’re supposed to patrol, providing good cover for a Vietcong ambush. Brunner assigns Walowick and Lobel the unenviable task of checking out the ridge while...
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...saddle, which Perry realizes with a sinking stomach would be the perfect place for the Vietcong to lay an ambush. He wonders how many prayers he has left, and if Buddha...
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...Perry thinks Monaco is shooting at nothing, but then a figure bursts from the water. Vietcong soldiers are hiding under its surface, using reeds as snorkels.
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...the stream banks, taking and returning fire from both sides. They’re all certain that more Vietcong fighters hide along the ridge, but no one shoots from that vantage. As they move...
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...see any enemies there. When he turns, Perry can see the squad exchanging fire with Vietcong below him on the ridge. Then, abruptly, the shooting stops.
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Chapter 22
Perry’s mind races. He can’t imagine the “Congs” overrunning the squad or outgunning Johnson. He mentally recites the Lord’s Prayer. Then, he hears...
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The Vietcong send up another flare. In its light, Perry can see dozens if not hundreds of...
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Outside, the Vietcong forces begin to stir. Peewee cautiously peers out and says they look like they’re about...
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...suspects a trap that Perry couldn’t imagine, and after a few minutes, they realize that Vietcong fighters are hiding behind two clumpy bushes, waiting to ambush any helicopter that comes back...
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...chopper, he and Peewee open fire on the first suspicious bush. By the time the Vietcong realize what’s happening, the chopper has spotted and opened fire on them. Perry and Peewee...
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