Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for July 21, 1985

Transcript:

Mark: "This just in from Hollywood - America won in Vietnam. Earlier reports of its defeat have proved unbankable." In this summer of "Rambo." There's been a lot of talk about U.S. forces in Vietnam not being "allowed" to win the war. Could our guys have racked up some awesome body counts if given half a chance? Former special forces Capt. J.b. Wilcox says, "Hell, yes!" Right, captain? Captain: Affirmative. Most of the men I commanded were like Rambo - they wanted to win, but I had my orders: "Don't win, we're not here to win. Take it easy on the enemy." One guy in my platoon finally got so frustrated he just struck out on his own. Freelanced his own war for nearly 72 hours. He must have killed around 450 north Vietnamese and 75 Russian advisors before he ran out of exploding arrows. Mark: How'd you finally stop him? Captain: We caught him sneaking back into camp to use the Nautilus machines.