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COMBAT BUMS
"* Combat Bums came in two main (albeit overlapping) varieties: those who would have marched to the sound of the guns wherever they were blazing (and/or had become, as I had, obsessed with figuring out a way to win this particular conflict) and/or those who had gone native.
"The natives were most easily identifiable. these were guys, many from Special Forces, who'd been there so long that the place had become a way of life for them. They loved the food, they spoke the language...
"As a body, almost by definition, the Special Forces in Vietnam were combat bums and the best guys to fight the G in this war. But the Special Forces were also animals, which offended the prancers, and they considered themselves an elite force, which offended almost everybody else. General Abrams hated them.
"Yet, if these Green Berets had been alowed to run the show, there's little doubt in my mind that the outcome of the war would have been quite different."
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