They want to smell the flowers. have picnics. loll around the temples. and do things of that kind. Whether that be true of the Laotians or notand there is some evidence that some of that trait existsthese informed and qualified experts have said to me. first. that the South Vietnamese have some excellent fighting men. as do the North Vietnamese. that there is a trait or a quality of the Vietnamese which makes them good fighting men. In South Vietnam. hundreds of thousands have escaped from communism. have become refugees. have taken their lives and their future in their hands to defy communism. and are now living in South Vietnam. If we were to leave the country. we would turn over to the Communists all of those refugees who have "voted with their feet." as the saying goes. who by their actions have rendered themselves vulnerable to total annihilation by an enemy that knows that they are there. So how can we consider abandoning a nation which has opted for freedom. and whose people. in my opinion. except to the degree to which they have been terrorized in the fields. are just as antiCommunist as we are. perhaps even more so? I think the maxim prevails that the closer one is to communism. the more he dislikes the possibility of having to participate in it.
Identified stereotypes
Generalization about the traits of Vietnamese people as good fighters.