Epithets A SIMPLEFACT of most of the men in my company was that they had internalized, atleast after seeing combat, a concept of the enemy as inhuman. "Charlie,""VC," "slopehead," "slant," "zit," "dink," and "gook" were terms employedby Americans, French, and even Vietnamesethat permitted a consolidation of Viet Cong soldiers and militia makingthe enemy into a single demon. Punishment for calling them men (or anysuitable substitute) ranged from a hundred pushups to a butt to the head.
The next worst enemy was your own ally, the rookie corpsman orFNG (fucking new guy).
It was a long, harrowing role-playingwhere the accentuated unreality of the scenario assisted irresponsibilitytoward choices as serious as mercy or murder, and rendered some of the Marines--themselves constantlypotential targets as well as machines of destruction--annoyed and alittle incredulous when under attack by the inhuman enemy, as if theirindoctrinated rules of solipsism and megalomania had been peevishly, pettilyviolated by an annoying child.