Fault Lines - John Knoop

from our sleeping schedule, in order to spend most of the daylight hours in Thanh's village. It’s
normal life in the documentary trenches.
On the way in, the first day, we stop at the district headquarters and talk to the local party
leaders. They are very curious about whether any of us were here during the war. We all opposed
the war, so we tell them that. As we prepare to leave, a woman runs up the path to confront
Elizabeth with an outburst of emotion and memory that seeing us triggers. She tells us—with
Thanh translating—of the day when an attacking plane killed her mother, decapitated one son
and wounded another as they worked in the paddy. She waves the withered stump of one hand,
begging Elizabeth for an explanation. Elizabeth takes the hand in hers and tries to console her.
The walk to the village is through a beautiful and intricate mosaic of rice paddies and
hamlets that have slowly been rebuilt since the war ended. At one crossing a footbridge is made
of two 120mm shell casings; at another there is the barrel of an M-60 machine gun. Unexploded
ordnance is still a problem. Just two weeks ago a farmer lost his life when his shovel hit an M-79
grenade. For most of the walk we have a growing retinue of children following us, chattering
happily, watching and laughing as we slide through the muddy stretches. Jaime entertains them
by turning his furry Windjammer microphone cover into a squeaky animal at the end of his boom
pole.
One evening as we approach a compound on the edge of the paddies, a man begins
yelling angrily at Thanh: "Why have you brought these Americans here? Didn't they kill enough
of us? Didn't they kill your entire family? We don't need them here." Thanh goes over to talk with
him as we pass, and he rejoins us a few minutes later, telling us that the man is drunk on Tet
wine. We feel the conflict for Thanh and stress that the man has a right to his anger, drunk or
sober.
It seems that we are here to record a series of tragic
stories, balanced by the joy among Thanh's family, and the
festivities in preparation for his marriage. Thiet is twelve
years younger than Thanh; she was born after the day
Thanh’s mother and grandmother died in front of him during
a firefight when he was twelve. They were in the family shelter
behind their house, as American tanks and troops came
through the village in pursuit of VC sappers who had been
bivouacked nearby. During a lull Thanh's mother went to the opening to look out, just as a GI
was passing. Seeing her, he lobbed in a grenade that killed both women and tore Thanh's
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