Quotessence
Home / Topics / Saigon Quotes

Saigon Quotes

Browse 24 quotes about Saigon.

Saigon Quotes

“Cool and serene, I thought... like a pale Japanese watercolour. After a few months in the province and many field trips, I still couldn't believe the delicate beauty of the Vietnamese countryside.”

Historical FictionVietnamVietnam WarVietnameseVietnamese LiteratureSaigonGia Dinh
Book:Don't Break My Rice Bowl: A beautiful and gripping novel, highlighting the personal and tragic struggles faced during the Vietnam War, bringing the late author and his 'forgotten' manuscript to life
Create image

“I already know a thing or two. I know it’s not clothes that make women beautiful or otherwise, nor beauty care, nor expensive creams, nor the distinction or costliness of their finery. I know the problem lies elsewhere. I don’t know where. I only know it isn’t where women think. I look at the women in the streets of Saigon, and up-country. Some of them are very beautiful, very white, they take enormous care of their beauty here, especially up-country. They don’t do anything, just save themselves up, save themselves up for Europe, for lovers, holidays in Italy, the long six-months’ leaves every three years, when at last they’ll be able to talk about what it’s like here, this peculiar colonial existence, the marvellous domestic service provided by the houseboys, the vegetation, the dances, the white villas, big enough to get lost in, occupied by officials in distant outposts. They wait, these women. They dress just for the sake of dressing. They look at themselves. In the shade of their villas, they look at themselves for later on, they dream of romance, they already have huge wardrobes full of more dresses than they know what to do with, added together one by one like time, like the long days of waiting. Some of them go mad. Some are deserted for a young maid who keeps her mouth shut. Ditched. You can hear the word hit them, hear the sound of the blow. Some kill themselves.”

WomenBeautyFeminismFranceSaigonColonial FranceColonial VietnamFrench Indochina
Book:The Lover
Create image

“During the day on Monday, Washington time, the airport at Saigon came under persistent rocket as well as artillery fire and was effectively closed. The military situation in the area deteriorated rapidly. I therefore ordered the evacuation of all American personnel remaining in South Vietnam.”

WellsWarSituationFireMilitaryColdAreasSouthVietnamCold WarMondayAirportsPersistentRocketsPersonnelArtilleryEvacuationSaigon
Book:Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Gerald R. Ford, 1975
Create image

“Saigon, U.S.A. aptly documents the birth of a new American community, uprooted in the aftermath of war and forever torn apart by the wounds of the past, yet one capable of healing against all odds. An engrossing yet succinct film that captures not only a major incident in Vietnamese American life, but also an important chapter of American history. A profound film that manages to confront us with the deepest sorrow while allowing us to be hopeful about what it means to be human.”

HumansMeanImportantWarPastFilmCommunityHealingForeverBirthSorrowMajorsCapableProfoundWoundsManageHopefulAllowingCaptureChaptersOddsAmerican HistoryDocumentsTornIncidentsAmerican LifeAftermathVietnameseAgainst All OddsTorn ApartWhat It Means To Be HumanSaigon
Author:Nguyen Qui Duc
Create image

“Imagine that -- a country that's supposed to be a democracy, supposed to be for freedom and all of that kind of stuff when they want to draft you and put you in the army and send you to Saigon to fight for them -- and then you've got to turn around and all night long discuss how you're going to just get a right to register and vote without being murdered. Why, that's the most hypocritical government since the world began!”

WorldWantKindLongCountryGovernmentNightTurnsFightingStuffDemocracyImagineVoteArmySupposed To BeImagine ThatAll NightRegisterHypocriticalSaigon
Author:Malcolm X
Create image

“The International Control Commission isn't doing anything, it's never done anything. What good does it do to be on it or not? Before opening the embassy in Hanoi, I gave it a lot of thought, but it wasn't really a painful decision. American policy in Vietnam is what it is, in Saigon the situation is anything but normal, and I'm happy to have done what I did.”

DoeDoneDecisionSituationPolicyNormalInternationalPainfulOpeningVietnamEmbassySaigonHanoi
Author:Indira Gandhi
Create image

“I first became interested in Ho Chi Minh in 1964-1965 while I was stationed at the U.S. Embassy in South Vietnam as a foreign service officer with the Department of State. The government in Saigon was at the point of collapse and the [Lyndon] Johnson administration was preparing to send U.S. combat troops to prevent a communist victory there. I became convinced that the U.S. effort would not succeed because of the lack of conviction in the Saigon government compared to the discipline and sense of self-sacrifice among the Viet Cong.”

FirstsSelfStatesGovernmentEffortSacrificeVictoryDisciplineSucceedSouthConvictionConvincedAdministrationDepartmentCommunistCombatOfficersVietnamCollapseTroopsPreparingJohnsonSense Of SelfSelf SacrificeEmbassySaigonViet CongForeign Service
Author:William J. Duiker
Create image

“Nobody gives way to anybody. Everyone just angles, points, dives directly toward his destination, pretending it is an all-or-nothing gamble. People glare at one another and fight for maneuvering space. All parties are equally determined to get the right-of-way--insist on it. They swerve away at the last possible moment, giving scant inches to spare. The victor goes forwards, no time for a victory grin, already engaging in another contest of will. Saigon traffic is Vietnamese life, a continuous charade of posturing, bluffing, fast moves, tenacity and surrenders.”

PeopleWayGivingMomentsLastsMovingFightingSpacePartyVictoryDeterminedSurrenderDestinationPretendingInchesTrafficSparesAngleContestsEngagingTenacityGambleVietnameseGlareCharadesSwerveSaigon
Book:Catfish and Mandala: A Two-Wheeled Voyage Through the Landscape and Memory of Vietnam
Create image

“Saigon was an addicted city, and we were the drug: the corruption of children, the mutilation of young men, the prostitution of women, the humiliation of the old, the division of the family, the division of the country-it had all been done in our name. . . . The French city . . . had represented the opium stage of the addiction. With the Americans had begun the heroin phase.”

MenChildrenWarCountryDoneYoungNamesCitiesStageDrugAddictionCorruptionYoung ManDivisionPhasesHumiliationProstitutionVietnam WarHeroinOpiumMutilationSaigon
Author:James Fenton
Create image