← Part of Letters from Vietnam
letter
Letter to Terrie, 1 January 1971 — the new year, the rumors, and a picture enclosed
Charlie's brief one-page letter to Terrie dated 1 January 1971. The new year has finally arrived and he's still in doubt about whether and when he gets out of Vietnam, with a hundred conflicting rumors and theories going around, half-joking that he may take the next flight out. He's enclosed a picture she may want. He notes that some of the people around him don't even know there's a war going on, and guesses they're just lucky. He admits he's having real difficulty keeping up with the letters he owes people. Signed 'Love, Charles.' Precedes the [2 January booby-trap letter](/docs/letters/charlie-to-terrie-1971-01-02-booby-trap-and-the-drop/) by a day.
What the letter is
1 January 1971, New Year’s Day, a day before the 2 January booby-trap letter. The end-of-tour uncertainty that dominates the winter letters is at its peak here: a hundred rumors about when he gets out, none of them firm. It’s a short, restless note, half a shrug at the rumor mill, half a quiet observation about the civilians around him who are untouched by the war.
Transcription
Jan 1
Dear Terrie,
The new year has finally arrived and I’m still in doubt whether & when I get out of here. There are a hundred gone rumors and theories. Hell — I may take the next flight out of here. Enclosed is a picture you may want.
I’ve been talking with a few of the people around here and they don’t even know there is a war going on. I guess they are just lucky.
I’m really having difficulty writing letters to people I owe letters to. Oh well that is too bad I guess.
Love Charles
What the letter records
The rumor mill. “A hundred gone rumors and theories” about when he gets out is the same end-of-tour uncertainty the ETS-extension letters work to pin down; here it’s still all rumor, no date.
“They don’t even know there is a war going on.” A glance at the civilians around him, untouched by what he’s living through. The line carries the flat, slightly envious distance that runs through his observations of people outside the war.
The picture. An enclosure, “a picture you may want,” one of the small physical things that traveled inside these envelopes alongside the words.
Scans
