And sometimes the only reason you didn't panic was that you didn't have the energy.
The war was exhausting, and the longer Herr was there, the less energy he had. Even the magic pills prescribed by a doctor failed to help him. Sometimes he "couldn't live with the terms any longer" and he "headed for air-conditioners in Danang and Saigon." Sometimes the only one reason you "didn't panic was that you didn't have the energy." The mere thought that "every day people were dying there because of some small detail" was driving him crazy.
But Jesus Christ didn't you take the Hippocratic Oath?
Michael Herr heard "a doctor bragging that he'd "refused to allow wounded Vietnamese into his ward." Those words sounded so terribly that the reporter couldn't believe it. When he asked the man about "the Hippocratic Oath," the doctor said that he took it in "America." That was difficult to accept, because it seemed that there was no place for kindness anymore. Hate ruled there.
Every time there was combat you had a license to go maniac
It is a well-known fact that a war is a breaking and - more often than not - soul-killing experience for both soldiers and civilians. "Every time" when "there was a combat" you "had a license to go maniac," everyone "snapped over the line at least once." The most frightening fact was that "nobody noticed if you forgot to snap back again." The most difficult task was not to survive but stay sane.
