Taken from "A Happy Moving Party" by Jim Willingham:
I talked with a Vietnamese man from the beach village 1/2 km. southeast of Phan Thiet artillery base. He was standing at the southeast end of the corrugated black metal runway, watching us. As the soldiers watched, I yelled toward the forest south of the east-west runway, "Little Corsica!" Uproarious laughter erupted from the woods. Then I yelled, "Little Corsica, Saigon!" More uproarious laughter came from the southern woods, heavier. Then I had all the soldiers on the base yell together, "LITTLE CORSICA, SAIGON!" A mass of uncontrollable uproarious laughter came from the deep woods, only about 100 yards south, with talking in Vietnamese.
The man from the beach village spoke English. One of the soldiers on the base spoke Italian and had a pleasant short talk with a man in the southern forest, who also spoke Italian, a descendent of (French) Corsicans and Vietnamese.... Read More