The people had fled at our approach, except for an old woman too feeble to move... We burned down the thatched huts, starting the blaze with Ronson and Zippo cigarette lighters... [because] Ho Chi Minh had said the people were like the sea in which his guerrillas swam... We tried to solve the problem by making the whole sea uninhabitable.
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About Colin Powell
Colin Powell was a 20th-century American general, diplomat and statesman. Colin Luther Powell was an American Army general, diplomat, and statesman who was the 65th United States secretary of state from 2001 to 2005 and was the highest-ranking African American in the federal executive branch in American history until the election of Barack Obama as president in 2008. Originally a member of the Republican Party, he was the first African-American to hold the office. Read more on Wikipedia →