The army granted soldiers five days of leave after their third month of service. The soldiers could choose from a long list of destinations in order of preference. Lovers often chose Hawaii—to reunite with their American girlfriends on American soil. Electronics and camera fanatics flew off to Japan and Taiwan, while Hong Kong and Singapore attracted those who wanted to enhance their wardrobe before heading home. Australia was popular because there they could find women who saw them as heroes, who spoke their own language, and had familiar faces.
They could also choose to stay in Vietnam, visit the Vung Tau beaches, or plunge into the prodigious whirlwind of Saigon. Wherever they landed, a team was waiting to warn them of the traps that awaited them in the bars. Because their superiors knew in advance that most of the soldiers would spend their leave in the experienced arms of women who knew better than they did themselves their fantasies, their demons, and their wants. But since time was short, the only possible comfort they could offer was alcohol and counterfeit acts of love, like the ones in movies. The soldiers returned to the jungle fulfilled; the women had faithfully attended to their needs. As time went on, the idea of the R & R, an abbreviation for rest and recreation, was clarified as rape and run or rape and ruin. Other shorthand just as realistic was added, such as A & A for ass and alcohol, I & I for intercourse and intoxication, and P & P for pussy and popcorn.
When the soldiers returned to base, the army provided medication to treat those who showed signs of unwanted souvenirs between their legs. But it did not plan any intercession to eliminate the seeds they’d sown inside the bodies of some of the women. That is why Asian populations that were once homogeneous, such as that of South Vietnam, became diversified, with children who had hair pale or curly, eyes round and long-lashed, skin dark or freckled, almost always fatherless and also, often, without a mother.