Finally got these done after starting them in July. (I like 50 sentences; can't you tell?) Most of them are about the Vietnam War or related events. A few reference specific events of the war.

Also, I'm not terribly familiar with Vietnam's character, but I tried to do as much digging as I could. I hope she shows up in the new season of the anime! (I do think it's official now - good thing, too, since it's been exactly a year since the last episode aired.)


Air

Vietnam choked at the sight of the mangled corpses of children and women—one holding a baby—lying in pools of black dried blood in the small hamlet that now knew violence instead of peace.

Apples

Like Adam, America had failed to protect his Eve from sin and death.

Beginning

It started innocently enough—how could it have changed into something this terrible, this divisive, this frightening?

Bugs

The way his people always protested but hated protests, always fought but always spoke of peace, always promised but broke promises—it felt like a painful insect bite that itched but hurt to scratch.

Coffee

After America introduced her to coffee, she always drank it with lots of milk to mask the bitter flavor.

Dark

For her, trusting him in this war was like being told to walk step by step into a dark, isolated room and being promised he would—eventually—let her out so she could see a happier world.

Despair

As he walked along the street, America saw another one of his people hold his draft card in his hand and clench his fist, cursing the war that snatched away his future and forced him to live a life of despair.

Doors

When one closed, another opened, they said, but she was still waiting for hers to open while all the others slammed in her face.

Drink

France held his glass against America's and, with a chuckle, said, "To the one we both lost."

Duty

All heroes had a duty to protect others, but even heroes failed.

Earth

She held her head in her hands, unable to bear the damage his chemicals had wrought on her beautiful landscape.

End

In the end, he had been able to do nothing for her—the fruits of his labor were deaths, humiliations, and broken hearts.

Fall

This war had been his Fall—he had gone from an innocent nation who could never lose a war to a man who knew despair and depression.

Fire

Just as she could never escape the smell of napalm, so too could she never free herself from the flames it ignited all over her land.

Flexible

He always noticed the way she walked: smoothly, gracefully, elegantly, her body long and supple and flexible.

Flying

He rode in the helicopter with them; he was an accomplice to their crimes, but as the bombs fell, he made himself close his eyes and look away.

Food

He found it shocking that she was the only person who didn't mind if he ate with his mouth open; everyone scolded him for his rude manners, but she said nothing.

Foot

He carried her so she wouldn't step on any shrapnel left from the war…

Grave

…He carried her, even as he walked to what was meant to be her grave.

Green

What was once delight was destroyed; what was once love was lost; what was once green was gone.

Head

Sometimes, America wished his presidents used their heads—didn't they know their actions would lead to this?

Hollow

Her heart was empty with France, it was empty with Japan, and now it was empty with him.

Honor

His people had none—how could they run around the village slaughtering everyone without so much as a second thought?

Hope

For so long, she had dismissed any faint flickers of hope in her heart, but now, as he held her, she wondered if she had been wrong to despair.

Light

He watched on the television screen as Saigon lit up with fire, then clutched his chest in pain as the Viet Cong fought into his embassy—he thought the city was supposed to be shining with festival lights, not burning with the flames of war.

Lost

He remembered the time one of his soldiers had lost his way in the jungle… but he couldn't stand to think of what happened next.

Metal

She tasted blood in her mouth from biting her lip too hard—the taste was cold, metallic, and bitter, just like the war they were both tired of fighting.

New

The first time he returned to her land, she calmly held him close, knowing everything was safe and all right between them again.

Old

The war had ended years ago, but just as his people would never forget those terrible nineteen years, so too would the world never forget how far America had fallen from the height of his power.

Peace

It eventually came, but not the way he wanted—he hated to abandon her and let her people suffer, united but divided, at peace but at war.

Poison

It slowly circulated in her blood through her body, soaking into her tissues, but there was no antidote for the poison he spread all over her land.

Pretty

She didn't care for her appearance, trying to conceal herself by crossing her arms and moving about awkwardly, but he couldn't understand why she didn't just look at herself and realize her beauty.

Rain

Although it fell in torrents, it could never extinguish all the fires.

Regret

His people hated how so many had died; his president hated how he had lost honor; he hated how he had broken her heart.

Roses

He gave her a bouquet of the beautiful flowers—but she rejected them: They were symbols of love.

Secret

It was no secret how completely broken she was, no matter how hard she tried to hide it.

Snakes

The little slithering creatures curled around her heart, squeezing it tighter until she thought it would burst.

Snow

They watched together as it fell, chilling the world as they struggled to stay warm.

Solid

His will was changing—melting from a hard lattice to a loose conglomeration of dying desires.

Spring

She watched the small buds open slowly, peering at the warm sunshine, and wondered if she too could one day open her eyes to happiness.

Stable

The situation was constantly changing, always moving from one extreme to the other—how long before their hearts completely shattered from the strain?

Strange

She was a stranger in her own land to her own people; could she be their country any longer?

Summer

It was a hot summer—the situation was becoming more worrisome, more men were losing their lives, and the war was heating up from freezing to burning.

Taboo

She wished he would stop making an idiot of himself—didn't he understand her people and customs were different from his?

Ugly

The country was hideous—bomb-scarred, blood-stained, ravaged, ruined, destroyed—but the woman was still strangely beautiful.

War

He didn't know how it had escalated; she didn't know why it had begun.

Water

She dipped her toes into the sea as they sat together, staring at their reflections, looking at the people they had become.

Welcome

He was surprised when she greeted him with a small smile, of all things, and held out her hand—welcoming him back to her country after long years of pain and separation.

Winter

Everything had cooled down now, with the Cold War reverting to its previous chill, but the fires of hatred and misunderstanding still burnt in hearts of their people, disillusioned and disheartened.

Wood

They walked through the trees, looking at the little light peering between the leaves, and hoped for the day when that little light would be a full sunbeam brightening their lives.


Regarding "Food": It's a Vietnamese cultural thing, apparently, that no one really finds it rude if you eat with your mouth open. I heard this from a Vietnamese person, but if I'm wrong... well, lesson learned.