Chapter 18 Summary

The madness continues as the war takes the lives of the wounded and the morals of the rest. The trouble begins when Lance Corporal Crowe becomes privy to information on two Viet Cong's location. An informant by the name of Le Dung, formerly questioned and released, not only points out the Viet Cong home in Giao-Tri, but he draws pictures of their weapons and gives the whereabouts of their platoon. However, instead of Crowe arresting the two VC, he takes the information back with him to camp and reports it to Caputo.

That is the first mistake. The second is that Caputo feels an increased need to "do something," ultimately deciding to extract revenge for the anger and fear that rages inside him. He orders the capture, and if necessary the execution, of the two identified VC. As he had hoped, the VC...