Chapter 6 Breathing Out Summary and Analysis

People who have been to Vietnam avoid talking about it, Herr discovers. He also finds talking more difficult than writing about war. A black soldier with a unique dance, a bulldozer digging up the bones of a VC cemetery, a war photographer, Flynn, a scene of dead soldiers in a truck, his love of flying in helicopters, and China Beach become the subjects of his reminiscing.

For the present, Herr sees no difference between combat and rock and roll veterans. The entire decade of the 1960s has yielded its casualties. Rock artists die steadily "like second lieutenants". He sees a picture of an NVA soldier sitting by the Danang River in a familiar place where he had sat with his friends, during the war that is now over.