Addiction Quote by James Fenton
“Saigon was an addicted city, and we were the drug: the corruption of children, the mutilation of young men, the prostitution of women, the humiliation of the old, the division of the family, the division of the country-it had all been done in our name. . . . The French city . . . had represented the opium stage of the addiction. With the Americans had begun the heroin phase.”
About This Quote
Source Poem: Saigon, 1968, by James Fenton
The city is portrayed as an addiction, with successive foreign powers deepening its decay and division.
In simple terms: Saigon is likened to a drug that corrupts its people.
Key Takeaway
Recognize how external forces can erode societal health.
Themes
colonialism
war
social decay
Mood
somber
critical
Type
historical
literary
When to use this quote
- Vietnam War era
- urban decline
- cultural trauma
Key Concepts
addiction metaphor
historical critique
Questions to Reflect On
- How do foreign interventions shape local identities?
- What can heal a society after such exploitation?
A Different Perspective
Complex history may be oversimplified by metaphor.
![“One book that I heard was circulating the Green Zone was "Bureaucracy Does Its Thing" by Robert Komer , who worked for President [Lindon] Johnson in Saigon. This book is about the inevitably of screwing up when a country takes on a war with so little understanding of the country they are fighting.” quote by George Packer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/49e/george-packer-2917_book_one-book-that-i-heard-was-circulating-th_474756.jpg)
