India, March 28 -- 'I wanted to meet interesting and stimulating people of an ancient culture... and kill them. I wanted to be the first kid on my block to get a confirmed kill!' Give Stanley Kubrick every award possible for giving us such a prescient scene in Full Metal Jacket. Private Joker's bright smile contrasted with the nothingness of his bespectacled eyes, just like the "Communist" peace badge on his chest militated against his US military 'Born To Kill' helmet throughout.

Exactly 53 years ago, the Vietnam War officially ended with the departure of the last of the US combat troops. The war that elicited countless expressions of contradictions like Private Joker's very persona. The war that gave the US its first unequivocal defeat...