O’Brien describes a Viet Cong soldier whom he has killed, using meticulous physical detail, including descriptions of his wounds. Then O’Brien imagines the life story of this man and imagines that he was a scholar who felt an obligation to defend his village.
Azar comments to O’Brien about the dead soldier and is sent away by Kiowa, who senses that O’Brien is upset. Kiowa tells O’Brien to stop staring at the body and offers justifications for what has happened. O’Brien continues to imagine that the man he killed was devoted to his studies, that he wrote poems, and that he fell in love with his classmate. O’Brien sees that the man’s fingernails and hair are clean and guesses that he has been a soldier for only one day. Later Kiowa tells O’Brien that he is looking better; even later he tells O’Brien that he should talk about it, and again tries to get the disturbed O’Brien to talk.
O’Brien’s daughter, Kathleen, asked him when she was nine years old if he had ever killed anyone. He told her no, but hopes that she will ask again as an adult. Again, O’Brien describes the Viet Cong soldier and tells how he saw him approach through the morning fog. He recalls being terrified, and that his action was automatic, not political and not personal. He believes, too, that if he had not thrown the grenade, the Vietnamese soldier would have passed by without incident.
