Ho Chi Minh died of natural causes four months later, believing he had failed his people. The Tet Offensive failed to achieve any of its objectives. But he was wrong. The film footage on television, the Life Magazine photos, and, especially a four page colour spread showing piles of GI dead published in the February 9th edition of Time Magazine, turned US opinion against the war and doomed Ho’s enemies to defeat. It is the most remarkable example in all history of victory disguised as defeat.
    It should have been a disaster for them, but it wasn’t. The vision of the general shooting a VC prisoner, the piles of dead American MPs outside the Saigon embassy, the grim scenes of battle from Hue, all served to show the public that they were being lied to by the generals and politicians, and that the war was anything but won. Not to mention how utterly futile it all was. It was time to go home.

Here’s something for analysis. There was a time—I distinctly remember it—when Woody Allen’s What’s Up, Tiger Lily? was funny. Woody took a Japanese attempt to make a martial arts James Bond style movie and dubbed it with his own comedy dialogue. I can recall clearly how I laughed and laughed. I remember the pain and the tears of that laughter. Everyone who mentions it declares it hilarious. But it isn’t. I watched it at the beginning of my dotage and discovered it wasn’t the least bit amusing. Just silly. Something’s gone wrong.
    Now maybe we expect more sophisticated humour from Woody Allen these days—indeed he remains my favourite comic and I see all of his films as soon as they are released and he still makes me laugh more than anyone else. But Tiger Lily? It ain’t funny anymore. Maybe you’ve got to be at a certain age and state of development to get it. I don’t know. Maybe I’ve just simply become too cynical, or else Woody has. No, I’ve re-viewed most of his early films and they remain as funny as when I first saw them. Maybe all the other people who reckon it’s funny are remembering their immature viewing of it and relying on that. Someone should do a survey. Something fascinating is going on here.