The former Commander of U.S. Armed Forces in Vietnam, Gen. William Westmoreland, once commented on the people he supposedly had gone to help: "Well, the Oriental doesn't put the same high price on life as does the Westerner. Life is plentiful; life is cheap in the Orient. And as the philosophy of the Orient expresses it, life is not important." Attitudes like his numbed many Americans to the enormity of suffering in Southeast Asia, and simultaneously prevented many U.S. citizens from imagining viable Asian societies that didn't need our "help."

Regret to Inform foregrounds the humanity of Vietnamese women as it pairs their war-produced anguish—as well as their hopes—with those of American women. It demolishes caricatures of the unfeeling Asian that Westmoreland proposed years ago, but that still lingers in American culture. Regret to Inform highlights common issues shared by U.S. and Vietnamese women, but resists the temptation to suggest a sameness of experience between the wives of American servicemen and their Asian counterparts.

The weaving together of American and Vietnamese stories in Regret to Inform offers students an intimate portrait of war. The activities described below encourage students to draw on the film's words and images to probe deeper into the women's lives. Students watch the video, select from a number of imaginative writing choices, share their writing, and reflect on the layers of meaning they discover.

Materials Needed:

1. A copy of the video, Regret to Inform.
   
   
2. A class set of the map of Vietnam, charting Barbara Sonneborn's journey to Que Son, where her husband, Jeff Gurvitz, was killed.
   
   
3. A class set of "Regret to Inform: Writing Choices."
   
   
4. A class set of "Regret to Inform: Film Quotes."
   
   
5. A class set of "Two Women" to use as a writing prompt with students.