The excess baggage of war has always included women. Strumpets trailed the trumpets of Joshua at Jericho and marched with the legions of Rome. Sir Gawaine was not the only knight-errant; in one year alone, the Crusaders counted the aid of 13,000 camp followers in their quest for the Holy Sepulcher. In World War I, they were the vivandieres; in Saigon today, the B-girls are called tea girls. Wherever two or three soldiers gather together, prostitutes are sure to flock, adding to the disorder that follows in the wake of armies everywhere.
Nowhere was the shock of massive encampment greater in Viet...
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