19 (song) recorded in French, Spanish, German and Japanese. The song received the Ivor Novello award for Best-selling single of 1985. The song's English-language release came in three different 12" versions - "Extended Version", "Destruction Mix" and "The Final Story", all with an alternative cover design. Hardcastle was inspired to create the song after watching "Vietnam Requiem", and comparing his own life at 19 to those of the soldiers featured: "...what struck me was how young the soldiers were: the documentary said their average age was 19. I was out having fun in pubs and clubs when I was 19, not being
1956 in the Vietnam War military advisers in South Vietnam. The first American killed in the Vietnam War died June 8 at the hand of another American soldier. In 1956 the term Viet Cong came into use and gradually replaced the older term Viet Minh. The government-controlled Saigon press first started using the term referring to communists in South Vietnam as "Viet Cong" a shortening of "Viet Nam Cong-San" which means "Vietnamese Communist." President Diem issued Ordinance Number 6 which permitted the imprisonment of communists and others "dangerous to national defense and common security." Diem's anti-communist repression reduced communist party membership in South Vietnam by