19 (song) 19 (song) "19" is a song by British musician Paul Hardcastle released as the first single from his self-titled third studio album "Paul Hardcastle" (1985). The song has a strong anti-war message, focusing on America's involvement in the Vietnam War and the effect it had on the soldiers who served. The track was notable for early use of sampled and processed speech, in particular a synthesized stutter effect used on the words 'nineteen' and 'destruction'. It also includes various non-speech, re-dubbed sampling, such as crowd noise and a military bugle call. "19" features sampled narration (voiced by Peter Thomas), out-of-context
Army of the Republic of Vietnam saw the poverty of a former soldier described the ARVN as "that wretched army that was damned by the victors, abandoned by its allies, and royally and continuously screwed by its commanders". Army of the Republic of Vietnam The Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN; ), also known as the South Vietnamese army (SVA), were the ground forces of the South Vietnamese military from its inception in 1955 until the Fall of Saigon in 1975. It is estimated to have suffered 1,394,000 casualties (killed and wounded) during the Vietnam War.<ref name="Casualties - US vs NVA/VC">Casualties – US vs NVA/VC</ref>