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
1971 in the Vietnam War 1971 in the Vietnam War U.S. military personnel in South Vietnam totaled 334,600 on 31 December 1970. The United States Congress adopted the revised Cooper-Church Amendment which prohibited the introduction of U.S. ground troops or advisers into Cambodia and declared that U.S. aid to Cambodia should not be considered a commitment to the defense of Cambodia. United States Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird said that the "Vietnamization" of the war was running ahead of schedule and that the combat mission of the U.S. troops would end in summer 1971. The last herbicide spraying by the United States to defoliate forests