Filtered By Time

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“FILTERED BY TIME” is the account based on real events of a young infantry captain deployed to Vietnam in 1964. The United States had not yet committed to direct combat; but in the context of the Cold War, Ed Skillman and a cadre of several thousands of American advisors have the mission to stop the advance of communism in the free world. Ed leads his newly formed team as they take up residence in a small river town in the Mekong Delta. Skillman believes his mission is noble. In spite of growing antiwar feelings at home, which he ignores, Ed fully commits himself to his job. It becomes clear that the presence of Vietnamese monks around violent incidents is more than coincidental. Dodging assassination attempts, Ed and his team help the district chief open roads, capture weapons, and eliminate Vietcong insurgents. Between the ambushes and land mines, Ed explores economic incentives. He focuses resources from the State Department, the CIA, and the Department of Agriculture on a sugarcane crop, which results in a second source of profit for the local rice mill: molasses. Surrounded by hate and violence, Ed nonetheless finds friendship, respect and an entrepreneurial spirit among the Vietnamese. But it takes forty years for historians and events to validate Ed’s success.