The medieval prophecy behind Vietnam’s best-loved motorbike. Words by Dara O Foghlu. Photos by Julie Vola

For the next six issues, Word is presenting excerpts from Wilfred Burchett’s seminal account of the American War. A close friend of Ho Chi Minh, Burchett was the only westerner to be embedded with the Viet Cong frontlines in the early 1960s. This work was written in 1964 

After a night’s sleep disturbed by the crowing of roosters, Jill Kester likes to get her jaws around a weasel coffee or two. But just where does this super-coffee come from? Illustration by Vu Ha Kim Vy

For the next seven issues, Word is presenting excerpts from Wilfred Burchett’s seminal account of the American War. A close friend of Ho Chi Minh, Burchett was the only westerner to be embedded with the Viet Cong frontlines in the early 1960s. This work was written in 1964

Unless you’re a lifer, Niko Savvas believes there are much more useful things you could be doing

Ed Weinberg has lived in Vietnam for three years — during which time he’s learnt enough Vietnamese not to starve. Well, he just points at things. In January it all started to change

\For the next eight issues, Word is presenting excerpts from Wilfred Burchett’s seminal account of the American War. A close friend of Ho Chi Minh, Burchett was the only westerner to be embedded with the Viet Cong frontlines in the early 1960s. This work was written in 1964