Jack Arnold: No chicken?
Kevin Arnold: Louis doesn't eat meat, Dad.
Kevin Arnold - The Narrator: Hey, just thought I'd mention it.
Jack Arnold: No meat, Louis?
Louis: No. Meat, uh, meat just doesn't turn me on, really.
Jack Arnold: No meat, huh? Imagine that.
Kevin Arnold - The Narrator: I knew it. Dad would carve through this guy like a butcher carves through a pork loin.
Norma Arnold: Oh, I heard, honey, why the Vandover's didn't go to Brian's funeral. They were in Chicago. Dick's mother had a stroke.
Jack Arnold: Mmm...
Norma Arnold: One of the boys on our block was killed in Vietnam several weeks ago.
Louis: Oh, I-I know. I mean, uh, Karen told me. Another meaningless death.
Jack Arnold: I beg you pardon?
Louis: I-I just meant that... it's just a shame, uh... a kid has to die for basically no reason.
Norma Arnold: More broccoli, anyone?
Jack Arnold: I don't think it's meaningless... when a young man dies for freedom and for his country.
Louis: I just have a little trouble... justifying dying for a government that systematically represses its citizens.
Norma Arnold: Oh, honey. Try the potatoes - I put grated cheese on them.
Jack Arnold: What the hell is that supposed to mean?
Karen Arnold: It means the United States government is responsible... for the oppression of blacks, women, free speech...
Jack Arnold: Well perhaps, little lady, you'd like to go live in Russia for a little while... huh?
Louis: Oh, uh... I think what Karen is saying is that...
Jack Arnold: Look, buster! I happen to believe that freedom and democracy... have certain advantages that Communist dictatorships don't, and that is what Vietnam is all about!
Louis: No, man, that's what they brainwash you to believe it's all about. They...
[sighs]
Louis: ..they turn people into brainwashed morons.
Kevin Arnold - The Narrator: My hunch was that my father would not let being called a brainwashed moron at his dinner table... go unremarked.
Jack Arnold: So... you think I've been brainwashed, do you, Louis?
Louis: No. No. Look... I think anyone... who supports the American war effort in Vietnam...... is having the wool pulled over his eyes.
Jack Arnold: I see...
Jack Arnold: Just like they did with Korea.
Jack Arnold: What the hell do you know about Korea? I was in Korea. I lost a lot of good friends there.
Karen Arnold: Daddy, that doesn't have anything to do with what we're saying.
Jack Arnold: And they weren't brainwashed! They were brave men who weren't afraid to fight for what they believed in. Now if you're afraid to fight - why don't you just say so? Why don't you just admit you're chicken?
Louis: You're damned right! I am chicken. I don't want to die like your friends! What do you think that you achieved over there? Hmm? Do you think that those people are free? They're not free, man. Except to buy Coca-Cola, and... uh...
[smirks]
Louis: ..Nestle's Quik... get loans from Chase-Manhattan National Bank...
Jack Arnold: That's crap!
Louis: You were used, man, and your friends were used.
Jack Arnold: That's crap!
Karen Arnold: Daddy, you never listen to what we say! Some of what we say is true!
Louis: Don't accept all this death and then justify it. It is wrong! Your friends should be alive - they should be...... enjoying dinner, and arguing with their kids, just like you are.
Jack Arnold: What do you know about it? Who the hell are you to say that?
