Viet Nam Body Count

During the Viet Nam war, I looked at the faces of the fisherman in their boats. I looked at the shore and saw soldiers on both sides shooting each other while our ship's five inch gun (cannon with a 5 inch diameter barrel) blasted away, killing soldiers, women and children.
I wondered what would happen if all of the enlisted military personnel on both sides decided to stop killing. Suppose we all played soccer.

1972.
Our ship, USS Trippe, left Viet Nam to take the place of the USS Warrington on an "around the world" cruise. When we were in the Indian Ocean, not far from the mouth of the Persian Gulf, we spotted three Russian war ships. The USS Trippe was one of three American war ships on that cruise. The six war ships paired up and "performed" a circular dance, much the way dogs sometime do when they encounter each other.
The officers on my ship and the officers on the Russian war ship stood on the upper decks waving their fists at each other. The enlisted men on my ship and on the Russian vessel, by contrast, smiled at each other and waved, hello.