Vietnamese culture and food has a lot of French influence. The American war experience mirrored the French to a large extent.
This is a topic where the more you learn the more you want to beat your head against a wall. Missed opportunities
The Vietnam War by Ken Burns on PBS
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Vietnamese culture and food has a lot of French influence. The American war experience mirrored the French to a large extent.
This is a topic where the more you learn the more you want to beat your head against a wall. Missed opportunities
There are about 20 other countries that serve as a base of terrorist operations. It's a global whack a mole that is a nice excuse to feed the beast.
CycloneErik
Well-Known Member
CycloneErik
Well-Known Member
I know that (well, i learned that)... it's neat to learn something new about such a meaningful part of the era my parents grew up in.
My dad was drafted and was unable to go due to an event I won't share here. Of the 30 guys in his class of 1963 that ended up going over he said only 15 made it back.
CycloneErik
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My dad and my FIL went.
Dad left a leg over there after he volunteered for a 2nd tour. That helped strengthen some other problems that ended his life around 1982. But, somewhere in there, he met my mother, so Vietnam is kind of to blame for me.
FIL worked in a Siagon comm center and says you could hardly tell anything different than going to work was happening. I don't think he got out much, and that's pretty much carried on to a life that doesn't really see outside of his own perspective.
CycloneErik
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I downloaded the PBS app on my firestick since I cannot get PBS on Sling. I streamed it off their app perfectly last night.
If I wanted to smoke some peyote and really have my mind blown....
I could probably make a semi rational case that the path to your existence started with the Archduke Ferdinand's assisination
CycloneErik
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Fun side note: Among the conspirators in that assassination were a future high school principal and a future history professor.
Among interesting details:
* How ingrained guerilla warfare was in Vietnam culture, long before U.S. ground-troop involvement. It wasn't just something Viet Cong sprang on-the-fly.
* There's a segment in part 1, I'd have to go back to find the exact reference and circumstance, regarding French in the Indochina War, something like, "... casualties on the battlefield, and apathy at home." Eerily similar to U.S. about 10 years later.
* How ingrained guerilla warfare was in Vietnam culture, long before U.S. ground-troop involvement. It wasn't just something Viet Cong sprang on-the-fly.
* There's a segment in part 1, I'd have to go back to find the exact reference and circumstance, regarding French in the Indochina War, something like, "... casualties on the battlefield, and apathy at home." Eerily similar to U.S. about 10 years later.
CycloneErik
Well-Known Member
If anyone wants a nice introduction to US combat in Vietnam, "We Were Soldiers Once, and Young" was pretty solid.
CycloneErik
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Another neat one, "Patriots: The Vietnam War Remembered From All Sides" by Christian Appy reads in a quick-hitting style:
This picture of Ford as efforts were made to evacuate the South Vietnamese..... That is a great documentary. It's on Netflix
Robert McNamara has a couple of books out there.
In Retrospect and Argument Without End.
Argument brings in some of the North's perspective. Their determination was amazing.
I recommend both if you want the Secretary's perspective. I'm sure there's some revisionist history, but overall he seems to want an honest look at that part of history. I'm guessing the "why" still haunted him
CycloneErik
Well-Known Member
I've got "In Retrospect."
I imagine having your reputation kicked around for decades does something to a person.
By 1987, no. In the early 1960's, somewhat although it was of course obscured by the more recent WWII and the "let's not talk about it" Korean War. There were still WWI vets around when I was a kid playing war in the neighborhood with the other little boys. Got a polite lecture from Mr. Goote (WWI vet) that we should not be pointing guns, even toy guns, at each other. Even as little kids we respected his "authority" and knew there had been something particularly awful about that war.
In the early '60's another war, the Civil War, got tons of attention during the centennial of that war. I remember boy Boxster getting all excited to read the weekly features in Life and Look on various aspects and periods of the Civil War.
