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Vietnam War images from the North Vietnamese side

rarehistoricalphotos.com

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Re: Vietnam War images from the North Vietnamese side

#71
The photo https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-StC-dVAdOns/YK081DEgPdI/AAAAAAAAd... is probably a captured M16 since, AFAIK, Vietnam used AK-47.

What impressed me the most: "Using home-brewed chemicals, they developed their pictures in the open air or in underground tunnels" if by chemicals to develop photos in open air means no need for a dark room, that is really not something easy to do with then available technology. It is basically Polaroid chemicals quality.

Also "The Americans denuded the landscape with chemicals to deny cover to the Viet Cong." means chemical weapons. How the US avoided international courts is something that should be better explained. Specially considering Iraqi invasion decades later alleging chemical weapons suspicions.

Some pictures look extremely noise and grain free for such old photos. Makes me think they are probably digitally enhanced or Vietnam chemicals were really first class quality.

Re: Vietnam War images from the North Vietnamese side

#72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are confused two thing though. First, it's a country and their people want to remain independent from the US. I don't see anything wrong with it. Their people, born in that country, fight that war, and they win. Second, after the war, the winning party didn't do a great job to improve the country and condition. That's another discussion.

>First, it's a country and their people want to remain independent from the US. My understanding of the war was the USA wasn't there to make Vietnam the 51st State. They were there fighting a proxy war against the Russians and Chinese and to protect the south of the country that wanted nothing to do with the communists.

> They were there fighting a proxy war against the Russians and Chinese and to protect the south of the country that wanted nothing to do with the communists.

Vietnam was absolutely a second world country at that time, and it was an awful proxy war for many people. The theory that was used was the domino theory, that if a first world country would fall to a second world country, then others would start to fall in a "line of dominos".

Re: Vietnam War images from the North Vietnamese side

#73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

China fought in the Vietnam war too, just not as directly as the U.S. Without the U.S. supporting the south, the north will easily win with the full resource support from China. People who don't understand the historical context like to say the U.S. did not need to involve in the Vietnam civil war. This is simply wrong. If the U.S. did no get involved, the Chinese Communist government will support communists throw ov…

China was not on friendly terms with the north. They invaded Vietnam shortly after the Americans left, in response to Vietnam's actions in Cambodia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Vietnamese_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambodian%E2%80%93Vietnamese_W...

Lol. That's later story. China supported north in the Vietnam war, is this even a question?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_in_the_Vietnam_War

Re: Vietnam War images from the North Vietnamese side

#74
There's a lot of people in the comments saying that Vietnam didn't really "win" the war. Their political and military objectives were ultimately successful, those of the US/South Vietnam were not. That's what a victory is. The cost of victory was very high, but it was a pretty unambiguous success for the Vietnamese.

Re: Vietnam War images from the North Vietnamese side

#75
post #4

These are some great photos! But I really do wonder if "the winning side" was _actually_ the winning side. It seems to me that nobody won, and it's very likely that the Vietnamese people ultimately lost bigtime. USA fought a similar war a decade earlier in Korea and now South Korea is one of the preeminent countries in the entire world. Imagine what could have been for South Vietnam? Instead the entire country has be…

You are confused two thing though. First, it's a country and their people want to remain independent from the US. I don't see anything wrong with it. Their people, born in that country, fight that war, and they win. Second, after the war, the winning party didn't do a great job to improve the country and condition. That's another discussion.

[flagged]

Re: Vietnam War images from the North Vietnamese side

#76
post #19

I am a software developer in the US with a Vietnamese origin, so I am no historian and my views are probably skewed. I am among the minority Northern Vietnamese people in the US, most Vietnamese people in the Bay Area are (refugees) from the South. People can tell where one comes from with one's accent. It was undeniable that much suffering and injustice was done for Southern people, especially after the war ended. S…

Thank you for sharing this with us.

Re: Vietnam War images from the North Vietnamese side

#77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are confused two thing though. First, it's a country and their people want to remain independent from the US. I don't see anything wrong with it. Their people, born in that country, fight that war, and they win. Second, after the war, the winning party didn't do a great job to improve the country and condition. That's another discussion.

It wasn’t a war of independence from the US, it was a civil war the US was dumb enough to get involved in.

The Geneva Accords that dealt with the dismantling of French Indochina proved to have long-lasting repercussions, however. The crumbling of the French Empire in Southeast Asia led to the formation of the states of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam), the State of Vietnam (the future Republic of Vietnam, South Vietnam), the Kingdom of Cambodia and the Kingdom of Laos.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1954_Geneva_Conference

Re: Vietnam War images from the North Vietnamese side

#78
I saw a French movie about a French soldier in Vietnam set in 1945

I was also in France at the time when viewing the movie, it was very surreal in so many ways to be empathizing for a protagonist on one of the enemy sides - from an American perspective as I am an American.

But I had never seen anything depicted about that war decades before the US got involved.

I had never seen a war movie produced outside of Hollywood. Or a director with primarily french influences producing a war movie.

It was sensual, horrific, erotic, fascinating. I dont think it would get greenlit by American studios. Maybe some streaming services have it though.

Re: Vietnam War images from the North Vietnamese side

#79

The photo https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-StC-dVAdOns/YK081DEgPdI/AAAAAAAAd... is probably a captured M16 since, AFAIK, Vietnam used AK-47. What impressed me the most: "Using home-brewed chemicals, they developed their pictures in the open air or in underground tunnels" if by chemicals to develop photos in open air means no need for a dark room, that is really not something easy to do with then available technology. It is…

Maybe they developed the photos in open air at night?

Re: Vietnam War images from the North Vietnamese side

#80
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Yet the largest city frequently floods with a foot of water during monsoon season. Same thing can be said about parts of Tokyo during the typhoon season.

That's funny because I actually live in Tokyo. My family also owned a property next to a guy in Vietnam who owned a collection of 30 Ferraris. To suggest Tokyo's flooding problem is anywhere close to Saigon is disingenuous.

Tokyo's problem is caused by water flow impediment, because Tokyo is a concrete jungle. So water can't soak through the ground.

They wouldn't need those massive underground tanks to store stormwater as much if they had chosen a different approach.

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