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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

#381

Post by baybal2 »

jimmies wrote: 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…

If find it more often than not, the side losing the war is the one who thinks that the war was probably a good idea, and than it wasn't.

When your soldiers starting to think "wtf am doing here?," after first thinking they were going for a picnic, you loose in a short order. And even faster if soldier also think that their political leadership are idiots.

Re: Vietnam War images from the North Vietnamese side

#382

Post by kumarvvr »

jlkuester7 wrote: post #349
kumarvvr wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What happened to all the "we don't negotiate with terrorists" thing then? At the end of 20 years, US indirectly had to negotiate with them. So the other way of looking at it is, a bunch of un-educated, poorly trained, poorly equipped mountain people, who themselves are divided into many warring factions, stood their ground against the mightiest nation on earth, for 20 year, and in the end US negotiated with them for…

Heh, you would think that after literal decades of (moderate) sustained success in resisting incursions from three superpowers (British, then Soviets and then the US) the Pashtuns would get a little more credit then just being called "a bunch of un-educated, poorly trained, poorly equipped mountain people." Even Churchill said of them: "Every man is a warrior, a politician and a theologian."

To be fair, US has decades of high tech warfare experience, institutions that study war and constantly research about it, has best infrastructure, excellent means to project power and has virtually unlimited resources.

The Afghans have no proper education system, no institutions other than local commanders directing their bunch of troops and have virtually no good infrastructure. They literally live among mountains and have no good networks for transportation.

I am giving the Afghans a lot of credit, because what I said about them is true. They won in spite of that.

Re: Vietnam War images from the North Vietnamese side

#383

Post by christkv »

The political impossibility of invading North Vietnam meant the war became an insurrection in the south, at that point I think the conflict became a competition of will to win and the north and Vietcong were more motivated.

If it had been a full on traditional war like in Korea the conflict might have ended differently but the risk of a full blown world war would have been high.

Re: Vietnam War images from the North Vietnamese side

#384

Post by archagon »

chewz wrote: post #328

My ex-wife Grandmother had spent over 10 years (1964-1975) in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia as a reporter on the Vietnamese side during the Vietnam War and consecutive conflicts (Vietnamese intervention in Cambodia 1978). She was the first European to walk all length of Ho Chi Minh trail, lived in Saigon undercover during American occupation and wrote couple of books about the Vietnam Wars. She was telling a lot of stor…

Fascinating! It looks like her books have Russian translations; will be very interested to give them a read.

Re: Vietnam War images from the North Vietnamese side

#385

Post by meheleventyone »

dmitryminkovsky wrote: post #184

These are really neat. One photo has this caption: > Even using antiquated WWII rifles such as these, the Vietnamese were able to cripple or down many U.S. aircraft. Seems impossible? Allied aircraft were flying at least 5-10,000 ft, at least 300mph?

There were a bunch of Forward Air Controllers who flew smaller, slower planes much lower to direct air strikes. In particular those flying in support of SF missions flew low routinely. Although the predominant danger is still going to be flak and large machine guns rather than rifles. Then you also have attack helicopters and troop transport helicopters are particularly vulnerable whilst loading and unloading who all fly lower and slower.

Re: Vietnam War images from the North Vietnamese side

#386

Post by darksaints »

Taniwha wrote: post #380
darksaints wrote: post #355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not really sure what the difference is between a declaration of war and an authorization of war, but we've had congressional authorization for a couple conflicts since then. I would argue that if Congress voted on it in the affirmative, it's not really a secret or stealthy war.

The constitution only provides for declarations of war, and requires that the congress (not the president) declare war

The war powers act has been around for 50 years now, and the supreme court has not invalidated it yet. I think it's safe to say that they believe it is constitutional.

Regardless, even if you believe that authorization for use of force is unconstitutional, that does not make it secret. Only Bill Clinton's engagement in Bosnia/Kosovo could be considered a secret war... The others were done with full authorization of Congress.

Re: Vietnam War images from the North Vietnamese side

#387

Post by lordnacho »

jimmies wrote: 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…

I have a bunch of family in the Bay Area, who ended up there from North Vietnam. You're right that the accents can be recognized, but I also think you're right that resentments have faded. At least I'm pretty sure one of my cousins married a South Vietnamese lady a few years ago.

We still have a couple of stories in the family about the bombings. I wonder how accurate the details are.

One was my uncle, who was driving a truck over the last bridge to be bombed in Hanoi. He got to the bridge, it got bombed, and everyone was looking for his body for days. My grandmother was at the river every day. Luckily, he had somehow not gotten killed, and was in fact stuck on the wrong side, safe. He'd driven upriver to the next crossing, which took some time.

The other story is that my mom's neighbour had a bomb land in her house. The family was killed, apart from the girl, who was my mom's age. My grandmother took her in to live with them. I think the memory had quite an impression on my parents, as they in turn took in a girl to live with them later in life.

Re: Vietnam War images from the North Vietnamese side

#388

Post by [deleted] »

trhway wrote: post #245
mulmen wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fascinating. I wonder what the psychology is there. I saw a Plymouth Superbird a couple years ago that had “original damage”. It looked like it had been stolen and taken on a joyride. No straight body panels, scratches everywhere. The story went that some kid got drafted and figured he was never coming home so he spent his life savings on the fastest car he could and tried to have as much fun as possible. I assume it…

pro-Russian rebels of the Donbass war trying out bulletproof vest https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ysQqHKYV1o

[deleted]

Re: Vietnam War images from the North Vietnamese side

#389

Post by enriquto »

michelpp wrote: post #345
chewz wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mind that Monika was reporting for largest communist daily in Poland - her books are good reporting, lots of focus on people involved in the war but there is also a propaganda narrative. On the other hand her reporting angle is much better then some Western "useful idots"[1] like Tiziano Terzani [0] (der Spiegel), who had been calling Pol-pot 'great man with a vision for a nation' even on his deathbed. [0] https://en…

That's something that I think can be put into context with a short preface. I think propaganda is some of the most interesting parts of history.

On the other hand, this kind of prefaces often have the danger of sounding condescending or even disrespectful to the reader (and to the author). A safer bet that I've seen sometimes is to give two prefaces, exposing complementary or even contradictory views. This lets the reader approach the book without holding hands.

Re: Vietnam War images from the North Vietnamese side

#390

Post by darksaints »

dragonwriter wrote: post #368
darksaints wrote: post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's really amazing is that we could have done nothing, and it still would have failed eventually. There aren't any communist regimes that have been truly successful. The Soviets succeeded in industrialization, but then ate itself from within. The Chinese succeeded in industrialization, but only after transitioning away from maoist communism and more towards state capitalism. Everything else basically failed outrig…

> The Chinese succeeded in industrialization, but only after transitioning away from maoist communism and more towards state capitalism. Leninism and all its descendants, including Maoism, are, ab initio , state capitalism. What the CCP moved toward is more of xenophobic totalitarian corporatism than state capitalism; essentially fascism without, or at least with less, overt expansionism.

I guess I can see that, but whatever it was, it wasn't communism.
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