Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Vietnam War images from the North Vietnamese side

rarehistoricalphotos.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

441–450 of 624 posts

Re: Vietnam War images from the North Vietnamese side

#441

Post by op00to »

Jenk wrote: post #431
dash2 wrote: post #422

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You failed to mention the times the US was on the right side of history. Most importantly, it defeated the USSR, which was, as Ronald Reagan correctly pointed out, an evil empire.

> it defeated the USSR Very arguably: no, it didn't. The USSR defeated itself. It overspent and was rife with corruption. They don't call it "the collapse of the USSR" for no reason. It couldn't maintain its own weight and fell in on itself.

Why did the USSR overspend? Was it trying to keep up with the west?

Re: Vietnam War images from the North Vietnamese side

#442

Post by shp0ngle »

dash2 wrote: post #416
shp0ngle wrote: post #411

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh, my relatives are South Vietnamese, Vietcong was basically mafia and when communists won, they were horrible to the South. Not saying Diem government was that good, especially in their last months their anti-buddhist paranoia made them insane; but yeah communists were bad against the buddhists too once they came into power. But yeah Agent Orange and napalm were horrible. There is no debate about that.

Sorry that this got downvoted. Large numbers of Vietnamese refugees fled Vietnam after the North's victory.[1] Arbitrary arrest and torture remains widespread in Vietnam according to Amnesty International. These were incredibly interesting and inspiring pictures and it's a shame to see the top comment hijacked by juvenile America-baaad-ism. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnamese_boat_people

Well nowadays the government is much better and basically tolerable. Torture and death sentences are still present, but I would not say widespread, unlike in the hardest years of communism.

There are political prisoners, but it’s not random and widespread.

Coincidentally, Vietnamese communist government nowadays tries to be Best Friend with USA.

Re: Vietnam War images from the North Vietnamese side

#443

Post by pembrook »

cies wrote: post #398

The US is repeatedly on the wrong side of history. And they cannot even face that. Red scare. Supporting neo-liberal-to-fascist govts. Yelling democracy but then killing democratically chosen representatives when they do not "suit de US likings". Bitching about some "meddling" in their election when the history is full of US meddling in democratic process of other nations. Giving "foreign aid" to apartheid regimes. U…

Yes, the world is a chaotic reflexive system and trying to manipulate it always creates unintended consequences. The US absolutely does dumb stuff all the time, and power always gets abused.

But for a contrarian view on the “US Bad” narrative, check out a book called The Accidental Superpower

Here’s a good summary of the book: https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/your-book-review-the-a...

It presents an interesting case that the relative peace of modern society is entirely due to US military over-investment brought on by the Cold War—which allows for uninterrupted global supply chains, safe global trade, and enforces the intertwining of economic interests through global markets.

Absent the US existing, the world doesn’t suddenly become a utopia of people living happily ever after. Humans don’t have a great track record of being nice to each other. Unfortunately the alternative options to US power don’t look all that great.

Re: Vietnam War images from the North Vietnamese side

#444

Post by clydethefrog »

hvs wrote: post #132
vmception wrote: post #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 Hollywo…

There are some depictions of the French occupation of Vietnam in the beginning of "We Were Soldiers".

Also Apocalypse Now extended cut has a part with the French elite still trying to live their old privileged life. I get why it's cut from a writing perspective, but it shows some important context.

Re: Vietnam War images from the North Vietnamese side

#446

Post by NicoJuicy »

cies wrote: post #398

The US is repeatedly on the wrong side of history. And they cannot even face that. Red scare. Supporting neo-liberal-to-fascist govts. Yelling democracy but then killing democratically chosen representatives when they do not "suit de US likings". Bitching about some "meddling" in their election when the history is full of US meddling in democratic process of other nations. Giving "foreign aid" to apartheid regimes. U…

The US made it possible that war is less wanted then economic relations.

And the world is not perfect, but for whatever it's worth. I think the US does and did a fine job.

Re: Vietnam War images from the North Vietnamese side

#447

Post by TomSwirly »

dash2 wrote: post #422
cies wrote: post #398

The US is repeatedly on the wrong side of history. And they cannot even face that. Red scare. Supporting neo-liberal-to-fascist govts. Yelling democracy but then killing democratically chosen representatives when they do not "suit de US likings". Bitching about some "meddling" in their election when the history is full of US meddling in democratic process of other nations. Giving "foreign aid" to apartheid regimes. U…

You failed to mention the times the US was on the right side of history. Most importantly, it defeated the USSR, which was, as Ronald Reagan correctly pointed out, an evil empire.

> Most importantly, it defeated the USSR

I just hurt my eyes from rolling them _so hard._

The USSR collapsed because it was a wildly inefficient system that was unable to provide goods and services to its people.

In order to believe your wild statement you have to believe a lot of huge implausibilities, like the idea that the USSR would not have spent money on their military if not for the Americans, which would literally make them the ONLY empire in history to do that.

Particularly hard to believe is the idea that if Reagan hadn't spent trillions on thoroughly useless weapons, the USSR would have magically flourished.

> Ronald Reagan

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

Americans just love their wildly incompetent and corrupt Presidents, don't they?

Re: Vietnam War images from the North Vietnamese side

#448

Post by TomSwirly »

Jenk wrote: post #431
dash2 wrote: post #422

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You failed to mention the times the US was on the right side of history. Most importantly, it defeated the USSR, which was, as Ronald Reagan correctly pointed out, an evil empire.

> it defeated the USSR Very arguably: no, it didn't. The USSR defeated itself. It overspent and was rife with corruption. They don't call it "the collapse of the USSR" for no reason. It couldn't maintain its own weight and fell in on itself.

I agree overall!

The USSR didn't really "overspend" though. The amount of money it was spending on the military was wildly exaggerated by the CIA and other people who wanted more budget.

The issue was the centrally planned economy and the monthly plans where factories would be effective for one week a month and spend the other three turning raw materials into garbage.

In the end, the USSR was simply unable to deliver sufficient goods and services to its citizens.

Re: Vietnam War images from the North Vietnamese side

#449

Post by TomSwirly »

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…

> I remember some people from US visiting her in 90s hoping to use her contacts in order to find some lost American POWs.

Ah yes, yet another crazy Republican idea I had forgotten about, that there are still POWs being kept in secret camps in Vietnam.

Vietnam has opened their entire country to Americans to inspect, including Republican politicos, and yet America still tells this evil lie.

Re: Vietnam War images from the North Vietnamese side

#450

Post by dash2 »

TomSwirly wrote: post #447
dash2 wrote: post #422

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You failed to mention the times the US was on the right side of history. Most importantly, it defeated the USSR, which was, as Ronald Reagan correctly pointed out, an evil empire.

> Most importantly, it defeated the USSR I just hurt my eyes from rolling them _so hard._ The USSR collapsed because it was a wildly inefficient system that was unable to provide goods and services to its people. In order to believe your wild statement you have to believe a lot of huge implausibilities, like the idea that the USSR would not have spent money on their military if not for the Americans, which would lite…

It is not at all implausible that competition with the US made the USSR spend more on arms. The reason empires throughout history spend money on arms, as you rightly say, is to compete with their neighbours. The US upped the ante.

I'm not arguing either for or against Reagan. I merely point out that he was right about the USSR.

Post reply on HN