*snigger*Originally Posted by mc2
*snigger*Originally Posted by mc2
they certainly had them yanks fuked and it didn't matter which way they attacked and all the equipment and the secret wars in Laos and Cambodia and all that shite agent orange how many people has that destroyed I don't see any body being brought to the war crimes tribunal from mericka who was it responsible for dropping all that shite?
Uncle Ho- for mine, the single most Heroic personage of the 20th Century.
The 'American war' was just the last phase of their struggle for national liberation. Perhaps the most bitter. Ironically, Ho admired and wanted to be friends with America- he spent time there. Not to be- betrayed in the post WW2 carve-up. Yet he always knew Victory would be theirs.
Enjoyed that Mao, thanks. Just like the Americans, the VC & NVA had their war photographers too.
Anyone watched the film "Rising Above" ?
It's about Vietnamese women in the war
Rising Above | Bullfrog Films: 1-800-543-3764: Environmental DVDs and Educational DVDs
But 30 years after the signing of the peace agreement, the revival of Confucianism and the spread of market forces are conspiring to relegate women once again to the role of second class citizens
Oh my Satan I'm gonna die laughing
Originally shown on the BBC years ago. A very interesting and graphic description of what happened.
I aint superstitious, but I know when somethings wrong
I`ve been dragging my heels with a bitch called hope
Let the undercurrent drag me along.
Interesting pics on this thread. It's amazing how Vietnam attracts so much interest from people who were to young to be there like myself. I can't explain my interest in the war other than from seeing movies and hearing songs about it.
The uglier side of America: During Vietnam war
RAPE IN VIETNAM
The act of raping women is largely understood to be an inevitable consequence of war. As General George S. Patton predicted during World War II, "there would unquestionably be some raping." Rape and the mutilation of women's bodies are evidently part of the usual military fare in war. During the Vietnam war, rape was in fact an all too common occurrence, often described by GIs as SOP--standard operating procedure. "That's an everyday affair... you can nail just about everybody on that--at least once," offered a squad leader in the 34d Platoon of Charlie Company when questioned by a reporter about the rape that occurred at My Lai. Another GI, Joe Galbally, when testifying for the Winter Soldier Investigation, concluded his report about a specific incident of gang rape by American soldiers by saying, "This wasn't just one incident; this was the first one I can remember. I know of 10 or 15 such incidents at least." Galbally was in Vietnam for one year, from 1967-1968. In fact, very few American GIs were "nailed" for rape in Vietnam. Despite the fact that it is a crime according to international law, prohibited under the Geneva Convention and punishable by death or imprisonment under Article 120 of the American Uniform Code of Military Justice, acts of rape were rarely reported and seldom convicted during the Vietnam war. The number of rape cases tried did not nearly reflect the rampancy of rape in Vietnam. The conviction rates were low and the sentences extremely light. In Against Our Will, Susan Brownmiller provides Army court-martial statistics for rape and related charges: only fifty-eight percent of those tried between 1965 and 1973 were convicted. Information on sentencing was difficult to come by, according to Brownmiller. She writes, "a sentence of two to eight years at hard labor might be typical for rape, even in cases in which the victim had been murdered; sodomy, attempted rape and attempted sodomy were preferred as charges because they carried lesser penalties; and sentences were routinely cut in half by a board of review."
Laos?
^^^^F.R. - Just for the record. I fought in Vietnam from 68-69, in I Corps, some of the toughest fighting of the hardest year of the war. I not only never saw a rape, I never even heard of one. The so-called "Winter Soldier" testimony has been proven to be almost totally false, made up by scum like Senator Kerry, who also falsified his own war record. I'm not saying rape did not happen, but the drugs, rape and racial problems so popular in movies and books were extremely rare in combat units such as mine. I will grant that such things did happen more often in the rear, where soldiers with too much time on their hands, and who weren't spending 24 hours a day trying to stay alive like we were, were more prone to involvement in such things.
Regarding My Lai, while it was disgusting, it was the action of one sub-standard Lieutenant who let a marginal unit run amok - and they were brought to trial for it - with extremely unfortunate results as a nation tired of hearing about the war allowed it to be swept under the rug.
Regarding Mao's photos, I have seen quite a few of these in other places over the years, most notably the one of the female. heroic "soldier" guarding the downed pilot. While there were female soldiers, their greatest use was as propaganda vehicles, an end to which they were used most effectively. The heroic female soldier protecting the motherland always plays well, and it was this effective use of propaganda which eventually sapped the will of the American people for an unpopular war, and resulted in the US withdrawal.
In a year of heavy combat near the DMZ, I personally never saw a female soldier, although there were large numbers of female porters used to haul supplies along the jungle trails, and quite a few female nurses.
This is not a justification of the war, nor a commentary, just a few points on the reality of the war in the heavy years of 68-69. Regarding the American pullout, I would note that in my opinion, if we had a draft over the last ten years or so, neither Iraq nor Afghanistan would have lasted this long. But, when you have a volunteer army, public protest tends to fade away as upper class kids aren't being drafted to go.
Most look like propaganda photos. Similar to ones from the USSR or China.
But interesting thread, copied or not.
^I just got interested in the thread and researched a little more but it's always good to hear from guys like yourself and I also know a few guys here that were involved in some way or other
OTHER ATROCITIES
On October 19, 2003, the Ohio-based newspaper the Toledo Blade launched a four-day series of investigative reports exposing a string of atrocities by an elite, volunteer, 45-man "Tiger Force" unit of the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division over the course of seven months in 1967. The Blade goes on to state that in 1971 the Army began a four and a half year investigation of the alleged torture of prisoners, rapes of civilian women, the mutilation of bodies and killing of anywhere from nine to well over one hundred unarmed civilians, among other acts. The articles further report that the Army's inquiry concluded that eighteen U.S. soldiers committed war crimes ranging from murder and assault to dereliction of duty. However, not one of the soldiers, even of those still on active duty at the time of the investigation, was ever court martialed in connection with the heinous crimes. Moreover, six suspected war criminals were allowed to resign from military service during the criminal investigations specifically to avoid prosecution.
^I should have thought of "Tiger Force". I was assigned to the 101st Airborne, in the 3rd Brigade Long Range Recon Patrols, very similar to the 2nd Brigade's Tiger Force. Tiger Force was formed in 1966, and had been disbanded by the time I arrive in early 1968. There were still rumors circulating, however, of a Recon Unit in the 2nd Brigade which had "gone bad" a year or two earlier. Having done a fair bit of research and reading on the subject of Tiger Force, I have to conclude that there was basis for the allegations, and that at least some of these offenses did occur. I can only credit the Army's lack af aggressive follow-up to the same reasons I mentioned about the despicable lack of action in the case of Lt. Calley and the killers of My Lai. By the time the investigations of both of these cases were concluded, we had already pulled out of Vietnam, and America wanted to put this sad page of history behind it. By electing to do so, people who should have gone to jail, or worse, walked.
^There was quite a lot more to the article were it mentions names, here's the link.
HISTORY IN PICTURES: RARE, UNSEEN PICTURES: The uglier side of America: During Vietnam war
^I read the book on "Tiger Force" some time ago, and several names pop up again and again, Ybarra's for one. I don't dispute that atrocities occurred, especially ones as well documented as My Lai and Tiger Force. I do maintain, however, that most soldiers during the ten years of this war acted correctly - or as correctly as one can in the confusion of such a war. Witness those who tried to prevent My Lai, and reported it. Any war will have aberrant personalities, especially one that lasts a decade, and atrocities will take place. This is the unfortunate nature of war. But, unlike many other conflicts of recent years, there is no indication that such atrocities in Vietnam were policy, or sanctioned in any way. A few deranged individuals committed some horrible acts; unfortunately, many of them got away with it. I do, however, totally dispute the fucking crap presented as fact in the Winter Soldier testimony, where attention seeking politicians such as the scum Kerry, and any number of rear area truck drivers and cooks, flatly lied about what they had allegedly seen or done in order to gain attention and to curry favor with the anti-war movement.
90 min doco on the Aussie network Sunday night if people are interested.
Australia Network - TV Schedule - My Lai
What drove a company of American soldiers - ordinary young men from around the country deployed to liberate a small foreign nation from an oppressive neighbor - to dehumanize and murder more than 300 unarmed civilians? Were they "just following orders" as some later declared? Or, as others argued, did they break under the pressure of a misguided military strategy that measured victory by body count? Today, as the United States once again finds itself questioning the morality of actions taken in the name of war, Academy Award- nominated filmmaker Barak Goodman (The Lobotomist, Scottsboro: An American Tragedy) focuses his lens on the 1968 My Lai Massacre, its subsequent cover-up, and the heroic efforts of the soldiers who broke rank to halt the atrocities. My Lai draws upon the eyewitness accounts of Vietnamese survivors and the men of the Charlie Company11th Infantry Brigade and recently discovered audio recordings from the Peers Inquiry to recount one of the Vietnam War's darkest chapters.
Last edited by Chairman Mao; 29-07-2011 at 10:39 PM.
excellent bump CM . really interesting thread , managed to miss it before - thanks
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