His Civil War series was one of the best pieces of television ever. I'll be watching this one for sure.
This message board permanently closed on June 30th, 2020 at 4PM EDT and is no longer accepting new members.
Yes! That one was riveting, too!His Civil War series was one of the best pieces of television ever. I'll be watching this one for sure.
In college, I took a history class Civil War to Vietnam. And you know how that goes. They can only pump so much information into a class. We ran out of time and didn't get to study the Vietnam War. That's what I wanted to study. That's what I wanted to learn about. I asked on here one time a good book about the Vietnam experience. An honest, hard hitting book. Someone gave me a suggestion, and I can't for the life of me remember what it was. Anyone have this type of book as a recommend?
I never never understood why GI's were spit on. I thought that was a very shameful part of civilian life. The majority of these kids were drafted. They didn't WANT to go. But they were forced to go.
And but for the grace of God go I.
What happened to them there was a friggin' nightmare.
I did an internship in our local VA hospital. At the time, the youngest veterans were Vietnam. So, the age gave them away. BUT, they were also the most traumatized group of people. I could've been blindfolded and I could always tell the vietnam vets by their interactions. What they said. How they said it. I was scared of them.
This one has a different feel than most of his others to me which I think has to do with more use of video than stills. I'm learning things I didn't know at the time but am coming away so far even more depressed than I'd been about the senselessness of the conflict when living through those times. Hearing what advisors did that had a lot more to do with an ego mentality, i.e. we have to win because we're Americans, isn't anything new to me but the extent to which they did it is. It's bringing up the anger again about so many people dying needlessly. And I wonder how much of that mentality and lack of understanding about local customs, politics, and way of thinking are factoring into our decision to remain in Iraq and Afghanistan under the guise of having to defeat the enemy there so it won't happen here again.
There was one clip (can't remember the exact words but think it was a congressional hearing) that you could have put that person in a congressional hearing today using the same words because it still applies. It seems we've--especially politicians and military advisors--learned very little from past mistakes when it comes to waging war.The snippets that I've seen of blind patriotism being used to coddle horrendous and destructive policies have some sharp echoes even today. We can look and say, "Wow, we were really that stupid?" while turning around and seeing the same attitudes at our doorsteps. It is painful to watch.
That was my era, my classmates/friends who served and many died. I pray this is not another example of "history repeats itself".There was one clip (can't remember the exact words but think it was a congressional hearing) that you could have put that person in a congressional hearing today using the same words because it still applies. It seems we've--especially politicians and military advisors--learned very little from past mistakes when it comes to waging war.
I am slowly making my way through this. I recorded them all and I'm so glad I did. I can watch them at my pace. When it all becomes too much, I can walk away. Too bad our American sons and daughters didn't have a pause button so they could've walked away.This one has a different feel than most of his others to me which I think has to do with more use of video than stills. I'm learning things I didn't know at the time but am coming away so far even more depressed than I'd been about the senselessness of the conflict when living through those times. Hearing what advisors did that had a lot more to do with an ego mentality, i.e. we have to win because we're Americans, isn't anything new to me but the extent to which they did it is. It's bringing up the anger again about so many people dying needlessly. And I wonder how much of that mentality and lack of understanding about local customs, politics, and way of thinking are factoring into our decision to remain in Iraq and Afghanistan under the guise of having to defeat the enemy there so it won't happen here again.
...all very good points, and as to the M-16, yes-the main issue was "fouling and jamming"......maybe this article will help.....I just finished episode 5. Some observations:
One of the American soldiers, while being interviewed said he only killed one Vietnamese combatant -- from that point on, he turned a subject into an object. He made the enemy not human. He called it Racism 101.
The Vietnamese were brilliant fighters. Their objective was to get in close to the Americans, because then Americans were reluctant to call in air strikes on their own positions. They made the fight up close and personal. What the Americans called brawls. The Vietnamese knew the Americans controlled the air, but they controlled the ground. Take out their airstrikes and you win. Also, the "enemy" said that Americans were big and slow and obviously not used to the climate and terrain. They were small, quick and had home court advantage. And the absolute dedication of their people was quite patriotic.
The war was about real estate one guy said. Take real estate from them and deny them access. Fight over land that a half hour later, you abandon. Killed hundreds and hundreds of boys for land, and then abandoned it.
New guys quickly learned that war was brutal and to keep their mouths shut. No "fair" play.
"This is war. This is what we do." And yes, we did brutal things. Tiger Force, a renegade like company in the American war did war crimes. As one man stated in an article I looked up on the subject:
"The way to live is to kill because you don't have to worry about anybody who's dead."
The other side also did atrocities, cutting off ears, booby trapping dead bodies -- but was it in response to what we were doing?
With our men using M16s, we sent our children to fight a war against very clean, accurate and reliable Russian weaponry. Our M16s were jamming and boys found dead later had gunshots to their heads up close, and that upon further investigation, it was revealed their guns had jammed. Way to go America. The guns were about as effective as a water pistol.
Hey, if my kid is going to fight for you Amurica, you damn well better make sure he doesn't come out with "only his d*ck in his hand."
In an interview, a Vietnamese soldier said that Americans had one major weakness -- can you guess what that was?
Cigarette smoking.
All they had to do was follow the trail of cigarette butts that our GIs left like Hansel and Gretel.
And my final thought to this point: The out and out lying that our government did is just beyond pathetic. They had NO HONOR whatsoever as they needed to sell this war and keep mom and pop on board and sending in their little-boy-war-machines.
I'm not talking the GIs didn't have honor, I'm talking our government. A lot of the men they are interviewing wanted to fight for their country, but got over there and realized they had been lied to, and what's interesting, they kept the lie alive to their friends and family back home. Some more than likely not wanting to scare them. And some I'm sure, not wanting to admit they'd been duped.
No wonder this group of men came home drug addicted and wracked with PTSD.
or in a body bag.
Well, I read that and I'm glad that they have continued to improve on it. But it should never have been in combat in Vietnam without excessive testing first. We left our men vulnerable and they died because of it....all very good points, and as to the M-16, yes-the main issue was "fouling and jamming"......maybe this article will help.....
https://www.americanrifleman.org/articles/2017/9/20/us-m16-a-half-century-of-america-s-combat-rifle/
...I'm not making excuses-it was poorly designed and rushed into combat without sufficient testing.....Well, I read that and I'm glad that they have continued to improve on it. But it should never have been in combat in Vietnam without excessive testing first. We left our men vulnerable and they died because of it.
Imagine close, in-your-face fighting when someone raises a very efficient killing machine, and you raise wood, metal and plastic and nothing happens.
Oh, no. I knew you weren't. I was just commenting that a poor weapon was put in the hands of our fighting boys. A tremendous loss of life because of that. And it sounds like they have learned to do a better job before releasing them widespread....I'm not making excuses-it was poorly designed and rushed into combat without sufficient testing.....
....they should have all been equipped with the Armalite 15 or AR-15, until the M-16 was as bug free as possible......if I remember correctly, some guys were still carrying venerable M-1 Garand!.....Oh, no. I knew you weren't. I was just commenting that a poor weapon was put in the hands of our fighting boys. A tremendous loss of life because of that. And it sounds like they have learned to do a better job before releasing them widespread.