Originally Posted by
AJSki2fly
Ok having actually been to Vietnam and spoken with people who were caught up in the war, and next generation and both Vietcong and USA vets, I will pass comment.
First the general consensus from both sides it was a war that should have never happened, Vietnam ended up being the pawn between two major powers Russia and USA who didn’t give a f**k about Vietnam, all they wanted to do was flex their political muscles and show who was the super power.
Vietnam went down the communist route to try and dig itself out of severe poverty, which has been seen in several other countries. The people of Vietnam still generally revere Ho Chi Min as a man who had the people at his heart, irrespective of their politics.
The vets view in general was that the Vietnamese saw the US army etc as the invader of their country irrespective of what politicians said from either side, and this meant that the Vietnamese generally felt they should defend their country.
The USA vets said of the USA troops realised what the situation was, apart from some die hard red necks who were as a result promoted up the ranks whether capable or not. So it was not where most wanted to be, also they felt it was immoral, the majority of the Vietcong were unarmed with modern weapons, they resorted to digging booby trap pits, medieval hand made weapons, and poison darts etc, all used in guerrilla ware fare, and living down tunnels. Later on they got limited supplies arms from Russia.
A higher ranking US vet told me that 6 months before they left they were ordered to agent orange the Mekong Delta and then naphalm it, even though they knew they were already preparing to pull out. Quite dishonourable, and shameful in his view, this continued till the day they left.
So to sum up a disgusting war which was completely unfounded, two meddling supper powers getting involved in another country, how many times have we seen this.
By the way if you go to Vietnam today even though it is communist, it is in my view one of the most capitalist countries in the world I have ever visited. Also the people are lovely.