Vietnam an epic tragedy . Max Hastings.

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buster

buster

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Just finished this epic book , well worth a read .

The scale of everything is beyond comprehension, one B52 raid used two million gallons of fuel !!!!

” Everyone was screwed by their respective governments “ , sums it up quite well.
 


Before the Americans had gone in The French used a group of ex-SS soldiers to go into villages and burn them down and round up civilians. Incredible how they could do that when only a few years earlier the SS were doing that to French citizens.

How Charlie company led by William Calley got of virtually scott free for the My Lai massacre still baffles me to this day.

It`s amazing how there is always money to fight wars on the other side of the world yet anyone asks for free health care and education and they`re called communists.
 
I watched some documentary about it on the history channel..they were talking to an ex Viet Cong fighter..he said out in the jungle they always knew where the Americans were or where they were heading..i'm thinking of some sort of military reconnaissance then the fighter says the yanks used to leave their fag ends all over the place.
 
mickb2112 said:
Before the Americans had gone in The French used a group of ex-SS soldiers to go into villages and burn them down and round up civilians. Incredible how they could do that when only a few years earlier the SS were doing that to French citizens.

How Charlie company led by William Calley got of virtually scott free for the My Lai massacre still baffles me to this day.

It`s amazing how there is always money to fight wars on the other side of the world yet anyone asks for free health care and education and they`re called communists.
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Read The Devils Guard.
 
buster said:
Just finished this epic book , well worth a read .

The scale of everything is beyond comprehension, one B52 raid used two million gallons of fuel !!!!

” Everyone was screwed by their respective governments “ , sums it up quite well.
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It’s a very good read, same as all his other stuff.
 
Perfect Spy by Larry Berman is a good read. Although it has an American slant and in my opinion tries to sully Pham An with insinuations he was a triple agent. But essentially information from a Vietnamese agent at the centre of the American operations.
 
If South Vietnam had won and the country was eventually reunited under a non communist system Vietnam today would be a much richer and prosperous country similiar to South Korea,Japan and Hong Kong in terms of economic development.
 
buster said:
Just finished this epic book , well worth a read .

The scale of everything is beyond comprehension, one B52 raid used two million gallons of fuel !!!!

” Everyone was screwed by their respective governments “ , sums it up quite well.
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When I was a too young to understand it all it was on the news every night, for years, but I had no idea why. I eventually read up on it in the eighties to find out what it was all about, so much so it became an obsession.

Too many books to recommend really but 'The Tunnels of Cu Chi' is a must read.
Malloy said:
You only get 1 life, I cant believe how lucky I am to never have been involved in war and killed at the age 18.

The mind boggles
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So true. A lad from Ferryhill I worked with years ago told me how he had decided to emigrate to Australia in the 60's. Him and two of his mates were mad keen to go but a fourth lad was not up for it. They talked him round and started the process.

Of the four, the last lad was the only one who went. He was conscripted and shipped off to Vietnam not long after arriving. He survived his tour but never forgave them.
 
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Malloy said:
You only get 1 life, I cant believe how lucky I am to never have been involved in war and killed at the age 18.

The mind boggles
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So many of the American soldiers were conscripts too. If you were unlucky enough to be picked you had to go unless you were rich enough to come up with some feeble excuse which wouldn`t wash if you were poor. A disproportionate number of black working class kids were sent out to fight and die too compared to white middle and upper class kids. Conscription to save your country from invasion is one thing but to fight a pointless war on the other side of the world was pure insanity.
Sam Handwich said:
Still sltting there from last xmas. Must start on it.
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This is my life. I have a massive pile of books to read and just not enough time to do it.
 
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Just finished Nam by Mark Baker, on the recommendation of this place. Awful, awful stories of what pretty much was a genocide by normal lads who became, I guess, indoctrinated or desensitised to the horror of it all
 
Read a piece by an ex Vietcong fighter - he said they were more worried about tigers in the jungle than Enemy soldiers. Loads of them got eaten or mauled.
 
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