Vietnam an epic tragedy . Max Hastings.

Status
Not open for further replies.


Dave Herbal said:
The odds of being involved in war throughout history are probably pretty minuscule tbh.
Click to expand...

You Reckon?
Id have said the opposite- interesting to find out the answer.
Stevie Freestein II said:
www.cracked.com

8 Things Vietnam War Movies Leave Out (By an Enemy Soldier)

We sent a writer out to Vietnam to speak with Nguyen Hoa Giai. He fought as a Viet Cong from the late 1950s to the end of the war in the mid-'70s. Here's what he told us.
www.cracked.com www.cracked.com
Click to expand...

Cheers
 
Sid James Park said:
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.
Click to expand...
We will never know but from my understanding the Vietnamese were fed up of foreign involvement (France, Japan) also Chinese interests, then USA. They just wanted independence and rallied behind communism/Ho Chi Minh even if they weren’t politically motivated.
 
Stevie Freestein II said:
We will never know but from my understanding the Vietnamese were fed up of foreign involvement (France, Japan) also Chinese interests, then USA. They just wanted independence and rallied behind communism/Ho Chi Minh even if they weren’t politically motivated.
Click to expand...

That the bloke who left a trail of devastation behind?
 
Dave Herbal said:
The odds of being involved in war throughout history are probably pretty minuscule tbh.
Click to expand...

Civil wars certainly are and with good reason. They always seem to have an extra brutality to them. Neighbour against neighbour and brother against brother seems to bring the worst out of us as a species. Tragedy is the word for Vietnam though. You still see the effects of the war today and it could have easily been avoided. Just ignorance and stupidity.

I reckon that there's a lowish risk too of war in general in your lifetime but watch out if you happen to be born in wrong part of that particular century. Cos you'd be marching.
 
Stevie Freestein II said:
We will never know but from my understanding the Vietnamese were fed up of foreign involvement (France, Japan) also Chinese interests, then USA. They just wanted independence and rallied behind communism/Ho Chi Minh even if they weren’t politically motivated.
Click to expand...
On a day out to see a Vietnamese coffee harvest we got talking about the amount of mopeds on the roads.

The guide said that deaths on the roads are rising due to the cheap Chinese mopeds undercutting the good makes. 'Yes...even after all these centuries the Chinese manage to come up with new and inventive ways to kill Vietnamese people.'
 
MSC said:
You Reckon?
Id have said the opposite- interesting to find out the answer.


Cheers
Click to expand...
I would think so. Let’s look at the UK. How many wars have we had that involved conscription
MSC said:
You Reckon?
Id have said the opposite- interesting to find out the answer.


Cheers
Click to expand...
Ok, I’ve crunched the numbers. Using the last 200 years, as we have records for that: Let’s say for arguments sake that 300,000 men are born in the UK every year.
so that’s 60 million men in 200 years.
The entire death toll of UK personnel in every war since 1815 is 1.5 million.
So on average you’ve had a 2.5% chance of dying. But a lot of those were professional soldiers who were there by choice, so that’s going to bring the odds of a civilian being called up and dying down a fraction I would have thought. So maybe a 2% then? Odds of 50/1 don’t seem that bad.
 
Dave Herbal said:
I would think so. Let’s look at the UK. How many wars have we had that involved conscription

Ok, I’ve crunched the numbers. Using the last 200 years, as we have records for that: Let’s say for arguments sake that 300,000 men are born in the UK every year.
so that’s 60 million men in 200 years.
The entire death toll of UK personnel in every war since 1815 is 1.5 million.
So on average you’ve had a 2.5% chance of dying. But a lot of those were professional soldiers who were there by choice, so that’s going to bring the odds of a civilian being called up and dying down a fraction I would have thought. So maybe a 2% then? Odds of 50/1 don’t seem that bad.
Click to expand...

Interesting.
Middle Ages, crusades and in the days of genghis, Caesar etc must have been hard to avoid war or living somewhere without invasion.
 
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.
Click to expand...
I saw a documentary about the massacre on the pbs channel, unbelievable.
 
MSC said:
Interesting.
Middle Ages, crusades and in the days of genghis, Caesar etc must have been hard to avoid war or living somewhere without invasion.
Click to expand...
Oh aye, I’m sure they rounded up anyone they could. But there were also a lot less people back then, so less a chance of escaping it. We also still have it in our heads that once you go off to war, that’s it. When in reality most people make it home again.
 
JonMc said:
On a day out to see a Vietnamese coffee harvest we got talking about the amount of mopeds on the roads.

The guide said that deaths on the roads are rising due to the cheap Chinese mopeds undercutting the good makes. 'Yes...even after all these centuries the Chinese manage to come up with new and inventive ways to kill Vietnamese people.'
Click to expand...
they dont get on,same with the cambodians,great fighters though and repelled a chinnese attack while sorting out pol pots rag tag army,i read somewhere they committed more troops to the cambo front than to repel the chinnese attack.
 
Even in the meat grinder of the trenches, 86% of soldiers survived. It seems scarcely believable when you see the footage.
 
bomber said:
yet englanders go mad when an EU is mentioned 🙄 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿
Click to expand...
Why are you so anti-England in every thread?
JonMc said:
On a day out to see a Vietnamese coffee harvest we got talking about the amount of mopeds on the roads.

The guide said that deaths on the roads are rising due to the cheap Chinese mopeds undercutting the good makes. 'Yes...even after all these centuries the Chinese manage to come up with new and inventive ways to kill Vietnamese people.'
Click to expand...
The Vietnamese had a war with China in 1975 iirc.
Dave Herbal said:
I would think so. Let’s look at the UK. How many wars have we had that involved conscription

Ok, I’ve crunched the numbers. Using the last 200 years, as we have records for that: Let’s say for arguments sake that 300,000 men are born in the UK every year.
so that’s 60 million men in 200 years.
The entire death toll of UK personnel in every war since 1815 is 1.5 million.
So on average you’ve had a 2.5% chance of dying. But a lot of those were professional soldiers who were there by choice, so that’s going to bring the odds of a civilian being called up and dying down a fraction I would have thought. So maybe a 2% then? Odds of 50/1 don’t seem that bad.
Click to expand...
Economic ruin, disease and famine are more deadly, and they are usually the by-product of conflict.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.

Back
Top