Myths from America:
Why do we Americans believe with have a real good bead on how everyone else should live?
The people living in Vietnam just wanted to be left alone and had enough of the French trying to whip them into organized submission. They were so bored with war and were on neither side. They didn’t need our technology, didn’t live like us and saw little shame in squatting and relieving themselves public on the side of the street.
Assuming that the Vietnamese shared even one common thread of social fabric with Americans, is it our God given right to shed the blood of innocent young Americans so the rest of the social fabric harmonizes with our own?
The answer is, of course not.
So, why were we sent there?
Looking back at that time, it becomes too obvious.
1965 was 20 years after WWII. Meaning the WWII parents had a new batch of kill babies. And 500,000 of those kids – mal nourished and uneducated in the ways of understanding bio social warfare – were placed into a world for sometimes a year or more.
This also meant America had 500,000 women not there with their counterparts. Women were used by the system and mentally built to offer themselves to the anti-war upper crust instead of to the soldiers who weren’t available for the new generation of babies.
So, by the time the boys got back from Nam, the pretty girls were gone and the less than attractive ones were left.
Ah, I’m kidding.
While it is true that the new batch of baby boomers did feed the military new male bodies, the real reason why we went to war was because some of us were lured into it via the attractive educational package.
Why?
Because the first wave of baby boomers was pretty much silver spooned and the ones arriving late for that party had no choice but to join the military.
My sister has to Master Degrees. Bought and paid for by my parents and relatives. Us boys go $500 and told there’s the door. She was born in 1945.
But that attraction was a diversion from the real issue: The lack of family planning.
Truth is, parents of Vietnam veterans were spoiled rotten brats who only looked out for themselves. They purchased a house for less than $500 down and paid $50/month mortgage payments.
Myths from a foreign soil:
I think the person who came up with the phrase “War is hell” could not have possibly been in the shoes of an enlisted man. Good angels would have worshiped the devil if they had to choice between that and existing in them for one day.
Vietnam is a very beautiful country. There’s no doubt about that. The problem was, the American fighting machine was using technology against a enemy with the home court advantage. This enemy used timers on their rockets and was gone by the time they went off. This enemy could shoot arrows at our helicopters and bring them down. This enemy could be so high off of Opium that he would still kill you dead with himself being half alive.
No, this wasn’t a war about good and evil or about social upward mobility for the rich, it was an oxymoron war scribed by rule book idiots wanting to pin the medal of honor on the next Audi Murphy’s dead carcass. The ones like me who should have been the public heroes, went home alive, physically intact and our brains still working.
Overview:
Thanks to the press, what most people remember about Vietnam are the pictures of the infantry soldiers. Many of the images were gruesome reminders that my fellow American Vietnam veterans were badly shot up or placed into body bags.
But there were other photographs of the war very few people saw.
Indeed, some that were never taken at all – perhaps should have been – of the real war between the old school military known as the Brown Shoe Army and the new, younger generation that wasn’t really as eager to simply take a bullet for the glory of a commander’s career progression.
To further complicate things, there was no such thing as a true front line. Meaning the enemy could be as close as the outside parameter of the camp or base. Indeed, the enemy was even inside the boundaries of the camp or base.
Spice this up with Vietnam Marijuana, plenty of US Beer and the insecurity of never knowing when the enemy would attack your camp or base with incoming, well, you have a recipe for a very quick ending to your life.
The war within the war:
The Brown Shoe Army – aka lifers -- concocted a few demurring games of their own. The penalty for not having clean and pressed fatigues and spit shined boots – yes, in a war zone – netted you the most undignified duty of having to either assist or guard over the people who burned human waste every day.
Our generation fought back by “fragging” First Sergeants or simply shooting an officer at the appropriate time in the head.
In-other-words, rule book got thrown out the window.
Looking back at those who served, the blacks had their own hooch not because whites wanted it that way but because the black wanted it that way. The North was against the South. Everyone had a state label. And all of us who just arrived were called “Cherries”.
Weather Conditions:
The fall months of later September, October and November were classified as the monsoon season. December, January and February were cooler with less rainy. March was windy and April through August was just plain hot and muggy.
Terrain:
Vietnam is a very beautiful country with ample hills and mountains and wild foliage. There are many places where is no foliage that is natural and full of rice paddies and water buffalo – which hated Americans and would attack us. Some foliage was destroyed thanks to spraying of Agent Orange. That stuff smelled like fresh apricots and Marijuana.
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