Do you remember Vietnam on TV?

[MaryL]

My brother was in Vietnam. He was in the Navy, he loaded bombs on airplanes. Two of his friends that I knew, they were in the Army and they lost their lives in Vietnam. I vaguely remember them, and their loss was one part of my memory of the war. To be honest, what I remember about media coverage during the war is blurred by time and by the plethora of images I saw after the war ended. I do remember seeing LBJ addressing congress about the war on NBC in black and white, probably about 1965 that made me feel how solemn and how much the war in indo china affected the adults around me. That feeling stuck with me. That is the impact the media had on me.

 

[usmcstinger]

I was too busy fighting it in 67-68. No TV crews had the balls to cover us. We were in Northeastern I Corps, fighting a conventional war against the North Vietnamese Army. They had artillery inside the DMZ that could reach most of the area. At times USMC Photographers and writers came around. I never saw them. However, I found an Official USMC Picture of the 2nd Plt. C Co.1st Bn 4th Marines taken from behind us( It was impossible to identify any faces) during Operation Hickory II. A minute or two after this picture was taken, the Tank behind us hit a large explosive device killing one and wounding a few members of my Platoon.
http://www.marines.mil/Portals/59/P... North Vietnamese 1967 PCN 19000309000_3.pdf
page 126

 

[Warrior102]

Yes, I remember it well.

I also remember thinking that there is no way in hell that I'm going over there to risk my life for no good reason.

You didn't join until 75 assfuck - thereabouts - and you weren't you Deep Freeze/Antarctica?
That's a long way from Nam, numb nuts.
Perhaps you and Bodey were on the same C130

 

[konradv]

When I think about Viet Nam these are the images that come to mind.



Click picture for larger version.

 

[konradv]

does snopes have some type of certificate that puts them above spiining the truth?

They can read Giap's biography. Have you? There's no room for spin. He either said it or he didn't. I'll take their word for it, unless you can prove otherwise. They have a reputation for tackling at all sorts of topics on an evenhanded basis. The reports that Giap said what was mentioned above, don't come from nearly as reputable sources. However,the only source that really counts is Giap. Give us a page citation, if you've got it. From my experience you're just parroting what you've heard and haven't bothered to check it out.

sounds to me like you lack experience

Sounds to me like you don't want to face the truth.

 

[chikenwing]

Sure do

 

[Mr Natural]

Yes, I remember it well.

I also remember thinking that there is no way in hell that I'm going over there to risk my life for no good reason.

You didn't join until 75 assfuck - thereabouts - and you weren't you Deep Freeze/Antarctica?
That's a long way from Nam, numb nuts.
Perhaps you and Bodey were on the same C130

Wrong again and perhaps you should go **** yourself, asshole.

 

[midcan5]

I remember later on Nixon having a plan, the many protests, the Kent state shootings, and lots of mixed TV coverage. We were always winning, then losing, then winning, same BS, another time. Friends wrote and sent me Polaroids I still have of their Nam exploits, screwed up some of them, others survived well in and out of the military. I served 67 to 69 and even though I volunteered for Nam ended up in another remote but safer place. (I stupidly (?) wanted to form my own opinion) Before the service we all waited for the draft paper, teenage boys then didn't watch the news and those who tell you Cronkite lied are repeating the nonsense of revisionists ideologues, mostly chickenhawks. We called them draft dodgers, but lots were draft dodgers then. Cars and girls, ain't that what life's about for teenage boys - American Graffiti. Country Joe and the Fish was often played in our barracks but we were the lucky ones. 'Be the first one on your block to have your boy come home in a box.' A few of my HS buddies did. Check youtube or PBS documentary below. I find it kinda funny when I read the revisionist nonsense of the right, we were young dumb and full of ... and ready to do our duty as Americans - that the place was a corrupt hell hole only some people like an Eisenhower or others who served knew. The rest live in Rambo fantasyland even today. Everyone can be brave from their couch.

American Experience | PBS | Vietnam Online

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wgUFXsxtyQ]The Hidden War In Vietnam - The Big Picture - YouTube[/ame]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMLKEZhkeMI]Viet Nam Vet, SF Medal of Honor recipient on CBS Evening News with Katie Couric 25 March 2009 - YouTube[/ame]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1x-koSIGEkQ]Battle of Long Tan ABC TV - 17 Aug 2006 - Vietnam War - YouTube[/ame]

 

[uscitizen]

I was too busy fighting it in 67-68. No TV crews had the balls to cover us. We were in Northeastern I Corps, fighting a conventional war against the North Vietnamese Army. They had artillery inside the DMZ that could reach most of the area. At times USMC Photographers and writers came around. I never saw them. However, I found an Official USMC Picture of the 2nd Plt. C Co.1st Bn 4th Marines taken from behind us( It was impossible to identify any faces) during Operation Hickory II. A minute or two after this picture was taken, the Tank behind us hit a large explosive device killing one and wounding a few members of my Platoon.

yeah it sucks when a bunch of people are trying to kill ys doesn't it?

A fair bit of my time in Nam was not actually in Nam...
But we all know that did not happen

 

[Rossuk]

Hi Everyone

Thanks for all your comment’s I really appreciate it! There are some really powerful comments in this forum. It’s really interesting to see that people remember the TV footage from such a long time ago.

I was wondering if anyone thinks there will be a turning point in America when Vietnam will be remembered more as a country as apposed to war?

Given the fact that if you type the word - 'Vietnam' into YouTube the first results are war footage.

 

[Rossuk]

Hi Konradv

Do you think these images distort your memory of what happened?

Thanks Ross

 

[Rossuk]

Hi Midcan5

Thanks for your comment and clips they are really interesting!
Now that the Rambo movies ect have all become part of the past do you think peoples perception of the war will start to change through youtube ect? How do you think future generations in the Western world should remember Vietnam?

 

[Moonglow]

Most here in the US see Nam as a history lesson, one that is being repeated in Afghanistan.
Images affecting memory? Well of course there is some since memory fades and audio/visual recordings don't. Nam was the first war that a minority group was able to pressure politicians into a policy change of great magnitude and defeat the industrial complex and the never ending war for industry.

 

[Sunni Man]

I had received my draft notice a couple of weeks earlier, and was to be conscripted into the Army the morning of April 1, 1970 at the local induction station.

So I stayed up all night and partied with my friends.

During the party at my friends house a guy that I knew from high school showed up. I hadn't seen him for 2 or 3 years. He was older than me and had been a jock at the school. He was always clean cut with a flat top hair cut and was a star football player.

I was a long haired hippie looking guy with a tie dyed shirt. As I sat there smoking some weed he sat down beside me and said hello. I was surprised when he reached over and took the joint out of my hand and took a big hit. He told me that he had gotten out of the Army that day and had been in Vietnam.

I told him that I was being inducted into the Army in a few hours.

He shook his head, and said that if he had to do it all over again. He would go to Canada to avoid being drafted and going to Nam.

That was the minute I started realize that my world was about to change...........

 

[Moonglow]

My Dad was drafted served his two years,1960-1962, got bored with civilian life a volunteered, he spent 7 years in Nam and loved it, he finally retired in 1986 when they forced him out.

 

[konradv]

Hi Konradv

Do you think these images distort your memory of what happened?

Thanks Ross

Not really sure what you mean. The first reminds me of what I wanted accomplished by my opposition to the war, getting the guys home in one piece. The second reminds me that it was a civil war that we shouldn't have gotten into in the first place. The last reminds me that in war, it's often the innocents that suffer the most.

I can remember watching it on the news every night for years and years. Maybe those stories have mixed in with the stills to distort my memory, but I don't think it's changed how I feel about any of it.

 

[Ernie S.]

Hi Everyone

Thanks for all your comment’s I really appreciate it! There are some really powerful comments in this forum. It’s really interesting to see that people remember the TV footage from such a long time ago.

I was wondering if anyone thinks there will be a turning point in America when Vietnam will be remembered more as a country as apposed to war?

Given the fact that if you type the word - 'Vietnam' into YouTube the first results are war footage.

Maybe another 20 years or so. When I was a kid, Japan and Germany were still the enemy and were inhabited by Japs and Krauts. 20 years later during Viet Nam, Koreans were still Gooks, but Japan and Germany were allies and trading partners.

 

[konradv]

Hi Everyone

Thanks for all your comment’s I really appreciate it! There are some really powerful comments in this forum. It’s really interesting to see that people remember the TV footage from such a long time ago.

I was wondering if anyone thinks there will be a turning point in America when Vietnam will be remembered more as a country as apposed to war?

Given the fact that if you type the word - 'Vietnam' into YouTube the first results are war footage.

Maybe another 20 years or so. When I was a kid, Japan and Germany were still the enemy and were inhabited by Japs and Krauts. 20 years later during Viet Nam, Koreans were still Gooks, but Japan and Germany were allies and trading partners.

When I was growing up "Made in Japan" meant shoddy, cheap goods. Times change.

 

[Spoonman]

I remember later on Nixon having a plan, the many protests, the Kent state shootings, and lots of mixed TV coverage. We were always winning, then losing, then winning, same BS, another time. Friends wrote and sent me Polaroids I still have of their Nam exploits, screwed up some of them, others survived well in and out of the military. I served 67 to 69 and even though I volunteered for Nam ended up in another remote but safer place. (I stupidly (?) wanted to form my own opinion) Before the service we all waited for the draft paper, teenage boys then didn't watch the news and those who tell you Cronkite lied are repeating the nonsense of revisionists ideologues, mostly chickenhawks. We called them draft dodgers, but lots were draft dodgers then. Cars and girls, ain't that what life's about for teenage boys - American Graffiti. Country Joe and the Fish was often played in our barracks but we were the lucky ones. 'Be the first one on your block to have your boy come home in a box.' A few of my HS buddies did. Check youtube or PBS documentary below. I find it kinda funny when I read the revisionist nonsense of the right, we were young dumb and full of ... and ready to do our duty as Americans - that the place was a corrupt hell hole only some people like an Eisenhower or others who served knew. The rest live in Rambo fantasyland even today. Everyone can be brave from their couch.

American Experience | PBS | Vietnam Online

The Hidden War In Vietnam - The Big Picture - YouTube

Viet Nam Vet, SF Medal of Honor recipient on CBS Evening News with Katie Couric 25 March 2009 - YouTube

Battle of Long Tan ABC TV - 17 Aug 2006 - Vietnam War - YouTube

now if the liberal kennedy hadn't started the war and the liberal johnson escalated it, we wouldn't have had this mess.

 

[JakeStarkey]

In fact, after France fell at Dien Bien Phu, Eisenhower picked up the military training and supplies side of propping up a pro-West government under the Diems. The pragmatic Cold Warrior, Kennedy, increased that assistance, supported the development of Spec Ops, and widened the American involvement. An aside: I find that Nixon's and Obama's involvements in Vietnam and Afghanistan parallel in several ways.

Our neo-cons cannot get it into their heads that we can change another country without massive treasure and manpower involved and with the aid of significant allies.