The Vietnam War (Part 2) - Things I Care About Reaction
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- Опубликовано: 22 май 2024
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When he talked about the My Lai massacre he should’ve mentioned Hugh Thompson, who landed his helicopter and confronted William Calley about the dead civilians he had just flown over. When Calley threatened him and told him to mind his own business, Thompson got back in his helo and spotted a group of civilians being chased by some of Calley’s men. He flew between the soldiers and the civilians and set his helicopter down. He warned the soldiers to leave them be and ordered his machine gunner to open fire on the soldiers if they did not stop.
We shouldn’t forget his courage risking his life to stop an atrocity.
Heard about that in a very good documentary about the event
@@luisf2793 I’m guessing the Ken Burns documentary? That’s where I first heard of it as well.
what a chad
Do you know what the worst part about the story of Henry Kissinger getting a Nobel peace prize is some of the committee members actually resigned in protest and he actually tried to return the metal back
Funniest thing is that Kissinger himself was confused as to why they were giving him it lmao, idk what they were thinking.
The peace prize is the most broken prize.
Nobel is worthless now. They just give it to political figures who don’t deserve it.
Another interesting fact is that Le Duc Tho, who negotiated with Kissinger also got the Nobel peace prize. However, he refused to receive the prize because he thought Vietnam was not at peace yet (still separated).
@@Duy23803 nice to know he had the decency to say no to an obvious issue
Never been to Vietnam but I know people who have. They say there's generally a "reconciliationist" mindset there, with both Vietnamese and American tourists usually getting along quite well.
I once was seated in my high school auditorium listening to a veteran speaking about his time in Vietnam. He said he went back to Vietnam in 2014 and there he met a veteran from the Viet Cong, both standing by a memorial. They exchanged words, realized they had been on opposite sides, and then just cried together with each other for a bit. Felt incredibly humanizing.
On a funny sidenote, apparently they sometimes call it the "American War" there.
Definitely heard that they refer to it as the American war, which I thought was kind of funny
@@luisf2793 The naming convention here is weird because the Sino-Vietnamese war is usually referred as the Sino-Vietnam border war even though it definitely wasn't just a small border conflict lol. I guess it was small compared relative to the US or French.
@@luisf2793Weird since the Soviets and Chinese were active participants in it too.
@@richardarriaga6271 So the US is an active participant in the Ukraine War at the moment?
@@richardarriaga6271 The Chinese invasion of Vietnam?
As an Indian, I had been studying the Vietnam War since long and I can certainly say that his opinions are a little skewed towards the Americans being the obvious bad guys however Vietcong also committed enough atrocities. However anyone can easily infer that Ho Chi Minh is as moderate a communist as anyone could get when we had radicals leaders like Mao and Castro that time. He would loved to have cordial relations with USA however the USA got too far fighting communism like it being an evil ideology.
May i ask what sort of atrocities did the Vietcong commit?
Correct. Ho chi mein was nationalist more as a priority then a communist.
@distractible8021 they kidnapped and murdered women and children in massive numbers. Le Ly Hayslip personally was brutalized by both sides of the conflict. She was important on building bridges after the war. Her memoir "when heaven and earth changed places" is a very good book. Oliver stone made her memoir into a movie called Heaven and Earth. The second part to her memoir is "child of war, woman of peace". Both sides of that conflict had appauling actions.
@@distractible8021Her ngo East meets West is a very good charitable organization.
@@rythania7686 only thing is us actions where many times that of the north,
My Dad and I visited the Baseball HOF 6 years ago, and every inductee that served in WW1 and WW2 has a small badge underneath their plaque to show their service. My Dad asked one of the volunteers at the hall why there were no badges for anyone who had served in Vietnam (we are Scottish, so don't know if any Vietnam vets have ever been inducted). The volunteer said "give me a moment", fetched a second volunteer, then returned and asked my Dad to repeat his question. The second volunteer immediately asked to shake my Dad's hand and thanked him for his question. He said he had served in Vietnam and they had received nothing but scorn and abuse on their return from serving as a result of their government's decisions. I'll remember that exchange for the rest of my days. A lot of these guys went through hell and were treated like pariahs for serving in a place where none of them wanted to go, and didn't get the help they needed as a result of their government and presidents letting them down when they got home.
My brothers and I were slightly too young to be drafted, but we all agreed that we would go if drafted, the reason being that they would just grab some other guy who might have had to pay the price that was our due while we fled. We thought the "so-called" Americans at the airport crapping on their own soldiers was disgusting! The vets I knew were advised to NOT wear their uniforms while travelling within the states.
THIS! You can bad mouth a war, but you better not bad mouth the brave people who fought for their country who had 0 say in how or why that war was fought!
I'm sorry. I lived through the era and knew both many vets and anti-war activists. None of this kind of abuse happened. It was a later story invented for some political reason. Some sympathy-seeking people will pretend it happened to them, even if it didn't.
Awesome story!
There were two members of the Pro Football HOF who did serve in Vietnam: Roger Staubauch and Charlie Joiner.
There's a massive billboard right off the Interstate where it leads into a town north of where I live. The billboard has said "Vietnam Vets: WELCOME HOME!" since the US withdrawal. Over the years people have actually tried to (and sometimes did) vandalize it, but every time its restored to proper form and for some time now been left alone. That's genuinely all I know about it, but every time we go on a drive up North we pass by it.
...My grandfather served in Vietnam as a Marine, became a long-distance trucker after the war and was almost never home. My father barely interacted with him, and I myself can count on two hands the amount of times he was around to talk.
When he does talk, it's short sentences and oppressive stoicism. Like you almost feel bad talking to him, like you'd be better off leaving him alone. As my grandmother's health has worsened he gave up long-distance trucking and I think is now retired? And I know almost nothing about him. And even my DAD knows almost nothing about him, despite my dad now being 51.
Perhaps you should try to get back in contact with him and ask his perspective on the War. The amount of people who lived through it is dwindling fast, they’re essential the new “WW2 Vets”.
The Vietnam vets have my utmost respect(in general...not condoning war crimes) in that they soon found out they weren't fighting a war to overthrow Hitler or defeat the Japanese, they were fighting a war with one hand tied behind their back and they STILL put their life on the line!
My father was a teenage infantry soldier in Vietnam, and he spoke more about the war the last few years of his life when my now husband who is an Iraq war veteran was around than the thirty plus years before that. My uncle who was a Vietnam era Marine, as far as I know, only ever spoke about the war with my father because they were both there. I know stories from my grandfather who served during the second World War, but not the Vietnam guys. They just don't want to talk about it because of the reception they got when they got back.
I use to be pro-Vietnam war till I watched the Ken Burns documentary on the conflict. Highly recommend anyone interested in this war to view it. It does a great job presenting POVs from American/Vietnamese soldiers, politicians, and anti-war protestors. Also displaying how we were involved in the region since the 40s. The fact that Ho Chi Minh’s Independence speech in ‘45 makes a reference to our own Declaration of Independence goes to show how much of wasted opportunity and tragic this whole conflict was. Finding out the we knew the war was lost by ‘65 but we still continued to send American troops and resources there blew my mind. Here’s to hoping we can learn from the past and assure another Vietnam never happens again.
Nice to see some love for the 2004 _The Alamo,_ I thought it was criminally underrated, and over-hated by critics.
Agree completely. I thought it was good. WAY more accurate than the John Wayne version.
Did it age well? Sometimes critics crush things in the moment, and then over time rate them higher.
"Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?"
27:51 Tin soldiers and Nixon coming, we're finally on our own. This summer I hear the drumming, Four dead in Ohio. -Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (1970)
36:48 War, huh. Yeah, what it is good for? Absolutely nothing. Say it again, y'all. Good god y'all. -Edwin Starr (1970)
I used to think the whole anti war thing was against a republican prez...it wasn't until later I discovered it really ramped up under two democrat presidents and it was Nixon who saw the writing on the wall and cut our losses.
In the end it was Vietnam that ousted the Khmere rouge in Cambodia.
How ironic. Also crazy how short their reign of terror lasted but how many died under it.
Been to Vietnam twice with the navy. I cant remember the first place, but it was a lot like most of South East Asia, farming and towns intermixed. Buildings and such were fine, but basic. Helped paint a school and saw the biggest spider I've ever seen.
In 2015 I went to Da Nang, and it was super westernized. Extravagent shopping plazas and coffee shops and the like. Our boat to go from the ship to shore was a party boat with booze and such. They have a theme park, and you have to go on the worlds longest cable car ride to get to it up in the mountains. It was still very much culterally Vietnam though. Vendors and people selling pho on the streets like we have hot dog carts. I went on one tour to a holy site, and the alcoves would have swastikas, and the guide obviously told us its history, but the tone of his voice was pleading about how this was their culture long before nazis, and it made me sad.
They seem to have some capitalist tendancies, cuz there were casinos, and there were Bars and Businesses owned by expats. USD was a main currency as it is in so many places, or was, China has been pushing in hard economically lately so idk if it still holds true.
Also went to Cambodia, it was a little less western, even in the capital. They used USD too, and when our ship visited the embassy told us we were spending too much and could cause inflation. Mind you, this was stuff like hiring a Tuk Tuk(moped taxi) for exclusive service for $20 a day, which wasn't much for us. The killing fields were somber. I've been to Dachau and it is,,, idk a proper word, crazy(?), how a simple killing tree could be as grief giving as a gas chamber.
I know your specialty is WW1 so you visit Europe a lot. But give that part of the world a shot, there is lots of history and culture to partake in. It definitely gave me an appreciation and humility that I wouldn't have if I never went.
I remember during my first years of Uni, one of the professors, who was a Vietnam war vet, that used to teach said something like this. "At some point we suspected some of the South Vietnam Soldiers as Vietcong, so we basically fighting a losing war between 2 nations. It sucked fighting in South Vietnam because we had no clue who was the enemy or the ally"
"The question used to be: might it be possible that we were on the wrong side in the Vietnamese War? But, we weren't on the wrong side. We are the wrong side."
-Daniel Ellsberg
Right, and you were effectively always on defense. It's like if you have ants in your house and your only allowed to kill the once they enter your house and not attack the source.
I think LBJ thought we would just exhaust the North where they would stop fighting.
Vietnam is why America is very strategic about where boots on the ground military operations are used. We'll send weapons and conduct air ops, but boots on the ground is jumping in with both feet.
A point he doesn’t touch on that I was surprised about: Vietnam were the ones who put Pol Pot down.
Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia were put under economic embargo by the western world right after all this destruction, this also contribuited to the slow recovery of the region
My grandfather was a pow for five years. When the south fell many of the south Vietnam forces try to get leave or hide. Only a terrible war torn nation remained.
Considering how relations with Vietnam have improved and how the image of Vietnam has improved in the last few decades, it is a fascinating "what if" question for what if Truman had let go of the Communism issue and sided with the Vietnamese over the French... or if it had been FDR's call. You could imagine that if the US had been less militant about Communism, they could've put a condition that a self-governed Vietnam needed to be a multi-party state
Mind you, US actions in Central and South America might also teach us about how much of a fantasy that concept is.
The threat of communism spreading was real back then. Truman was pressured by the French to assist them or else face the possibility of France joining the USSR. He was really put between a rock and a hard place.
France would have never joined the USSR lol
@@patrickthomas8890 That was simply a bad bluff, the US knew that France would never join the Warsaw pact, at worst they would leave NATO then rejoin later, the main reason was because of the domino theory.
@@patrickthomas8890 the French are masters of playing a weak hand well.
@@coconut7490They did officially leave NATO for a while. DeGualle was a real sore loser about losing most of the French empire.
I was in Vietnam on Dec 2019 (Yes, right before COVID) for a month to visit family. Saigon is flushed with foreign investment (mostly Japan and China) and huge sky-scrapers (like the Saigon 1 tower) being built like crazy (lots of high rise condos, my aunt owns one and it is just like a condo in the US or Canada). I went to see Rise of Skywalker with my cousins at a huge air conditioned cineplex.
However, once you leave for the villages in the interior regions of Vietnam, everything is as it always was, people farming on rice paddies, living in thatch houses.
VTH, my girlfriend of 5 years is a Viet-American. Since we have been (living) together for so long, naturally it was time for me to meet the extended family. I have been all over Vietnam from Saigon, to Hue, to Ha Noi. I can not express to you the beauty and majesty in places like Ha Long bay, as well as the old Imperial capital in Hue. The people I met and interacted with were utterly wonderful (Although most were my family-in-law essentially). The food is unbelievably fresh and normally locally sourced. What. A. Wonderful. Place. As a fellow history nerd I think you would LOVE Viet Nam. But it could be a country very hard to traverse without a trusted guide. EVERYONE is peddling something, and white skin is the same as a dollar sign in some places. For example, I would spot something I really liked at a market and I would have to hide around a corner while my in-laws negotiated for me sometimes landing a price 8 TIMES cheaper than the one they had given me :/. English is increasingly more common but still more rare than it would be in, say, Europe for example. But VTH, it was the single most incredible experience I've ever had in my life. The War Remnants Museum (formerly the Museum of American War Crimes) in 𝘚𝘢𝘪𝘨𝘰𝘯 (aka Ho Chi Minh city) is an incredibly interesting perspective on the whole of the war, and only costs a dollar or two to visit. That place and Viet Nam as a whole has changed my life in a lot of ways, from the way I view the US, from the food I eat, to the way I view history and government, to the way I understand subtle differences in lifestyle and culture all over the world. I can not recommend visiting Viet Nam enough. But I was not trying to figure out where my next hotel would be, I was living with people who resided in Viet Nam everyday and understood its dangers, its nuances, it cuisine, the lifestyle, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯, etc. So do your research and you be the judge on whether or not it is somewhere you'd like to visit. But personally I LOVE VIET NAM and would love to see a future video of you walking down the streets of Saigon taking it all in, sipping on some sugar cane juice or some Cà Phê Bạc Xỉu. You're amazing btw, much love from Michigan.
"Be happy to trade you some ARVN rifles - never fired and only dropped once"
23:11 He's forcing him to watch twilight, Horrific
You know who else's father was an admiral in Vietnam? Admiral George Morrison, the father of Jim Morrison of The Doors.
Crazy. I did not know that. Apparently he was present for the attack on Pearl Harbor.
@@VloggingThroughHistory Yeah he was fresh out of the naval academy. Probably thought he got a cherry posting in Hawaii....
WOW. That's cool. He broke on through to the other side.
Chris, as you have expressed an interest in what Vietnam is like today, I would like to give my perspective as a South Vietnamese born in 2002. As with any country, Vietnam has its own problem such as corruption, pollution (due to high traffic density),…etc. But things have greatly improved the past 20 years. Vietnamese now enjoyed cheap/affordable education, healthcare, basic living necessities and there is 90% home ownership rate, homelessness is incredibly rare and any homeless person is provided with safe shelter or home by the government. Funny thing is there have been an increasing number of US veterans who decided to retire in Vietnam for cheap living costs and healthcare. For all the anti-communist propaganda that had been pushed against Vietnam, the political system here is more stable than the Western liberal democracies as things are done more efficiently and local politicians and businessmen (especially billionaires) are held accountable if they commit corruption and usually severely punished with life sentence or death penalty. The people are very friendly and warm to foreigners and the young generation here is very vibrant and open-minded, the Vietnamese internet culture in particular is very unique and we have a very strong meme culture here :)). The only complaints that I have like many people is the government censorship but considering the circus that is the political discourse in US, I don’t mind the “lack” of freedom of speech here as ordinary people have far more things to worry about than the vague concept of freedom. Overall, things have improved for the vast majority of the Vietnamese and I, as someone who have witness the massive rise in living standards of my people, believe that despite the tragedy of the war, unification was the best thing that happened. I would like to recommend you to visit my hometown in Bình Dương or Hồ Chí Minh City (locals still call it Sài Gòn) if you ever consider a vacation during summer or autumn. The same thing goes for Hà Nội, the Vietnamese have forgiven and moved on and is more than willing to offer their friendship to Americans, as long as Americans could extend the same courtesy and understand us regardless of your politics.
Thank you for sharing your experience!
I am also a Vietnamese who happen to be a bit older, I guess. I am not sure about the "more stable than Western liberal democracies" part. Sure in Vietnam people don't see politicians dragging their heels on policies or filibusting due to their party affiliation, because there is only one party (the Communist Party of Vietnam) that operates under the principle of "democratic centralism". But that also means that the decision-making often lies in one and one only guy at the very top (say, the party chief secretary of the province, when deciding the annual budget). That is not to say there is no inner-party debate, or factionalism within the Party, but these things are often court intrigue that the normal folk won't be aware of, won't have a say in, then turn out to not care about anymore - until it all blows into their faces.
Perhaps Rosa Luxemburg puts it best: "Without general elections, without unrestricted freedom of press and assembly, without a free struggle of opinion, life dies out in every public institution, becomes a mere semblance of life, in which only the bureaucracy remains as the active element. Public life gradually falls asleep, a few dozen party leaders of inexhaustible energy and boundless experience direct and rule. Among them, in reality only a dozen outstanding heads do the leading and an elite of the working class is invited from time to time to meetings where they are to applaud the speeches of the leaders, and to approve proposed resolutions unanimously - at bottom, then, a clique affair - a dictatorship, to be sure, not the dictatorship of the proletariat but only the dictatorship of a handful of politicians, that is a dictatorship in the bourgeois sense"
Vietnam after adopting market economy are facing the same problems that other (capitalistic) developing nations also have. Industrialization means less land for individual farmers, which lead to surplus labour for industry or/and more employment while corporations (state-led, private, a mix of both) hoard land for whatever projects that they do. Meanwhile, an increasing urban middle-class often means the economy is going quite well and there's space for development, but infrastructure and service has not yet caught up to demand, while the cost of living is increasing significantly. Governance overall is still a bureaucratic mess. Corruption is still rampant even at the local level. They are real and perhaps integral to the communist system. I am under no illusion that South Vietnam is superior - in fact, they also had the same problem, and look where they are now.
Then there's the fact that China is being a complete jerk to Vietnam, and its' territory, and basically has for most of the past 40 years. So much so that between the two options, Vietnam would rather be allies with the former enemy that once fought them for a decade, and killed millions of their citizens, than be forced to be subservient to China.
@@therockbatHello, I greatly appreciate your view on our country’s current politics. Comparatively, Vietnam’s one party state is more stable than the West. But that is not to say that there is no drama or factional fighting within the Party. Like Luxemburg pointed out, without freedom of press or speech to keep the bureaucracy in check, power becomes concentrated in the hands of a small circle of elites to point where the party would just resemble the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. Although the economy has grown significantly with the presence of market economy, the government is at risk of being infiltrated by corrupted officials. When Vietnam adopted certain elements of capitalism, it faced the same issue in Western politics such as lobbying by interest groups. While the South has gone a long way from the chaos of the war, I do agree with you that there’s much to be done. There needs to be a greater political discourse in the public and people should be encouraged to speak their mind to provide constructive criticism and feedback without fear of censorship and the party needs to crack down on itself (be merciless on corruption) if Vietnam wants to catch up in the near future. Our country has so much potential.
Was absolutely shocked not that long ago when Kissinger died, a lot of people still praised him. Absolutly a warcriminal in my eyes as a compatriot and the whole continent of Asia and South America would say the same. A pinnacle of western hybris and contempt still in place today.
Just started RUclips seconds after the video went online :D Felt like I should probably leave a comment, since I already enjoy your videos for some time now and really appreciate the information and context you provide.
Greetings from Germany 😄
Edit: As a German living in the Rhineland and working in the Ruhr area I can confirm the number of bombs still found basically every couple of days. This actually still has a huge impact, often shutting down the city centers for some hours completely
35:10 "most were left behind". Afghanistan, anyone? Borrowing Reagan's famous phrase for the 9 most frightening words: "we're from America, and we're here to help".
Hey Chris, big probs to you! As a german I really know how it feels to learn about the atrocities your country did in the past. And I know, it's by far not comparable, theres nothing in known history that comes at least close to the horrors of the Shoa! But by learning about our past, as good or bad as it might have been, and never forgetting about it is how we have at least a chance to not repeat it!
edit: some important typos
And 1000 germans never came back from Dien Bien Phu...
@@antoinedoyen7452 Dude, I don't know and that really wasn't the point of my comment. But yeah, those deaths are a tragedy. As the deaths of countless Vietnamese and Americans is!
@@ornot_toby it was not your point. But my father was a young lieutenant during the Indochina War...and your message reminded me that he had met many Alsacians and Germans who were on the russian front...Just a thought for them.
@@antoinedoyen7452 Oh, then please excuse my maybe a bit harsh answer! Unfortunately we have a rise of far right parties in Europe and you're comment read a bit apologetic to german involvement in wars. Please excuse me for my tone! Giving a toast for your dad now :)
Have been listening to Ken burns audiobook on the vietnam war. Highly recommend it to anyone who wants to get more details about the whole war. The book basically starts when France first comes to Vietnam.
I’m so happy you’re back in my rotation. I don’t understand why RUclips kicks me out of channels I engage with every now and then.
Guys armchair historian also has a Vietnam war video and has other videos about it on his subscription service
I’ve always felt like the movie Hamburger Hill is the best representation of the Vietnam war in a film. Colossal waste of life to defeat an enemy that just comes back after you leave.
I've been to Cambodia and seen Angkor Wat. The people were very friendly and Angkor Wat was incredible.
My grandpa was at Kent state. It was his first semester after transferring from Ohio University. He was walking back from a class and stopped to watch but 5 minutes before the shooting he decided to go inside to eat because he was hungry. And he was watching out the window and was making fun of everyone when they dived for cover because he thought they were firing blanks.
Please keep up the great work Chris. I used to think of myself as a bit of a history know it all. But I’ve learned so much from your channels in the past couple of months that I am humbled. I’m 60 and look forward to learning so much more! Thank you
my grandfather served in vietnam. in the last few years he had a brief stint of prostate cancer that was linked to coming in contact with Agent Orange. he's fine now :). his father also fought in WW2 in Papua New Guinea
Glad he's ok.
Knowledge time!
Went to Vietnam about 20 years ago as a tourist (I'm a New Zealand citizen). I loved it, some of the nicest people I have every met (Cambodian people are as well). That being said, some of the older people (who would have been alive during the war) gave us a bit of a "stink eye" when they saw us. Interestingly once they found out we weren't Americans they lightened up a bit (despite the fact that NZ did also take part, albeit a much smaller part).
Was interesting because my uncle served in Vietnam during the war (NZ army) and just couldn't fathom why anyone would ever want to go there for a holiday. He had PTSD from his experiences there.
12:30 They should also be allowed to order a beer.
12:12 there's a song about that "Barry McGuire - Eve Of Destruction"
Hey, Im a native Vietnamese from the South. In general, life is pretty good here. Of course, I live in the city so everything here tends to be better than the countryside.And in terms of politics, why there is a lot of political messaging, in general, the government does not interfere too much with things from my experience (unless you try to open a business)
Love your channel. I took a history of the Vietnam war in college, great class. The war was one that is not really taught in high school, but should be due to the politics of that war and the mess it became.
Thanks for the great content and videos you do.
Thank you! excellent podcast. Great content!
This was an eye-opening couple of videos for me. Both of my older brothers and several of my cousins were in Vietnam. I was somewhere around 9, 10 or 11 years old when they were there. The few times they talked about it, their stories were horrifying. The only person they would really talk about it with was our Dad who landed on Leyte & Okinawa during WWII. Until the day he died there were things from WWII that haunted him. One of my brothers was a medic and there was a small village near their unit. They would go over and treat the residents and he got close to a little brother & sister, 4 & 6, while he was there. One night they heard the village being attacked by the Viet Cong. The next day they went to the village and everyone was dead. He was the one who found the two kids. He is 80 years old and the memory still haunts him and he was one of the lucky ones who got some counselling for their PTSD although years later.
All of that to say that war is truly atrocious, at the time and for all of the people involved on both sides for the rest of their lives. I knew Vietnam was a tragedy and could have been prevented if our politicians had been even slightly ethical. If it is possible to hate Nixon and Kissinger more than I did, I now do. I did not know about their deliberate efforts to prolong the war and I did not realize the extent of the Cambodia bombing campaign.
The lack of commentary on how the US government hamstringed the military with ridiculous rules and restrictions was a bit disappointing. Keep in mind also, this is one of the first modern wars where both armies weren't uniformed. VC looking like villagers was a violation of Genova Convention. But that's also the thing, VC where not obligated by the Genova Convention, the US military is still to this day under the Genova Convention. Which is basically like one guy following "rules" in a street fight but the other guy is just fighting to win by any means they deem necessary. This war also highlighted civilian casualties, which has been a product of war since the beginning of wars. I don't know if the history books ever got updated but my old history books called Vietnam a "police action"
Korea was referred to as a police action. I’ve never come across Vietnam being called that.
Well said. You can't win a war where you can't kill the source. It's like trying to stop ants by only killing the ones in your house.
One of my mother's cousins actually fought in Vietnam and he was lucky to get wounded because right afterward his unit was affected by Agent Orange and got cancer. He's also been an anti-war protester ever since.
The final american evacuation and the war's conclusion sounded way too similiar to the 2021 US evacuation from Afghanistan
Some similarities but many differences. Vietnam was never really America's war in one sense. We were just trying to stop the spread of communism and picked this country to do it in.
Afghanistan had been winding down for quite a while but it was completely bungled by Biden. That doesn't mean we should have stayed there forever as eventually we have to let a country decide it's own fate, but it seems like everyone agrees how we left was mindblowingly wrong.
@@mattm7798bạn sai rồi
Nếu mỹ không đưa quân và các nước đồng minh qua Việt Nam thì như bạn bình luận
Nhưng đáng tiếc là mỹ đưa quân và các đồng minh của họ qua Việt Nam để chiến đấu
Thì đó lại là điều khác hoàn toàn
Còn cái gì mà chống chế độ cộng sản thì nó chỉ là cái cớ
@@mattm7798how sweet of usa to stop the spread of communism by invading and setting up puppet govt. T
It was for the people of vietnam to decide what gobt they wanted not imperial usa
I have not personally gone to Vietnam but would like to. I do have a friend that went on business about 2 years ago and he described it as an incredibly beautiful country, but what set it apart was how welcoming the people are. He said he maybe wasn't the most welcomed he has been in a foreign country, like Ireland or Kosovo, but knowing the history between us he was taken aback and shocked anyone was "happy" to see an American. They are a very proud nation, they are proud they "beat" America and defended their homeland. But think of it like how a fan of Toledo would be if they upset Ohio State. They would be proud of the accomplishment but there is no animosity like if Michigan beat Ohio State. He was also shocked by the general admiration of America as an idea there was. To them the American Dream is alive and well and that is what they want and they embody it more so than here. He got the sense that Vietnam views itself like a little brother to America in many ways. My friend loved his time there and it made him feel a certain way he couldn't really describe knowing that wounds from the not too distant past could be healed and we could all get along.
I was in Hanoi for a long weekend last summer and to this day it’s probably my favorite place I’ve visited. There’s so much culture and food, and even nightlife
Another great video to help me get through my shift
Amazing information! I grew up arching Vietnam War documentaries with my brother, and this adds to that knowledge greatly. Thank you!
I was wondering, if in a future segment, you can explore other imprtant 20th century events. Im thinking the Syrum Run in Alaska in 1925, where dog teams transport antotixin to save people in Nome, AK feom dyptheria. That would be an awesome story to investigate!
Just finished teaching English in Buon Ma Thuot for a year. I kind of wish I had done more research of the Vietnam War beforehand.
The people are fantastic and helpful and friendly. They will also definitely overcharge you lol. They love Americans (or they love our money). I definitely experienced no negativity from the war (which would have been deserved because it was horrific).
5:00 very good point!
Hi Chris, if you interested in historical sites of Vietnam war, which we call America war (chiến tranh chống Mỹ), there're plenty locations for you to visit. Cu Chi tunnel - explore how our combatants live and fought underground. Dong Loc T-junction, where you could see a lot of destruction holes when the US air-force try to emilate the supplies from north to south ... And you also could try some local food, we now kinda famous with the cuisine. Welcome to Vietnam !!! ❤
09:09 would you say it's Nguyen Nguyen? 😂 I will see myself out.
What about Huynh Huynh
I hate that heard it as Nguyen Nguyen hahaha
War Never Changes
My dad got drafted to go to Vietnam. He was ready to go, but they didn't take him because he had flat feet. Flat feet didn't stop the Air Force from taking me in the early 90's, lol. I dated a Vietnamese girl in Rapid City for a while. One of my brother in law's friends taught English in Vietnam in the early 2000's. He moved back to the states with his Vietnamese wife after.
My father was born in 1943 Detroit. I have only ever seen him cry once. It was at the Vietnam War memorial in Washington DC.
My dad served in the special canine unit hunting down VietCong units in the jungle.
He’s shared some very interesting, and crazy, stories with us over the years.
His favorite dog was a German Shepherd named “Satan”. My very Catholic, Puerto Rican grandma didn’t care for that but we always thought it was hilarious.
Hey around 30 minutes there is some lagging
18:21 That's what americans say so they can say "we didn't lose the Vietnam war". It's just like the russians saying they left Kiev area as a "gesture of goodwill". The USA left the Vietnam because they were defeated
As a South Vietnamese, I would like to comment on the so called “mass execution” of collaborators after the war. This is a myth. While there was trial and execution of collaborators, that was for the worst offenders, especially those who continued resistance despite call of surrenders, and the policy was supported by South Vietnamese whose relatives were imprisoned and murdered by the old regime. Most collaborators were sent to re-education camps and this also extend to petty criminals and gangsters who disrupted and terrorized the public. This was the most humane response the new government could have implemented because under normal circumstances, the majority of them would have been executed like Nazi collaborators after WW2. In May 1975, specific groups of Vietnamese were ordered to register with the new government that had established control over the South on April 30, 1975. Then, in June, the new government issued orders instructing those who had registered in May to report to various places for re-education. Soldiers, noncommissioned officers and rank-and-file personnel of the former South Vietnamese government were to undergo a three-day "reform study," which they would attend during the day and they would go home at night. Officers of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) forces from the rank of second lieutenant to captain, along with low-ranking police officers and intelligence cadres, were ordered to report to various sites, bringing along "enough paper, pens, clothes, mosquito nets, personal effects, food or money to last ten days beginning from the day of their arrival." Similar instructions were given to former high ranking officials in the South Vietnamese government, except that they were to bring provisions for 30 days. The new government announced that there would be three days of re-education for ARVN soldiers, ten days for low-ranking officers and officials, and one month for high-ranking ARVN officers and officials. However, the re-education camp lasted sometimes more than 10 years for some higher ranks ARVN generals and officers who were not committed to re-entering society. I can also speak on this issue from personal experience as my maternal grandfather and 2 of his brothers served as low-ranking soldiers in the ARVN. After the day of unification, my grandfather was spared from re-education since he suffered from malaria and eventually got treated. My two great uncles went to the re-education camp and only stayed there for 3-5 days. My grandfather and one of my grand uncles are currently living well in Vietnam and the other grand uncle is living in California with his own family.
His explaining the of the guerilla tactics, the creating PR nightmare hiding amongst civilians sounds like current day Hamas fighters
There's a great history/comedy podcast called Behind the Bastards that did a 6 part series on Henry Kissinger and what happened to Cambodia. The amount of bombs dropped there is mindboggling. It's more than how many we dropped in World War II.
Just finished watching HistoryMarche's series on Caesar's civil wars and and was wodneirng what to watch next...and then huzzzah!
Loved your reaction to part 2 ! God this war was such a disaster, all of that to end up with the same result
my uncle did two tours in Vietnam. he was a tunnel rat that carried a flamethrower. that war traumatized him for decades.
I can't imagine how anyone came back from there without significant scars.
3 of my favorite planes served together in Vietnam, them being the SR-71, the B-52, and the F-4 Phantom II
Some people from my high school went to Cambodia for community/ religious service and they find all the areas where there are plenty of land mines and people who are still affected by them even to this day
As someone who has been to Vietnam as a born American, I will definitely say it is the opposite of what you would expect them to treat you like given what the country did. Most of the younger generation just doesn’t care I found out.
Thank you for yet another reaction video
One of my VERY close friends was attendung college AT Kentstate that day and experienced it all.
got a buddy of mine who was an english teacher in Vietnam before covid happened. he loved his time there living in Hanoi however he felt unsafe going outside of Hanoi
I've travelled a fair bit. over25 countries in the far east. South America, India, Europe etc.
Anytime anyone asks me my favourite destination I always tell them vietnam.
Amazing food. Extremely friendly, reasonably easy as an English speaker, easy to get about, a lot of history, beautiful countryside, and super cheap!
Actually worked there doing charity medical care on orphans and would strongly recommend anyone who has the chance to visit
Another example of the press being complicit was the Lusitania which was on the Royal Navy lists as an Auxiliary Cruiser, could mount I think it was 10 12 inch guns, and was carrying over 250 tons of contraband when she was sunk. All of which came out years later but was available to the press at the time.
Vietnam is an amazing place to visit! I spent 2 weeks there with my wife South to North- so much culture, amazing foods, welcoming people, so cool but pretty HOT even in winter.
Bikes and scooters very popular throughtout the country and you can can rent them affordability. We met some tourists traveling the whole country on dirtbikes!
There are good war museums in Saigon (HCM City) and Hanoi and the Women's Musem in Hanoi covers Women's traditional role in war amongst other topics.
7:16 I think the most horrendous sounding were “bouncing Betty” mines, specifically designed to castrate
18:34
I saw a very good documentary about the event that interviewed booth the villagers that survived and many of the soldiers
One of the most haunting parts of the documentary was, two soldiers that participated in the event later went out on a patrol. One of them hit an explosive trap, as he laid there dying he turned to the other soldier that was there and said “god came for me… god is coming for all of us”
I've read numerous books on the Vietnam War and my favourite is an autobiography of a helicopter pilot called "Chickenhawk" by Robert Mason. I highly recommend it.
Hey man, I just finished your Jack the Ripper upload and it's fantastic. And it made me curious about something. Would you consider doing a reaction video on Albert Fish? Theres a bunch of videos on him presented in the "Lemmino" channel and style and regular documentary genre to react to.
I know it's not like "history history" so much as it is just the history of a single person, so I'm not getting my hopes up to high with the idea.
Either way, love your videos and content. Hope to see more coming.
Also, would not mind at all if you did A LOT more stuff on the Civil War...thats definitely my favorite era as well.....maybe do something on Andersonville...
vietnam has a rapidly growing amount of industry nowadays. even my apple earphones were made in vietnam.
It’s so crazy to me that to this day we still have the same congressman from that time
We don't. The longest serving members still in Congress started in the early 1980s.
We don't, although we had some of their kids in office because hereditary political power never ends.
26:20 also remember that cambodia is a small country. in population
My great uncle was a Green Baret in Vietnam and told a story about how they would make home made silencers. When children would approach they would attach them and sh**t the child. This was because the viet-con would give some grenades to "trade" for extra candy that some US troops would hand out. They would tell the kid to hold it tight and when the solider would pull out the candy hand them grenade to get more, the pin was already removed by the viet-con and so when the kid opened their hand the safety spoon would come off. My uncle ended up drinking/smoking himself into an early grave because of that.
8:54 - 9:30 How very very familiar......
In what way?
@@Koppi-cc6er You know.
@@davetremaine9688 I dont really know to what you a referring sry😅
@@Koppi-cc6er I think he is referring to Hamas sheltering near civilians
@@RoydeanEU Ding ding!
The punji sticks were also smeared with excrement or other contaminants to increase the possibility of infection, which contributed to limb loss. A large factor which hindered the war effort were the rules imposed by the politicians which literally tied the hands of the soldiers and airmen. An excellent Fat Electrician video excellently describes these 'rules of engagement' during air ops.
was that twilight zone on the tv if so perfect
Thank you for mentioning the lack of an official declaration of war, people don't understand that would be a huge game changer when it comes to the outcome of "Wars" such as Vietnam and Korea.
Excellent source video which was made better with some of your insightful comment.
I lived in Vietnam for 10 years and am looking to return now.
It's a wonderful country, great people surrounded by some beautiful countryside.
A friend of mine in Thu Duc, now a northern suburb of Ho Chi Minh City, then a town north of Saigon, tells how as child playing outside at night they would regularly see artillery arching through the sky in the surrounding rice paddies.
I was born in 1966 and thing that often strikes me is that anyone around my age and older was significantly impacted by the American War as they refer to it. It's something I can little comprehend having grown up removed from anything remotely similar in Australia.
The War Remnant's Museum, originally named the American War Crimes Museum, in Saigon is an educational experience giving an appraisal of conflict going back to colonial times from their perspective. As you would expect they emphasis the poor qualities of the US and allied forces and conveniently ignore most of their own poor behaviour. As you rightly pointed out neither side is pure.
I have travelled fairly extensively through the SE Asian region including Laos and Cambodia. A common feature of towns in Laos along the HCM trail are the compounds belonging to various bomb removal NGOs.
Last year I was in north-eastern Cambodia, Ban Lung, where I met an Australian woman who was the coordinator for a bomb removal NGO. She confirmed much that I had read on the issue. Cambodia is still dealing with the remnants of the the US bombings of the HCM trail, especially in the north-east, but also with the Vietnamese invasion that led to the fall of the Khmer Rouge. After driving the Khmer Rouge into the west and northwest regions they laid a land mine corridor hemming them into this area and eastern Thailand. She was based in Battambang, near this land mine corridor. I had visited Battambang many years before and was struck by the number of people I saw with missing limbs. It's still a major issue.
One final experience.
One day I was exploring south of Pakse, southern Laos, when I made a random turn off the highway towards the Mekong River. At the end of the track on the banks of the river was some farmland and a group buildings. I was soon noticed and they invited me over. None of them spoke English to any real level, just like my Laos, but then an elderly gentleman came and sat down. He fortunately spoke English reasonably well, so we started chatting over tea. His story was quite fascinating. He told me that during the war he had been trained to fly helicopters by the US and ferried troops, mainly Laos nationals, (Laos had it's own internal issues with fall of French Indochina and the US had its finger in that pie as well,) to the HCM trail to ambush the VC supply routes. I obviously had no way to verify his story, but it came across as very plausible.
Anyway that's enough of my ramblings, so finally I would agree that it was a completely pointless war which actually facilitated the rise of the Khmer Rouge. This is still being felt to this day with Hun Sen, (a former high ranking Khmer Rouge official who started working with the Vietnamese before their invasion,) having dominated the political landscape through nondemocratic means ever since and having recently relinquished power to his son.
But that's another story.
So after all is said and done the war in so many ways made the situation so much worse in the region. This continued immediately after the war for Vietnam with economic sanctions hindering any economic recovery.
Cheers!
For Australia, we jumped into the war because of the US and the perceived threat to SEATO. We also helped with the clean-up efforts. My dad was one of the people who helped out, and when he returned, he signed a waiver that claimed he never left the country and as a result, he is not eligible for vets benefits
Would love for you to check out Grave of the Fireflies. Yes, it is an animated movie, but it is considered one of the best wartime films, not just animated but films, ever. It is shown every year on or around Aug 15th, on tv and in schools in Japan. About a 14 year old trying to survive in Japan in mid 1945 with his 4 year old sister. It is based on a book that was written by Akiyuki Nosaka, that was inspired by what happened to him as a 14 year old in Japan in 1945.
Vietnam paved the way of accepting PTSD as it was instead of “shell shock”. The mental health impact of veterans of the Vietnam Warbis tragic. There wasn’t any transition from being shot at in a foreign country to civilian life.
Visited Vietnam (+ a sejour into Cambodia&Laos) in 2011. What really struck me as I travelled was the lack of animal sounds in the nature. That and the resentment the people (especially in the south) had toward Americans and Japanese.
The punji stakes were smeared with excrement to cause infection and increasing the need for amputation as effective medical treatment was scarce in the jungle.
I recommend checking out the Paper Skies channel. His Soviet aviation videos are great, but "The Plane That Accidentally Flew Around the World" is right up your alley.
6:00 this is an aspect of why I think that the Vietnam war is so radically misunderstood. Vietnam was a young, weak nation that was going to be influenced by another major power regardless of what happened in the early parts of the conflict. As the war develops both sides escalate based on their capabilities and advantages.
One of the things America learned from Vietnam is even with overwhelming numbers and tech advantage, you can't win a war by not losing. You have to win by winning. It sounds redundant but it was mentioned the US couldn't invade the north for fear of China and the USSR entering, so they essentially had to kill an ant hill without having access to the ant hill.
If the US wanted to, it could have bombed the north back to the stone age and just invaded the north to bring about the end of the war, but the politicians were essentially playing global politics with young men's lives. They wouldn't let the military win, just not lose. This was the greater tragedy because all these people were dying and nothing was getting solved.
Check out the Sam Kinison scene in Rodney Dangerfield's movie Back to School and Dangerfield sums up the Vietnam war pretty well, even tho Dangerfield is talking about the Korean War, his point is you fight a war to win, not to not lose.
Lovely video as always!
Also, check out the video of the Balkan Wars by Full World Map please. It’s really good!
I love this. I’m a US citizen and it’s enlightening to see a different perspective rather bias or not.
I'm a somewhat dissapointed (but not surprised) that the Video doesn't mention the Australians in Vietnam.
Yes...
@@antoinedoyen7452this is a showcase on how bad the US is not anyone else though😡
And Coreans and Thais
Napoleon's coup on 18 Brumaire is live on Epic History right now.
This was super interesting. I never knew how extensive and insidious US involvement was in the escalation of the issue. Thank you