Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

A faulty retelling of ‘The Vietnam War’
The Washington Times ^ | October 16, 2017 | By Oliver North

Posted on 10/17/2017 10:11:23 AM PDT by US Navy Vet

click here to read article


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-29 last
To: US Navy Vet

Aside from the politics of the Vietnam War, I already know Hollywood’s take on the war - BS. I am sick and tired of hearing we were the bad guys, THEY were the good guys, we were stupid, THEY were smart and we lost, THEY won. That’s NOT what I saw and lived. NONE of the Hollywood crap, except for The Killing Fields - which is the only VietNam era movie I was able to sit through - or We Were Soldiers - which I could not watch in its entirety - was an accurate portrayal of the war. I was in the RVN with the 9th Inf. Div, 3/5 Cav in 67-68 to include TET on Jan 31, 1968. Our unit was engaged with the enemy for 17 hours that day, I’m told, as I never kept track of the time. I’m hoping one day Col Oliver North will do more programs on the VietNam War and tell the true story. There is a saying, “To the victors go the spoils, as well as the telling of the history”. The victors of the VietNam War were NOT the enemy of the battlefield but our enemies at home.


21 posted on 10/17/2017 11:47:49 AM PDT by Dapper 26
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: BuffaloJack

I don’t recall seeing any while I was on Vietnam, but I know there were “antiwar” activists in the stateside army. When I was stationed at Fort Sam Houston, Texas there was a guy in my barracks with a treasonous periodical called “Your Military Left”.


22 posted on 10/17/2017 11:50:37 AM PDT by liberalism is suicide
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: BuffaloJack
Sorry Burns, we had no pot-heads, drug addicts, hippies or anyone else who truly didn’t want to be there in my unit. Any that occasionally sifted in simply didn’t last long, so we never had to worry about them

So very true. In our Air Mobile company of Light Infantry we could with pretty close guesswork determine if a FNG that drew a peace symbol on his helmet or griped anti war pablum constantly would last more than a few firefights or air mobile assaults on a hot LZ.

23 posted on 10/17/2017 12:00:21 PM PDT by redcatcherb412
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: DJ Taylor

We stopped fighting wars as they should be fought after WWII. We can’t even declare them.Everything since has been sacrifice to the political altar. B-52s alone could have won Vietnam. If not, we had no business thinking we could beat the Soviets in WWIII. Giap is seen as some great tactician, but we kicked his ass all over Vietnam but the POS perfume prince generals and spineless politicians made sure that we never make it look like we win anything. The “War on Terror” is a complete joke and the same old sacrifice blood and treasure to give it all back and refight for it all again.


24 posted on 10/17/2017 12:44:51 PM PDT by shanover (...To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them.-S.Adams)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: shanover

When, and if, a people become too civilized to do what’s necessary to survive in an uncivilized world, as Western Civilization seems to have done, we simply won’t survive, as we don’t deserve to survive.

We, as a people, have failed to realize that survival of the fittest is still being contested here on the third planet, and when you, your family, and your people’s survival is threatened, the proper response in an uncivilized world is to eliminate that threat even if it requires killing every man, woman, and child of the enemy that threatens your survival.

Simply put: If you are too “Civilized” to do what’s necessary to survive in this uncivilized world, you don’t deserve to survive, and you won’t.


25 posted on 10/17/2017 1:19:58 PM PDT by DJ Taylor (Once again our country is at war, and once again the Democrats have sided with our enemy.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: forgotten man

Correct nicely worded


26 posted on 10/17/2017 1:39:45 PM PDT by genghis
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: DJ Taylor
Very well put together analysis of what actually happened during the Vietnam War and after. Ken Burns is a mendacious slug.

Thank you for your service.

27 posted on 10/17/2017 4:09:51 PM PDT by wmileo
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: US Navy Vet

Aside from the one sided portrayal of the American forces by Burns explained so well by Ollie North and others in the comments, there were two glaring omissions that further taint this “documentary”.

Burns never mentions the Cambodian holocaust where over 2 million helpless Cambodian noncombatants were MURDERED, (not “killed”) by their communist “liberators” after “Peace was given a chance” in 1975. There were no armies clashing on the battlefield in Cambodia when the Khmer Rouge murdered an estimated 40 percent of the Cambodian people. There was peace over the land, A “peace” which became the peace of a mass grave.

Burns film had the soundtrack of many 60s songs. One he missed was John Lennon’s “All We are Saying is Give Peace a chance”. That would have made good background music for a slideshow of photos showing the piles of skulls from the Killing Fields. Combine that with showing how the so-called “antiwar” left turned a blind eye to the mass murder by the Communists in Cambodia, Viet Nam, and Laos after the war ended in peacetime after the same self-righteous left had excoriated US troops for their alleged human rights violations in wartime.

The salient fact form that war is that as many or more people were MURDERED in the 4 years of peace after the war ended than were KILLED in the 10 years of war that preceded it.

Although Burns briefly mentioned the Boat People who fled Viet Nam after the fall of Saigon where hundreds of thousands died in the south China Sea, he glaringly omitted the post-war mass murders in Viet Nam, Cambodia and Laos and glossed over the “re-education” camps in South Viet Nam.

His other glaring omission was leaving out the mocking abuse and even physical attacks by the anti-war left on returning Viet Nam Veterans, It got so bad that the DOD had to ask Congress to make it illegal to call up the parents of a soldier killed in Viet Nam and gloat and mock them on the phone. Not showing the leftist demonstrators cheerleading for Hanoi, burning our flags and waving the flags of the enemy troops killing our men in that war is another omission.

I don’t have time to detail more. But there are plenty of similar omissions in this one-sided “documentary”

Viet Nam Mai Mai!

RVN, 68,69,and 70


28 posted on 10/17/2017 5:08:47 PM PDT by Uncle Lonny
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: US Navy Vet

Bump.....


29 posted on 10/17/2017 9:08:53 PM PDT by Intolerant in NJ
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-29 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson