The Face of My Enemy

[exlrrp]

Originally posted by DMZ-LT Looks interesting James , will go check it out at lunch. Wonder if either of those guys is an Opa today ? ps I wasn't beaten by anybody

I wasn't either, but only because the Airborne taught me how to run far and fast. Handiest thing they ever taught me

James

Happy just to be alive

"Yeah we were beaten by a nation of farmers---"

James,I believe you're gonna have a pretty tough time convinceing much of anybody on this site of that.Seems to me that our Government was the ONLY group that ever beat us.

[39mto39g]

Gona have to agree with LT. I never lost at anything, except maybe X-Box against the kid.
Why do we have to keep saying this over and over, The US left VN in 72, the south lost the war in 75. How could we loose 3 years after we left?
In that kind of thinking we also lost WW1.
Also, I wouldn't give to much praise to these sipper heads, after all they were shooting at Americans. and my opinon, We should have used bigger bullits.

Ron

[Andy]

That picture of the VC girl with the M-16 is special. In 1971, with the war still going, that picture and an NVA flag were high on the wall of the Student Union at U. of Mass. The picture had been enlarged to poster size. Didn?t go into that building unless it was necessary.

It?s very difficult to celebrate the Peoples Army, knowing too many friends who came home messed up or came home in a box. Still believe our original intent was fighting to make other people free. Your free James, keep on posting.

Stay healthy,
Andy

[Packo]

Gee, we were winning when I left. What the heck did those guys do after I was gone?

Andy, that picture and flag wouldn't have been their long if I was going to UMass. Would've probably got my butt kicked and thrown out, but some things are worth it. (Or do you think I might have been killed? Maybe then I might not have done it.) I believe you didn't go in there because you would have done the same as I'm sayin' only you needed to finish up there? See, I would've wanted to go back South and would need a good excuse.

Thanks for the pics James. I personally can't stand lookin' at them very long but your right, there always is 2 sides to every coin, unless your flippin' with Andy!

Packo

[Seascamp]

I suppose there were mostly farmers in the US Congress and Senate at the time. And it?s true that there were nothing but farmers running most of the US Universities and Hollywood of the time. On the other hand, the VC and 324th PAVN I ran across certainly were not farmers by any stretch of the imagination, they were just very dead for the most part or wished they were, and not even from South Vietnam.
Then the columns and columns and columns of Soviet Armor that finally crushed the south in 1975 were not farm tractors and the tank unit commanders were not farmers or even Vietnamese as a matter of fact. It was the largest armored operation/invasion since WWII at the time and surprisingly the only photo documentation to be found is in the current photo archives of Vietnam or in the archives of news organizations like the Asian Times. Strange such a climatic and historic event should go missing in Page's book.

Scamp

[BLUEHAWK]

Scamp, please elucidate:

- NOT Vietnamese? Then who?

- About what number(s) of tanks would ye be speaking in terms of, that came down in '75.

- Had they those many tanks earlier in the war?

- By what way or reason was that tank invasion NOT documented in USA Press?

[Andy]

In the fall of '71 I had a wife and kid and a job as a cop. Starting a fight, ripping a bunch of crap down off the wall would have been nice but there were other responsibilities. I just walked through the Hall giving that wall and the people near it the finger. That almost started a few fights but hey, giving someone or some group or something the finger is symbolic free speech. That's what we fought for, things like freedom of speech. Used to have fun asking them what being a pacifist was.

No Tom you wouldn't have gotten killed, just scratched and kicked a lot. Wounded by the girls and boys.

Stay healthy,
Andy

[DMZ-LT]

Fall of 71 I was still there. Turning in the platoon to go home. Not any contact. Going home alive !

[SuperScout]

Because we wanted to bury it, to push it so far back under the rug that it could never be resurrected again, that's cause of your repeated question marks. Now for the details:

They were Russian made T-54's and T-55's, along with PT-76's, a lightly armored troop carrier, armed a 73mm smooth bore anti-armor weapon. In an earlier use of Soviet armor, in a battle north-north-west of Saigon in 1972, the drivers had been chained to their positions. In the 1975 invasion, the tank commanders in many vehicles were Soviet armor officers. Farmers, my happy ass - just more "poor agrarian reformers" looking for work in other people's acreage - umhummm --