Kim Phuc , Vietnam War

[SLUDGE FACTORY]

50 years ago , 9 year old girl running with severe burns from her village , attacked by Napalm

Just on the News

Kin hell 😳

[ToTaL ITK]

Re: Kim Phuc , Vietnam War

a link might be helpful

[jon1959]

Re: Kim Phuc , Vietnam War

a link might be helpful

https://www.itv.com/news/2022-06-30/napalm-girl-received-final-skin-treatment-50-years-on-from-war-defining-photo

[ToTaL ITK]

Re: Kim Phuc , Vietnam War

https://www.itv.com/news/2022-06-30/...defining-photo

Thank you. we haven't learnt much have we.(the world)Seem to love a good old war

[bobh]

Re: Kim Phuc , Vietnam War

That photo showed the horror of the Vietnam war.
But these two made the Yanks think about whether they were backing the right side
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-42864421 (scroll down slightly )

[SLUDGE FACTORY]

Re: Kim Phuc , Vietnam War

That photo showed the horror of the Vietnam war.
But these two made the Yanks think about whether they were backing the right side
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-42864421 (scroll down slightly )

Yeah that was grim viewing 😕

[Mario Miethig]

Re: Kim Phuc , Vietnam War

The Ken Burns documentary about the war is superb viewing. The episode on the Tete offensive is mad viewing.
A mad war, which the yanks were never going to win.

[light up the darkness]

Re: Kim Phuc , Vietnam War

When uncle Ho and his team were fighting the French in the early 50s the US sent two Generals as observers. In their report they stated clearly that the US was not equipped nor did they have troops trained sufficiently in jungle warfare to operate a successful engagement against the Viet Minh insurgents.

This view was underlined by the defeat which France suffered at Dien Bien Phu.

The Chiefs of Staff and Congress ignored the reports.

All of this could have been avoided. In 1945 When Japan surrendered the British sent a battalion to Hanoi to help with the transfer of power back to the civilian authorities. They failed to confiscate and secure the arms Japan left behind and it was these which provided the weapons to revolt against the French.

Last point. The Vietnamese people are still struggling with the after effects of agent Orange and the other chemicals which the US dumped on them. Birth defects still remain high in the mountains and rural areas. The US have not paid a single penny of the promised 2 billion dollars they offered in war reparations. The mountainous areas n the border between Vietnam and Laos are death traps of unexplored ordinance. The US does very little t clear these death traps.

Quite honestly it’s absolutely shameful. The US should hang it’s head and start doing the right thing even though it’s 40 years on.

[bobh]

Re: Kim Phuc , Vietnam War

When uncle Ho and his team were fighting the French in the early 50s the US sent two Generals as observers. In their report they stated clearly that the US was not equipped nor did they have troops trained sufficiently in jungle warfare to operate a successful engagement against the Viet Minh insurgents.

This view was underlined by the defeat which France suffered at Dien Bien Phu.

The Chiefs of Staff and Congress ignored the reports.

All of this could have been avoided. In 1945 When Japan surrendered the British sent a battalion to Hanoi to help with the transfer of power back to the civilian authorities. They failed to confiscate and secure the arms Japan left behind and it was these which provided the weapons to revolt against the French.

Last point. The Vietnamese people are still struggling with the after effects of agent Orange and the other chemicals which the US dumped on them. Birth defects still remain high in the mountains and rural areas. The US have not paid a single penny of the promised 2 billion dollars they offered in war reparations. The mountainous areas n the border between Vietnam and Laos are death traps of unexplored ordinance. The US does very little t clear these death traps.

Quite honestly it’s absolutely shameful. The US should hang it’s head and start doing the right thing even though it’s 40 years on.

It could well have been avoided.
The French governance there was corrupt, Ho Chi Minh actually asked the yanks for help, of course the yanks declined, forcing HCM to ask China, who cheerfully obliged.

As an aside, during the war, the yanks referred to "the enemy" as the Viet Cong, which made them "sound nasty", but as you mentioned, they were actually the Viet Minh, which sounded more like something out of The Goon Show.
Some yanks also used the term "goons" to refer to them, though probably no connection.