Dear Soldiers, It is Christmas and you are far from home, suffering from cold not knowing when you will die. The big shots are home enjoying themselves, eating good food, drinking good liquor, why should you be here risking you life for their profits? The Koreans and Chinese don't want to be your enemies. Our enemies and yours are those who sent you here and destroyed your happiness. Soliders! Let's join hands! You belong back home with those who love you and want you back, safe and sound. So we wish you...
A fascinating documentary about the American POWs to whom this made sense, and they refused to return home after the war. Instead they made homes in China. Contains forgotten footage of them speaking directly to Americans, often using this same rhetoric.
The 1957 interview shown throughout, the particular segment shown around the 45 minute mark:
INTERVIEWER: Do you believe that the United States should recognize Red China?
HAWKINS: Personally, I think they should.
INTERVIEWER: Why?
HAWKINS: It's a very big thing [...] it's like saying that there's a big elephant in front of you and you say he's not there, until he becomes powerful enough to step on you.
INTERVIEWER: Do you expect that they will become powerful enough to step on us?
HAWKINS: I have no doubt of that.
INTERVIEWER: Do you expect that they will become powerful enough to step on us?
HAWKINS: I have no doubt of that.
:speech-r::gigachad:
Lol the director of this made another film about his "disillusionment" with the PRC and the Tiananmen square "massacre". Absolute :brainworms: but this looks really interesting
The guy basically saw what the cultural revolution and Deng were doing and wanted them to keep going, while the modern CPC mostly sees the cultural revolution as a mistake and Deng as having leaned too far right. Makes sense that he would move to America in the 90s.
Yeah, it's be hard to think Dengism wasn't gonna just end in capitalism at the time. Especially with the USSR collapsing/having just collapsed. We have the luxury of seeing that it actually did work.
Wait, are you telling me that America was the bad guy? I need to sit down. This is a lot to take in. :surprised-pika:
The Vietnamese also did this to the French as well right? Or was that radio broadcasts?
Yes someone posted one of those pamphlets on here once, it was great.
The US deployed fucking ghost recordings of dead Viet Cong soldiers whose souls wouldn’t go to the afterlife because they weren’t given a proper funeral, haunting the jungles and small villages
Every time Vietnam comes up here we get treated to new, absolutely ghoulish US military tactics.
It was about as effective as Klansmen pretending to be Confederate ghosts then being domed by AKs thankfully
Did it work? Did any of them defect and join the Vietnamese Nationalists?
I know in the Vietnam War some soldiers did defect, but iirc not much was known about the defectors, if they survived crossing the DMZ.
No no, the French. This was in the 1950s.
Yes, some Americans did defect, among them John McCain, who made propaganda broadcasts for the North. But he was already a POW.
Wait what? Did he defect or was he a POW? Do you mean he conceded to their request because of his situation, or was McCain cool in his youth?
No the part of the story where they tortured him until he did a broadcast is true. Calling that a defection is really strange.
Yeah, that was the story McCain came up with afterwards.
Seriously, defending a warmongering neocon ghoul like McCain?
I'm not defending him, but I don't think there's a reason to doubt the broad strokes of his account. AFAIK the modern Vietnamese Communist Party doesn't deny that torture went on in their POW camps.
The audio recording was found in a misplaced file in the National Archives in Washington, D.C. The broadcast was recorded by the Foreign Broadcast Information Service, a branch of the CIA that monitored international shortwave and foreign radio broadcasts.
In the propaganda recording, Lt. Commander McCain said he was guilty of crimes against the Vietnamese country and people. He confessed that he bombed their cities, towns, and villages and caused many injuries, even deaths, for the people of Vietnam.
He praised the medical care and kindness of his captors even though he came to North Vietnam as an aggressor. McCain said he wished to express his deep gratitude for their kind treatment and that he will never forget the kindness extended to him.
To the Vietnamese people and the government of the DRVN:
From John Sidney McCain, 624787, Lieutenant Commander, U.S. Navy, born 29 August, 1936, Panama, home state Oregon. Shot down 26 October, 1967, A-4E aircraft.
I, as a U.S. airman, am guilty of crimes against the Vietnamese country and people. I bombed their cities, towns and villages and caused many injuries, even deaths, for the people of Vietnam.
I was captured in the capital city of Hanoi, while attacking it. After I was captured, I was taken to the hospital in Hanoi, where I received very good medical treatment. I was given an operation on my leg, which allowed me to walk again, and a cast on my right arm, which was badly broken in three places.
The doctors were very good and they knew a great deal about the practice of medicine. I remained in the hospital for some time and regained much of my health and strength. Since I arrived in the camp of detention, I received humane and lenient treatment.
I received this kind treatment and food even though I came here as an aggressor and the people who I injured have much difficulty in their living standards. I wish to express my deep gratitude for my kind treatment and I will never forget this kindness extended to me.
Today I learned the US Army cannot accept parole (being set free on their word of honour not to take up arms, a tradition in most of the world for defeated enemies) if captured. Utterly horrific.
The only cool things McCain did in his youth were due to his own incompetence.
His incompetence did more damage than any intentional sabotage could possibly manage however
Ah no clue. All I know was what someone on here told me about the war against the americans.
A small amount of soldiers even defected and settled in DPRK or China.
:kitty-cri-texas: Unironically sweet and touching . Please drop some over my town President Xi we yearn for freedom.
Is that cursive handwritten? I know they didn't have photocopiers in 1951, but they older methods like had presses or stamps, right? But could those do cursive? I don't know what I'm talking about btw. :blob-no-thoughts:
Maybe it was using carbon paper, that's been around for a while I think.
