(I know this rant doesn't really apply to anyone here, mostly self-described history nerds on, like, reddit, but still.)
I mean, it's not like the US moved into a Vietnam totally devoid of any, like, veteran troops, military materiel, fortifications, or an effective command structure- all of which NVA and Viet Cong forces would demonstrate in spades during the Second Indochina War- sorry, the Vietnam War.
And that leads to another point- are any of these people who browse and post on are slash historymemes aware of the over seven year long war the French fought and lost, or even the resistance the Viet Minh displayed against the Japanese during World War II? Bet not. Even more, the fact that Vietnam, only three years after reunification, invaded and stomped out the Khmer Rouge, another CIA puppet?
Anyway, back on track- the NVA was, in all the ways that matter, a highly effective and adaptable that beat back both France and the US, no mean feat, so the fact that all their victories are popularly attributed to "muh human wave guerrillas" instead of their successful use of operational and strategic planning, to say nothing of their frankly astoundingly effectiveness of applying logistics ( Ho Chi Minh Trail, anyone? ) just kinda torques me, is all. Frankly, I think Vo Nguyen Giap, at least, should be considered a prime case study of a general who knew the value and power of logistics, and at the very least ought to be acknowledged as one of the great generals of history, certainly greater than the Americans' and French's' leadership.
are any of these people who browse and post on are slash historymemes aware of the over seven year long war the French fought and lost, or even the resistance the Viet Minh displayed against the Japanese during World War II? Bet not. Even more, the fact that Vietnam, only three years after reunification, invaded and stomped out the Khmer Rouge, another CIA puppet?
of course not, all redditors "know" is WWII, WWI (only about trench warfare and nothing more, maybe Franz Ferdinand), US in Vietnam, Gommunism bad, some random Rome shit, Balkanization so funny! Everything else they only know like 1 or 2 things about and only from a meme.
In fact I broke my no-reddit streak to check up on it and they have a meme alleging the USSR did ethnic genocide against Ukrainians lol, they can't even follow scholarly historical consensus and instead choose the Nazi propaganda route, classic reddit. thanks for this post op you made me go on reddit and I'm mad after like 5 posts.
Bespoke: Giap doing essentially the same thing 14 years later to the Americans at Khe Sanh and still being able to surprise them.
Americans really do try to claim victory because "We're leaving anyway" :agony-mescaline:
Also "we only had to leave because of hippies." Well, if your war is going so badly that even the American public, probably the most propagandized, most bloodthirsty and most callous population on the entire planet, isn't onboard with it any longer, you fucked up, no way around that.
I like to counter with "sounds like Americans just don't have the will to win."
Gets them so, soooooo, mad.
Holy shit, they were thinking of nuking the Vietnamese with a low-yield nuke to save Khe Sanh. McNamara supposedly stopped it only because the terrain wasn't suitable and/or because he knew a guy serving at the base. :strangelove-wow:
Given the odds that Socialist forces overcame on the battlefield in the 20th century, it's pretty clear that the top 5 military leaders of the 20th century were all socialists.
Trotsky was objectively a pretty good commander, irrespective of his political leanings.
Rokkosovsky is also criminally overshadowed by Zhukov. The complete annihilation of Army Group Center in Operation Bagration is as impressive an accomplishment as Stalingrad, arguably more.
Have you seen this one? The whole series is outstanding!
https://youtu.be/rJAEdLnZsgI
Tito and Hoxha - both led extremely effective resistances to fascism during WWII, the latter with no outside support.
It more is used to point out the absurdity that is the US military. All these weapons, technology, nuclear weapons, and everything else we threw at South East Asia was beaten back by an underdeveloped country with a guerrilla army alongside actual forces of the NVA.
"So what if we've never won a war in Asia? We can fight China and win easily. Trust me bro. Trust me."
Never won a war in Asia? Uhh excuse me sir, might I remind you of the Korean War and WW2 as well? Clearly American victories
A good example of this is the "human wave".
Chinese, Soviets, Vietnamese do a mass infantry attack? Human wave.
French, British, Germans do a mass infantry attack in WWI? "Muh brave bois, such a waste of life, the tragedy."
I think you should choose beetween "Westerners" and "Anglos" , as an american you should choose "Anglos" and leave "Westerners" aside...
rest of your take was very right , btw... Its just that in mainland Europe , espacially Russia is seen way less "Arrogant" then in the Anglosphere , way less threating ,... (see german Defense Budget, ESC, Hungary , Slowenia , greece ..etc..) in America it is seen often as some sort of "Mordor" with millions of bloodthirtsty slavs ready to invade europe on a moments notice... but .. but.. Russia has like always been there ,....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AI0nIWTX3GE
Id just like to add that if that tunnel system diagram that someone once posted reflects reality then that shit IS TERRIFYING
I especially hate it when people use this as an excuse for their militia larp. Often times I see reactionaries or even leftist try to invoke the Viet Cong as to why civil war in the imperial heartland would be so easy. Like no half you people would just die on the first month to fucking disease you caught while hiding in the hills. That's also implying american drones didn't already take you out.
Civil War ain't gonna be easy y'all, plenty of Vietnamese comrades died fighting against the American Empire, and they had entire military infrastructure and experience fighting foreign invaders. This is also removing the all the new information tech the military has. Militism requires more than just a bunch of dudes with AKs, we'll need to consider the fact that we're in the core of the empire and we'll face the full might of it here.
are any of these people who browse and post on are slash historymemes aware of
of course not, and if you try to supply context that breaks the jerk they fucking ban you
random thought i'm gonna RTA: r/ShitHistoryMemesSays, where you crosspost from historymemes to there and destroy them in the comments
yeah when i think of the vietnamese military, I think of logistics, and A+ geurilla tactics that had the americans so scared and impotent they frequently went nuts trying to fight against them. they didn't have the numbers, right?
