Excellent stuff frozen-ace. I didn't realise so many other nations sent people there (on the quiet). What you say about the US only taking the gloves off in 1973 gets to the crux of something I was feeling all through the documentary; that the US was fighting with one arm tied behind it's back a lot of the time. Like you say, perhaps with an eye on repercussions with China.
It must be so difficult for a democratic government these days to fight a 'just' war. This war seemed so vague that some of the poor souls interviewed were even more confused than I am now about it. Many said that they were looking forward to the opportunity to do their bit and fight for their country like their parents had in WW2. But the reality on the ground turned out so different for them and they struggled to maintain the idea of themselves as the 'good guys' the more things got ugly.
From the North Vietnamese point of view, I found it amusing and telling how many of the North soldiers and civilians just blanketly referrred to the American soldiers as 'French'! In their eyes they were just continuing the old war against colonial oppressors.
It must be so difficult for a democratic government these days to fight a 'just' war. This war seemed so vague that some of the poor souls interviewed were even more confused than I am now about it. Many said that they were looking forward to the opportunity to do their bit and fight for their country like their parents had in WW2. But the reality on the ground turned out so different for them and they struggled to maintain the idea of themselves as the 'good guys' the more things got ugly.
From the North Vietnamese point of view, I found it amusing and telling how many of the North soldiers and civilians just blanketly referrred to the American soldiers as 'French'! In their eyes they were just continuing the old war against colonial oppressors.
‘After you’ve got two eye-witness accounts, following an automobile accident, you begin
To worry about history’ – Tim Allen