(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.
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.
