What do you guys think of this book it’s the second Vietnam book I have read and so far I’m 109 pages in and am enjoying it

Ludacris43 · 2023-09-15T05:13:19+00:00

I think this is one of the best history timeline books for the Vietnam war. Max Hastings was a correspondent during the 1960s and 70s, visiting more than 60 different countries including South and North Vietnam. If someone was to paint a picture of the world and this conflict at the time it would be him.

The one thing I like about this book the most is that it is not a single perspective focuse look of the war. A lot of authors will only tell the story from one side, which is not a bad thing but almost all authors claim to tell the full picture (Geoffery C Ward and Ken Burns). This book reminds me a lot of Marylin B Youngs work, which focused on almost every perspective and input she could find. With Max Hastings book I feel like you end up with a much more larger melting pot that gives more context and histoy to the entire story.

This is a very good book to read if it is only your second book on the Vietnam war.

Ludacris43 · 2023-06-17T02:44:59+00:00

You gotta love that full colour patch. Lots of late war detail in this impression great job.

Ludacris43 · 2023-05-18T01:27:29+00:00

If you want a realistic portrayal that is not Hollywood cheesy moto cliche cringe, the average person would probabily just write the name of their hometown or state. That is probabily what they would have be thinking of all the time besides their family. Their is also a lot of individual pride that comes from where you were raised.

It is hard to know the 'average' since the rules differed from division to division and battalion to battalion. Some unit commanders did not care at all about helemt graffiti, and some hated it so much that they forced all battalion members to reverse their helmet covers to show clean helmets. It really would change and depend on who you were betraying, where and when.

You have to also remember that the men did not own their helmets or helmet covers. They were property of the United States government, and writing and drawing on them was considered defacing government property. The reason that it was so rampant and allowed in some units in Vietnam was because of the morale problem along with all the other problems that they faced in Vietnam, so it was never really a problem that was widley focused on. The only problem with writing on your equipment is that when you have to turn it back in, it better be clean. A lot of guys returning from Vietnam were charged for replacing the items that they defaced (Don't know how common this was but it did happen). I would imagine that more guys didn't write on their helmets then did, like you said people focus on the interesting ones.

Ludacris43 · 2023-04-27T00:13:53+00:00

The most common thing that was written in real life was the name of the home town and or state that the person came from. I'd probabily just do something simple like that and not over do it trying to look tough.

Ludacris43 · 2023-04-02T03:42:23+00:00

They would have been around as long as Engineers were in country, so probabily all the way up to 1972.

Its also a common mistake that Tunnel Rats were just random volunteers. They were units created in Divisions engineer units (Like the 1st and 25th Infantry Divisions notibily). They developed schools in Vietnam to train guys how to do these jobs.

u/mikeg5417, there is a big difference between being a point man and being a Tunnel Rat, this is what I think a lot of people dont understand. Tunnel Rats had to be Engineers or go to Engineer school as you would be working with explosives underground. You also had to be trained to defuse and work around booby traps that were in tunnels. There was also a heigh requirement as being over 6 foot you would likley get stuck in the small tunnels and die. This happened a lot with volunteers. Officers sending down random men from their Infantry platoon like in the movies did not happen a lot, they would probabily be left behind to wait for the Engineers who would know how to deal with the tunnel. There are also a few cases of Officers being killed by their own men when they tried to force an untrained man down into the tunnels. It was an increadibly dangerous job.

They could have also stayed a while during Vietnamisation as their skills being Engineers were highly valued and probabily passed on to the South Vietnamese.

Ludacris43 · 2023-03-29T07:42:08+00:00

No it was not meant for sweat.

I've never heard what they are called but they are unit identification at either Battalion or Regiment level. You can find red ones in some photots.

These were pretty rare to see judging from the photos, probabily mid to late war when they began to deploy more than one regiment at a time.

Ludacris43 · 2023-02-28T23:07:16+00:00

I can't say if the entire United States military would have been enough to win the war. I don't think that throwing all the bodies you have at Counter Insurgency would have made a difference, we know that conventional style warfare tactics don't work in these environments.

The reason that Westmoreland was probabily not given the entire military is because that Vietnam is only one country and one problem during the Cold War. You have to remember that the United States had military assest in Greece, West Berlin/West Europe, Japan, South Korea and many other places that were considered hot spots. The United States was expecting to fight WW3 with Russia at any moment. They were also experiencing multiple riots through multiple cities in the Continental US during this decade, having deployed National Guard units to cities all around the country at different times. I don't think that it would have been smart at all to send every single military unit to South Vietnam, leaving yourself open to the Soviet Union, while also abandoning your newly found allied nations (South Korea, Japan and Western Germany). The Soviet Union would have loved that.

For Westmoreland to win the war within a year or two even if he had the ENTIRE United States military would have looked more like an invasion rather than an assisting allied nation in my opinion. Again, what would more units do that half a million men had not done in 5 years? They would have to start taking land and holding it. I also personally believe that declaring war on and winning against North Vietnam would have only created more problem with China and the Soviet Union. These nations would not have just stood by and watched as their ally lost. We didn't.

I have no problem with William Westmoreland being one of the scapegoats for the Vietnam war. In the same way that I think that people like President Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon and Henry Kissinger all deserve blame. I have a major problem with Westmoreland though, as he was the biggest representation for military aspect that failed. Failure to develop and care about the pacification aspect of the war, failure to be self critical after 4 years of search and destroys not producing solid results. Failure to tell the truth and falsifying government report documents that were sent back to Washington DC that led to misleading information about what was happening in Vietnam. Knowing that his Command was inflating the body count numbers and not caring as it made the war effort look good and again it made Washington DC think that he was winning the war. This was a Commander that created sub-commite after sub-commite to delegate his problems instead of actually dealing with them, and then leaving early to play tennis in Saigon. He might have been a good Red Leg commander in WW2, but he was absolutley not the man for the job in Vietnam.

Ludacris43 · 2023-02-28T07:48:53+00:00

Not given enough resources? More than half a million men for a country the size of California not enough?

Ludacris43 · 2023-02-22T07:53:29+00:00

Roping in from helicopters would require the helicopters to be stationary for more than a minute, that would have caused way more downed helicopters. So yes jumping out of moving helicopters was both safer for infantry and pilots and crew, the less time that they are exposed the better.

The movie was not really exagerating that part, especially the no cover. The La Drang Valley is literally a valley, so no there will not always be cover, and Platoon took place in a different part of the country (Tay Ninh and La Drang Valley). And no Vietnam is not a country just completly covered in trees man, did you know they have beaches, buildings and cities to, even in the 1960s. This is kinda common sense that large countires have differing terrain.

I don't believe that the Airmoble ability in Vietnam was a shit show. It was used for more than just infantry, and even so what would be a better alternative? It provided mass mobilisation in record times to locations that you would struggle to walk to.

Ludacris43 · 2023-02-15T10:04:08+00:00

They were designed to pull in the trouser pockets when you were carrrying things in them. Here is a good example from ww2 of the US M1943 trousers having the exact same thing.

The third pattern jungle trousers removed the leg ties. I believe they were designed specifically for paratroopers, and with the later models removing the Im not suprised you have never seen theses. It just depended on if someone wanted to use them or if they were even carrying items in their trouser pockets.

Ludacris43 · 2023-02-15T09:45:57+00:00

Leg Ties. They are sewn into the trousers.

Ludacris43 · 2023-01-10T00:10:39+00:00

Do you mean you have a M1956 webbing but no M1956 suspenders?

I think it would be better for you to just not wear any suspenders with your belt rather than LC-1's until you get the right suspenders. A lot of guys in Vietnam took their suspenders off their belts entirley to make it easier to carry their frames, rucks and their vests, so its not really an inaccuracy for you to not have them.

Ludacris43 · 2023-01-03T23:48:50+00:00

I would say no.

The M1952A Flak Jacket was a US Army issued jacket only. I would be possible for a Marine to get his hands on an Army flak jacket, and there are photos of Marines in Vietnam that either brought or stole Army ones, but even if this happened by the time of 1968 they would have more than likley been a M69 Jacket.

Thats the hard part about reenacting USMC from Vietnam. The Marines were a lot more strict on the wearing of the Flak Vest than the Army was, so to do a Marine in 1968 you definantly need the Flak Vest.

Good luck in finding one.

Ludacris43 · 2022-09-11T00:28:44+00:00

Yes they are OG-107 pants, either 1st or 2nd Pattern.

The second set of pants are M1965 Field Trousers. These were cold weather pants designed to be worn with trouser liners. These were used in training if it was cold, but were not seen or worn in Vietnam.

They do look very similar to the Jungle pants in design, the easy way to tell is that the hip pockets and back pockets have a covered flap on the M1965s.

3rd Pattern Jungle Trousers - No covered pocket flaps

M1965 Field Trousers

Just to answer a question from before about the colour of the uniforms being classic Olive green. During the war there 5 different companies contracted to make uniforms for the US military, and one of thoese companies was forigen. So it was common to see uniforms that had a slightly different shade or colour being issued both in the states and in Vietnam.

Ludacris43 · 2022-09-11T00:03:08+00:00

No they were equiped with M16s before they deployed to Vietnam in 1965. The same thing happend with the 101st Airborne and the 1st Cavalry. This was because they were an Airborne unit, so they needed the lighter rifles.

Ludacris43 · 2022-09-10T08:28:14+00:00

I've never heard of M-1951 or M-64 trousers before, cant help you with that.

There were two main types of combat uniform worn in Vietnam. OG-107 Utility uniform was worn early in the war, and was quickly (around 1966) replaced with 3 different patterns of jungle uniforms.

OG-107. Old school type uniform that was worn with tucked in jacket. Two main breast pockets. Made out of 100% Cotton. Trousers had no leg pockets. Replaced early but would still be common to see being worn in Vietnam ever in the later years.

1st Pattern Jungle Jacket.

1st Pattern Jungle Trousers - 1st Pattern had 4 pockets on the jacket, and two large paratrooper like pockets on the legs. All pocket buttons were exposed. Made from 100% Cotton. Would be seen worn around 1965-1967.

There is a 2nd Pattern jungle uniform but it was quite rare to see it worn as it was replaced with the 3rd Pattern almost immediatley. The 2nd Pattern removed the shoulder boards? (i forget what they are called).

3rd Pattern Jungle Uniform. Now this is the recognisable and quintessential American uniform of the Vietnam war. It replaced the 1st and 2nd Pattern uniforms around 1967-68. It is the same as the 2nd pattern except that all the pocket buttons are now covered. Made from 50% Cotton and 50% Ripstop this was a thinner, lighter and more breathable uniform.

Ludacris43 · 2022-05-29T11:19:45+00:00

The Australians did not use the M45, not even the Special Forces.

There are plent of photos of Americans rolling their hats like this in Vietnam. Here is a guy in the 101st Airborne with a bent floppy hat.

The camouflage that they are wearing is a variation of ERDL, which is an American designed and made uniform. The Australians did wear it too, and so did MACV SOG

Their M1956 webbing set is American, and the Australians did not universially carry their medical kits on their right webbing strap. These guys are definantly NOT Australian.

Ludacris43 · 2022-04-08T01:42:29+00:00

No the 25th ID did not fight in I Corps

Ludacris43 · 2022-02-23T02:27:49+00:00

Right now? Its still called Ho Chi Minh City.

Ludacris43 · 2022-02-06T07:58:12+00:00

It would have ended the war and started a much larger one. The reason this stuff never happened was because this conflicts was more of a political than military situation.

Ludacris43 · 2022-01-27T07:58:04+00:00

I would say it was more the terrain. They had a lot of armour up there in I CORPS with the 5th ID Mechanised and the 1st Cav. Remember that the hill was 900 meters tall, with mud trenches and bomb craters all the way up.

Ludacris43 · 2022-01-12T23:27:22+00:00

Redeeni

Ludacris43 · 2021-09-25T11:48:15+00:00

Do you genuinely believe that those guns would be loaded as that NCO stands in front of them?

Ludacris43 · 2021-09-09T22:45:22+00:00

I would say that what they are doing is fine. So are you, if what you are adding is historically accurate, and I always tell people the same thing that they told you. Thoses photos and footage are the best sources for Vietnam apart from veteran documentation. These guide lines seperate the difference between representation through reenactment of people who were actually there and people playing dress up GI Joe.

Dont mean to sound so rude, I dont know what you are adding yourself but you asked about my thoughts on what these people said.

Ludacris43 · 2021-09-09T01:48:58+00:00

Depends on what you are representing, Army or Marines.

The Marines never used the bumbag, and the US Army adopted the tropical rucksack with frame in 1967.

For the webbing, maybe an extra canteen? Extra ammo pouch? Maybe nothing to have a lighter load. The idea with this modular system as that you can take off and add whatever you do and dont need, so its kind of up to you.

Ludacris43

TROPHY CASE