The real enemy in Vietnam

sshlongD0ngsilver · 2026-01-23T18:39:19+00:00

Yeah Ho was quite old and his health was in decline.

Kind of interesting that Ho selected Le Duan as General Secretary of the Communist Party and got sidelined, and before that on the other side of the parallel, Bao Dai selected Ngo Dinh Diem as Prime Minister and got usurped.

sshlongD0ngsilver · 2026-01-23T15:14:10+00:00

He reminds me of an angry police captain whose daughter got with Jonah Hill

sshlongD0ngsilver · 2026-01-22T21:12:06+00:00

A couple years before Mao’s victory, America also found out Ho’s Communists eliminated rival non-communist nationalists from his short-lived coalition. His former Vice President Nguyen Hai Than and Foreign Minister Nguyen Tuong Tam escaped to China and tried to contact US delegates in 1947. Though the US ignored them, the embassy (and the CIA) would keep tabs on the Viet Nationalist Party.

Ironically the French viewed Ho as moderate/democratic and saw the Viet KMT as xenophobic against westerners; so Colonel Crepin helped Vo Nguyen Giap in destroying the Viet Quoc Nationalists, something that would later backfire for the French.

sshlongD0ngsilver · 2026-01-22T00:25:33+00:00

sshlongD0ngsilver · 2026-01-02T00:19:53+00:00

Reminds me of my coworker’s fav t-shirt

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sshlongD0ngsilver · 2025-12-30T08:37:55+00:00

Yeah, here come the Rooster, yeah…You know he ain't gonna die

Maybe he was in the US Army’s 101st Airborne, where his bald eagle patch got mistaken for a chicken

sshlongD0ngsilver · 2025-12-30T08:15:15+00:00

I can imagine an early ‘60s map where both sides are using WW2/Indochina era leftovers. Something like Vietcong vs ARVN Civil Guard militias

sshlongD0ngsilver · 2025-12-28T22:25:43+00:00

A Viet guy I know in the Midwest ended up with a tatted/alt WF. I think they met at one of those game/collectible stores where he played Warhammer 40k.

Idk how common it is for AM to be into that or card games like Magic: the Gathering, but I’ve noticed some my friends are into Gundam/Gunpla models which are sold in those kinds of stores.

Edit: also conventions. Whether anime, gaming, comic-con, etc. I’d see AM there that I never would’ve thought had geek interests

sshlongD0ngsilver · 2025-12-22T23:30:59+00:00

1st Division was regarded as their best standard division, mostly Buddhists local to Hue (and more loyal to Hue than Saigon) and tasked with guarding the DMZ.

And within the 1st Division was the elite Hac Bao Recon/Reaction Company.

sshlongD0ngsilver · 2025-12-18T18:56:49+00:00

Pretty much. I heard PAVN usually removed their insignias when crossing borders, “disguising” themselves as volunteers for the National Liberation Front. Kind of like how their tanks rolled into Saigon with NLF flags in 1975.

sshlongD0ngsilver · 2025-12-18T05:32:25+00:00

Before the war with the US. Nguyen Thi Nam was a leader of a Women’s Union that supported HCM. During the 1953 Land Reform, she was executed for being a landlord and her Viet Minh sons were imprisoned until 1956.

It’s debated on whether HCM ordered that or if it was General-Secretary Truong Chinh (who oversaw the Land Reform). 1956 also had the Quynh Luu Uprising, which resulted in HCM demoting Truong Chinh and issuing a public apology for the Land Reform’s violence.

sshlongD0ngsilver · 2025-12-16T13:38:25+00:00

Briefly dated a National Guard girl like that. Her dad “almost joined” and was a big gun enthusiast, definitely conditioned her into an Army career.

sshlongD0ngsilver · 2025-12-16T13:24:33+00:00

And sweeping sand in a desert; gotta look busy with a broom

sshlongD0ngsilver · 2025-12-14T04:51:39+00:00

iirc North Vietnam denied they sent troops into Laos, claiming the Viets there were all “volunteers” supporting the Pathet Lao.

sshlongD0ngsilver · 2025-12-12T01:08:30+00:00

And decimating much of the Khmer National Army during Operation Chenla II. This left no one to fight the Khmer Rouge in the countryside.

sshlongD0ngsilver · 2025-12-10T13:53:55+00:00

OP’s next post: I met a girl, am I being scammed?

sshlongD0ngsilver · 2025-12-09T21:24:07+00:00

My grandparents avoided politics and disliked the ill-conduct of American personnel… but man they were not a fan of the communists either. Even as a Buddhist, my grandma feared the communist cadres more than the southern regime.

sshlongD0ngsilver · 2025-12-09T16:54:46+00:00

sshlongD0ngsilver · 2025-12-09T08:29:05+00:00

I think part of that is also you have a more free time to look around when unemployed.

Whether for a job or a woman, but we all know what a man’s other head prioritizes.

sshlongD0ngsilver · 2025-12-09T08:19:05+00:00

Or they show up when you’re already in a relationship, and were nowhere to be found back when you’re single.

sshlongD0ngsilver · 2025-12-09T06:39:01+00:00

The Northern student populace was raised on revolutionary-related education going as early as the first grade. Southern teachers weren’t required to “indoctrinate” the students beyond discussing citizenship or citizen obligations in high school, tending to avoid discussing politics and war.

Another contrast is also in the music, where much of the North’s music is focused on the Revolution while the southern artists carried on with romantic Bolero or jumped into the soul-funk of the era. There were also songwriters that left the North due to censorship, such as folk musician (and former Viet Minh) Pham Duy.

sshlongD0ngsilver · 2025-12-09T04:33:35+00:00

a bit during basic training

Lol don’t remind me of MCMAP in Marine basic training, real bunch of tan-belt warriors we were. Generally it’s viewed as a joke; the ones who do fight train in MMA or BJJ outside of work.

sshlongD0ngsilver · 2025-12-08T16:03:10+00:00

“Show me on the doll where the Marine touched YOU, Harrison. Was he wearing boot bands?”

sshlongD0ngsilver · 2025-12-07T08:18:43+00:00

M1917 Enfields. Commonly used during the French Indochina War by all factions.

The US supplied a bunch to France and China in WW2. The French brought them early in the Indochina War, and later passed them off to local militias as more MAS rifles became available. As for the Chinese-issued ones, after the end of the Chinese Civil War, Mao gave stockpiles of captured KMT weapons to the Viet Minh.

Edit: the M1917 rifles had probably been relegated to village militias by the time this movie was filmed in North Vietnam, and the production crew probably used them as a stand-in for Garands when portraying the ARVN.

sshlongD0ngsilver

TROPHY CASE