Viet Nam War [ 1955 -
1975 ] was one of those wars for no very obvious reason. Men died
because........ ? Locals did too. We were told about the Red Menace. At all
events cameras were there recording things for posterity. The Pentagon does not
like people back home seeing what is being done at their expense. Photographers
get controlled for that reason. These pictures were never going to be morale
boosters, any more than this cartoon.
A follow up on Viet Nam is at
Vietnam Revisited, covering the abandonment of American
prisoners
of war and the concealment of the truth by the
Mainstream Media. The MSM are doing the same cover up of
Covid-19, the American
Germ War attack on China carried out by rogue
elements of the American Government. See
Two Years After Covid, Eyes Remain Firmly Shut ex Ron Unz.
Why Invade Viet Nam?
Lieutenant General Odom, who ran the NSA, who understood the issues explained that is a terrible idea so he was deplatformed. See:-
QUOTE
Reduced to publishing on small websites like NiemanWatchdog.org, he refused to blunt his critique. Odom’s web columns had titles like “Six brutal truths about Iraq,” “Iraq through the prism of Vietnam,” and “What’s wrong with cutting and running?” Other national columnists said similar things —if more cautiously—but most were liberal pundits with negligible military credentials. Odom had served as one of Ronald Reagan’s highest-ranking national security officials, and his words should have carried enormous weight.
UNQUOTE
But he was ignored. Regarding Viet Nam, he was there:-
QUOTE
As a staff officer in Saigon, he witnessed firsthand the utter futility and disastrous consequences of that war, both for that country and for the cohesion of the American military. Years later, he pointed out that since the strategic rationale had been to contain China, our war with Hanoi made no sense, given that the Vietnamese were traditionally the strongest local adversaries of the Chinese and indeed fought a bloody border war with China almost immediately after America’s departure. Also, Soviet Russia was America’s great antagonist during that period, and containing China was a key Russian objective, so our war was actually fought on behalf of our leading international adversary. The true reason we spent so many years sacrificing vast quantities of American blood, money, and credibility in the jungles of Southeast Asia was that ending the war would be an admission that American leaders had made a horrible mistake in beginning it.
UNQUOTE
Damning? You just might think so. I didn't get to go but I didn't see the point at the time. Now I know that I was on the right lines. The War Mongers were never going to tell us the truth. They still aren't.
Operation Frequent Wind
Is about evacuating Vietnam in April 1975.
Vietnam War Photos
Back to Vietnam: Traumatised soldier's never-before-seen photo diary finally goes on show four decades after his tour of duty. These photographs offer an unprecedented behind-the-scenes look at the Vietnam War - but they were lost for more than four decades. The images are the work of Charlie Haughey, a drafted soldier who was ordered to take photographs of the U.S. Army's operations to raise awareness and boost morale. After returning from the war he had 2,000 negatives, but he stored them in a box, unable to revisit the harrowing memories of his tour of duty.
Having fun? Not quite.
Lost photographs: Charlie Haughey documented life in the US army as it waged war in the south-east Asia country. His pictures, aimed at raising morale, remained hidden in boxes until 2002. A machine gunner is seen smoking as he walks through the jungle weighed down with ammo (left) while an officer is given orders on a field telephone (right)
Evocative: This photograph showing American soldiers boarding a Chinook helicopter is one of 2,000 taken by Charlie Haughey during his tour of duty
Locals: Vietnamese children peer through a gate at the American photographer during his tour which took place from 1968-9 (left) while soldiers look pensive as they are transported in a Chinook over Vietnam (right)
Duty: Charles Haughey pretended to have photographic experience but was nonetheless on the front line of the warLast year a chance discovery brought the images to light again - and this week they are going on display in an exhibition casting new light on the controversial conflict. Mr. Haughey had been at art school in his native Michigan as a young man, but ran out of money and started working in a factory. In October 1967, he was drafted into the Army and sent to San Francisco to be deployed.
He says his carefree attitude encouraged him to 'just go with the flow' - but he was astute enough to alter his personnel file to claim that he was a photographer, sensing that this might give him an advantage in Vietnam. Mr. Haughey arrived in the war zone with the 25th Infantry Division in March 1968, and two months later was asked to report to the colonel.
The senior officer told him that the battalion photographer had been injured and that he would take up the role - but Mr. Haughey was under strict orders to point his camera away from the battlefield.
'You are not a combat photographer - this is a morale operation,' the colonel told him. 'If I pick up the papers, and I see pictures and stories about the guys in my outfit, then you can do anything you want.' However, if the young soldier hoped that his new job would take him off the front line, he would have been disappointed. He had to follow his comrades around as they carried out dangerous tasks such as mine-sweeping, blowing up Vietcong tunnels and flying helicopters.
Luckily, Mr. Haughey escaped injury and returned home to the U.S. in May 1969, where he adopted a new career as a cabinet maker.
Last year, he rediscovered his Vietnam photographs and decided to convert 1,700 film negatives into digital scans.
After looking at the photographs for the first time in 43 years, Mr. Haughey could not sleep for three days.
He has now decided to exhibit his work at a gallery in Portland, Oregon.
The exhibition, entitled A Weather Walked In, opens this Friday at ADX.
Landscape: This ruined rubber tree plantation shows the terrible toll a decade of war took on Vietnam. One of the most controversial aspects of the US military effort in Vietnam was the use of chemical defoliants [ like Agent Orange ] between 1961 and 1971
Is that Elvis? He was supposed to be in Germany. Brothers in arms: U.S. troops photographed by Mr. Haughey in these haunting images which were lost for 43 years before being rediscovered last year. he says he had wanted to depict fellow soldiers as honest and hard-working, doing a difficult job in difficult conditions South East Asia.
Blaze: A specially adapted personnel carrier known as a 'flame track' shoots out fire to avoid ambushes at the side of the road. The trucks, or M132s were first used by the US military in 1962 but were taken out of deployment in 1978
Relief: A medic gives Vietnamese children a shower using a Lyster Bag (left). Right, a soldier guides a Chinook delivering materials to Fire Support Base Pershing near Dau Tieng
Community relations: A G.I. talks to Vietnamese natives on the road while escorting a supply convoy. An estimated four million civilians died in the bloody conflict which spanned two decades
Iconic: On the left, Staff Sergeant Edgar D. Bledsoe of Olive Branch, Illinois cradles a critically ill child; on the right, a soldier prepares to fire a mortar captured from the Vietcong
Learning: Vietnamese children in a schoolroom as a bitter civil war raged around them.
Contrast: One of Mr. Haughey's photos shows a US soldier negotiating the thick jungle and struggling in intense humidity, left, while another shows a child peering over the top of his friends' heads to see the soldier's camera
Comrades: American troops gesture while travelling across the south-east Asian country in an Iroquois helicopterRead more at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2303845/Never-seen-images-Vietnam-War-eyes-soldier-hid-photographs-decades.html#ixzz2PWKc6YNP or
https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2014/12/photos-from-the-vietnam-war-lost-and-found/100871/ - The Atlantic has more pictures and more background.
