This blog is about the Vietnam War and any films relating to it.

 I've been interested in 20th Century history. I've looked up documentaries, I've read books which tell information based around that time, and films have caught my attention based around that time. For a while, I couldn't really what the Vietnam War meant all this time, one reason because a grew up in Britain when it was long past that war. My parents grew up in the 1960s, so they saw footage on the television at the time and even they didn't understand it. But now I understand it fully more than I used to. It's an iconic war and there is a lot of history, documentaries and films which talk about it. The Vietnam War took place in the Cold War and it lasted from 1945 to 1975.

What is this blog?

In this blog, I'm going to be posting information about famous films based in and around the Vietnam War, and tell some history for those who have been the same as me. Entertaining Action films is another one of my main interests, War films specifically, and this has inspired plenty of awesome films. They were actually which caught a piece of my interest as to what it was about. It's an iconic war which lasted for over a decade and in the end, it would Vietnam under Communist rule and America, one of the world's superpowers, suffer one of it's greatest losses of the 20th Century.

For those who have read my previous blog about Modern Warfare, I mentioned that there were a lot of fantastic war films that are based around the Vietnam War. I've decided to push back a few decades earlier and focus on the history and films on the Vietnam War, and my personal feelings about it. The Vietnam War is affectionate in a very profound way. Even though I'm British and born in time after the war like I mentioned before, I found the history of the war very affecting to me.

• Pro

Vietnam War films can be atmospheric both disturbingly, emotionally and hauntingly. Veterans who had fought in it have expressed their feelings by writing accounts as to what happened from their point of view. Famous films like Platoon, Heaven & Earth and Born on the Fourth of July are all directed by Oliver Stone. They're based on accounts of those had fought in the war excellent stories, acting and special effects where action and drama are built around their environment and placed on the screen. They also show an Army that highly equipped which had to adapt its strategy to face the North Vietnamese and Vietcong which were a largely guerrilla fighting force.

• Con

The main problem for me as a viewer. Is while account films look believable as to happened at the time, it's still very gothic for my taste. They do the job too well, that's why when I want to watch a war film, I like to see one based around World War 2 or Present Day warfare. The main issue with the Vietnam War, in general, is that it failed to win the hearts and minds of the public, the U.S. didn't have the proper resources needed to win the war and turned more into a fight with Peacelovers against War-mongers. 

Topics

• Action

For anyone who is a Game Player for Call of Duty or Battlefield, The Vietnam War can an alternative subject to the genre. War films that take place in and around that time are explosive in one of two ways. Either the action-packed way with gunfights in combat style fashion with explosions like how it shows in We Were Soldiers.

• Drama

In a drama, soldiers can question themselves why they're involved in the first place. Most soldiers were young and decided to join because the paper said the odds were in the American's favour when things were actually going the other way. Shows how deceitful the government was. Or conflict amongst the U.S. soldiers like it shows in Platoon. It tells that war crimes were made and the detail behind them which brought soldiers fighting each other than fighting the enemy. While a number of people were proud of doing patriotic duty, others stuck to the humanitarian mission for a Peace Ticket. A lot of films have expressed a lot of drama among soldiers, and among the nation 

• Horror

Films can be made around this time with a psychological horror genre with which most vets from the Vietnam War came back home with them. I mentioned before, they can be atmospheric and traumatic with guns and explosions happening all around like in Apocalypse Now. The deeper in the jungle you go, the more crazy and insane things become.

My condolences

Writer's Note: For anyone who reads this blog and has fought in the Vietnam War, I hope this blog isn't disrespectful. If there's any sign of amusement or positivity from the writing, it's based around my enjoyment the films and games that are based in that time, so that part is for anyone who is a viewer or gamer who enjoys them and agrees with my opinion about them. Any piece of history I mention in my other posts, I'm just explaining what I know about the critical events that happened then. If this blog causes any upset or discomfort to where it becomes a sign of disrespect, I apologise and I will happily remove it. Thanks very much.

Goals, Gains and Experiences of the war

 

The Vietnam War was an undeclared war that was waged between 1946 and 1975. It was also known as the Indochina War. It started at the end of the Second World War and Japan had surrendered, The Provisional Government of the French Republic was wanted to restore the country as a French Colony. Eventually, when the French Military Force landed at the city of Haiphong, and fighting broke between them and the Viet Minh government (which would later divide into North Vietnam).

The First Indochina War lasted from 1946 and 1954 from a long campaign of the Viet Minh resisting back against the French. The Viet Minh won the First War after the Japanese and Vichy French surrendered in 1945. But things would be complete Deja vu in the next war.

The Second Indochina War started on the 1st of November 1955, which was officially between North and South Vietnam. But it would involve the United States, South Korea, Australia, and the Philippines to fight for South Vietnam.

The U.S. had direct involvement from the start of the war. It started with just American military advisors coming when France was still fighting against the Viet Minh. After the French quit the war, the U.S. established had military and financial responsibility. The Americans would then increase the number of troops that would be heading into the country. The U.S. Army's first major battle with North Vietnam had started in Ia Drang Valley in 1965, since then, the U.S. had been fighting the Communist North.

The Western Allies were gripped by the fear of Communism, at the time, Communism was spreading to multiple countries. The U.S. believed that if they kept their stand in Vietnam, then all of South East Asia wouldn't fall under Communism.

By 1967, over a hundred thousand American troops were in South Vietnam. Many were stationed in bases like Con Thien and Da Nang.

Bases like Con Thien were used as a frontline for America's war against Communism, and to prevent the Communists from taking over the South. This Frontline was a chain of American artillery bases just south of the border dividing North and South. The border between the two was a 'No Man's Land' on either side called "The Demilitarized Zone" which literally cut Vietnam in half.


The government of South Vietnam was a delicate republic and was governed by a military elite whose army (ARVN) needed America's help. The capital of South Vietnam was Saigon. The South Vietnamese Government leaders who had affiliations with its Political Parties, or its military, or were independent didn't stay in office for more than eight years, or even just a few months.



Communist North Vietnam was backed by the Soviet Union and China. Its capital city was Hanoi, and its leader was a lifelong Communist and a hardened nationalist, Ho Chi Minh. He was also known as 'Uncle Ho' by his supporters. Ho Chi Minh was known for wanting to bring a form of independence and democracy to Vietnam.

North Vietnam had an army of 500'000 Vietnamese Soldiers (NVA). Ho Chi Minh had driven out the French Colonial government in 1954, then he resolved to push out the Americans and reunite Vietnam under Communism.

The U.S. Military was lead by General Westmoreland, who was a veteran general with a clutch of medals from World War 2 and Korea. Westmoreland an American force of half a million troops to support 800'000 South Vietnamese (ARVN) troops.

But aside from facing the NVA from the north, the Americans and their South Vietnamese allies also faced thousands of Communist guerrilla fighters inside South Vietnam itself. The South Vietnamese rebels called themselves the 'National Liberation Front. The 'Vietcong' (VC) as the Americans called them. They didn't wear uniforms out which made it very easy for them to blend into the surrounding environment with the other villagers. This made things more problematic for the US troops because it was very difficult to tell friends from foes. Most of the time, American soldiers were fighting an enemy they just couldn't pin down.

The Vietcong were also well supplied by the NVA allies. The supply line which was set up by Ho Chi Minh himself was an incredible feature. North Vietnamese fighters, arms, and equipment were sent down a network of unpathed roads and paths called the 'Ho Chi Minh Trail'. This went down for thousands of square miles down the length of Vietnam. It was largely concealed in the jungle and among the neighboring countries of Laos and Cambodia.

The Ho Chi Minh Trail was critically important for the Communist war effort. The only weapon that the U.S. had against it was constant airstrikes. The U.S. Bombers and Strike aircraft like B-52s targeted strategic points in North Vietnam like railways, bridges, and factories. In several sorties, American Bombers mainly targeted the Ho Chi Minh Trail to cut it off. Other Bombers in South Vietnam act on Intel reports and hit Vietcong strongholds. Many explosive bombs, toxic smokes like Agent Orange, and incendiaries like White Phosphorus and Napalm caused terrible destruction.

But unlike World War 2 where Allied bombings were vital in crippling German facilities which increased the war effort against the Nazis, North Vietnamese were getting more used to counteract against the U.S. Bombings and were in better cover, which in a way, made them even stronger than their American adversaries. Even though most bombings were hitting their targets, they made less damaging effects to the enemy and more on the area around them, so bombing wasn't really routing the Communists out. The country which so many depended on was laid to waste, and it wasn't winning the hearts and minds of the South Vietnamese people. Bombing targets were often in and around civilian villages, so it was inevitable that civilians were killed.

To route out the Communists, there was no alternative to march in on foot. The ARVN and the U.S. sent countless patrols out in the countryside to try and hunt down the Vietcong as well looking for any telltale warning signs which might indicate Vietcong's presence. But the Americans were also fighting the scorching hot conditions as well as a scarcely visible enemy and the weight of the kit the Americans had to carry with them, which made the patrols more and more difficult.

Most patrolling U.S. soldiers had never seen a country or experienced a condition like this, and most were at a young age, they were carrying heavy kits and people were trying to kill them. In a single firefight, they wouldn't be getting any support so they would have to eat, drink and apply medical care with just what they were carrying.

Traveling in the countryside wasn't as difficult for the Vietcong. They could travel a lot lighter because they had support from supply routes and friendly villages. All they had to carry was their weapon (AK-47), a bag of rice, a mosquito net, and a tarp. They had excellent camouflage and they could probably hear a Marine Company from a mile away. American patrols could be fatal and many of the troops found them pointless anyway. You wouldn't be fighting a set-piece battle you would be trained and equipped for because the enemy was just so slippery and elusive.

Eventually, the Americans did adapt to this way of fighting, but by the time they were starting to make some headway into the war, things were about to change and take a dramatic turn for the worst...