45th Anniversary of the Tet Offensive - 30 January 1968

[don744]

Originally Posted by Cham

Probably just a convenient carrier for a mortar base plate....guy behind him appears to have the tube.....just sent the last rounds they had to the NVA for them to use no doubt (airmailed)

...and that is an "old school" 60mm.

[RadioResearcher]

Originally Posted by Quo Vadis

Good idea, don !

I'll purchase 1000 wickedly awesome plaid suitcases like that and deposit them near your Ramstein Air Base.

Once the Weihnachten Offensive breaks out by the German patriots supported by thousands Vietnamese immigrants, i'll overcharge them to your evacuating guys in Ramstein !

Okay, now we know this is the Worm. --Obsession with Germany and Vietnamese living there. Go back to sleep, Wormy.

-- RR

[altus]

Originally Posted by rotorwash

Evacuated under pressure? Don't think so.

Can I have your comment on the displayed above picture, please?

And, anyone can explain why the lettering on the forklift is mirrored? Don't think it was a flipped negative case, as the Marines were rightly right-handed.

[lirelou]

Damn Altus! (Head hung in shame) I missed that little detail. And the answer is that the photo got reversed. Note that people are carrying weapons and holding their helmets, or carrying something else, in their other hand. Given that they're running onto an aircraft, I assume that the weapons are cleared with safeties on. If they were running for fighting positions, I would expect to see those weapons on the right side in most cases, as they appear to be here.

The only other possible answer is that some Vinnel Corp. crew of third-country nationals did the stenciling, and the photo is not in fact reversed.

[don744]

Originally Posted by lirelou

Note that people are carrying weapons and holding their helmets, or carrying something else, in their other hand.

Now, see....if they had buckled their chinstraps like the reg says...they wouldn't be having that little problem, now would they?

[jeffdoorgunnr]

so.. if the photo is REVERSED...........then those Marines are unloading off the plane. and ATTACKING.........

[Sgt. Rock]

Originally Posted by Quo Vadis

Nowhere in this world like inside Germany under US-Isarel pressure, the locals are offering a very strong will to protect the migrant Vietnamese from the BRD regime's deportation. In the recent years, the US-Isarel imperialists have ordered their Berlin puppets to deport hundreds of Vietnamese because they fear a possible Weihnacht Offensive !

None better than anybody else, the German patriots realize the only foreign community that can help them to liberate Germany from the US-Isarel rule is the Vietnamese people, brave warriors, iron will for the final victory !

German patriots protest the BRD regime's deportation of Vietnamese.

Well it looks like the Vietnamese who went to peace loving East Germany were forced to have abortions or else they would have to leave the peace loving society of East Germany. Also, it appears the peace loving East Germans weren't really friendly with the Vietnamese.

From the link below.

"In private contacts with East German citizens were not welcome. They too have been severely hampered by the foreclosed housing situation with doormen and strict visitation. If a pregnant Vietnamese woman, despite the ban, they had to abort the child or return to their home country."

Also, in regards to friendship being a hollow word in East Germany in regards to the Vietnamese and the link below mentions hatred towards the Vietnamese from the peace loving East Germans.

"With some confusion, the State Security of the GDR stated in September 1989 that "above all, the Vietnamese workers an ever stronger voice for their interests" were. the problem quite knowing was, in a Report the claim made that "limiting negative impact on the East German population, in particular through targeted Warenabkäufe, by increasing the offer of industrial consumer goods" are. A project relating to the ailing economy of the country, the workers turned their backs for months could not meet. Not long after the wall fell. The intergovernmental agreement was null and void, the East German economy collapsed and thousands of Vietnamese were faced with the dismissal. The country was in upheaval and former "Friends" were strangers and competitors. "Peoples' Friendship" and "solidarity" were found to be empty words, a latent hatred of foreigners erupted."


http://www.politische-bildung-brande...aft-willkommen

[jeffdoorgunnr]

If the US is trying to have vietnamese deported from Germany with Israel's help........{which is an insane theory in its own right},Why did hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese flee to our "repressive" regime here in the US shortly before and after the "peoples liberation Front" {which is a supreme contridiction in itself} if it is so wonderful?

[Bo Archer]

Hey Guys

We are off subject with one group baiting and the other group eating the cheese with gusto in hopes of wrecking the thread. Am just saying.

Should we return to the Tet Offensive and honor the dead and participants from both sides? Tet Offensive was the beginning of the end of the murderous and unjust involvement of US in Vietnam.

[Massena]

Do you actually believe you'll get this back on topic with comments such as 'murderous and unjust?' Besides being wrong, especially as 'unjust', historically, all wars are 'murderous' and all you're doing here by comments like that is supporting murder and terrorism, which was employed by the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong.

That comment was dispicable.

Sincerely,
M

[Bo Archer]

Massena

I suppose its back on topic as you are here posting as opposed to insulting. But I could be wrong on that. It seems the bickering stop, maybe not.

On topic, I saying the application of terrorism has been used by warring forces since ancient times. To imply that the US had not used terrorism in Vietnam is disputed by the record and professional historians. I see you cited the Hue executions during Tet Offensive in earlier posting as you tried to stay on thread before things broke down. The communist commanders there were told they were over zealous and excessive by their higher command. Yes there were lists of persons cited for selective executions (informants, govt. officials accused of crimes, police/intelligence officers, prison officials are some examples) but too many were added without clearance. It is shocking the Catholic students who were shot. Across the nation most communist commanders stay on plan without excess.

I saw also you wrongly claimed the Viet Cong were destroyed during Tet. What proof do you have for this wild claim?

[Massena]

Originally Posted by Bo Archer

Massena

I suppose its back on topic as you are here posting as opposed to insulting. But I could be wrong on that. It seems the bickering stop, maybe not.

On topic, I saying the application of terrorism has been used by warring forces since ancient times. To imply that the US had not used terrorism in Vietnam is disputed by the record and professional historians. I see you cited the Hue executions during Tet Offensive in earlier posting as you tried to stay on thread before things broke down. The communist commanders there were told they were over zealous and excessive by their higher command. Yes there were lists of persons cited for selective executions (informants, govt. officials accused of crimes, police/intelligence officers, prison officials are some examples) but too many were added without clearance. It is shocking the Catholic students who were shot. Across the nation most communist commanders stay on plan without excess.

I saw also you wrongly claimed the Viet Cong were destroyed during Tet. What proof do you have for this wild claim?

I gave you a reference, did you not see it?

You can also take a look at the Vietnam Archive maintained by the University of California which is held in some libraries. It contains primary information from both sides.

Terrorism was policy for the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong. Murder of the educated, mayors, doctors, etc. in South Vietnam was done deliberately, as was the massacre of civilians, including American civilians, in Hue in 1968.

I find your excuses for terrorism, which included rape and murder, also despicable.

Seems to me that you haven't read too much on Vietnam, and what you have read was left wing claptrap by authors who were against the war in the first place.

Sincerely,
M

[exlrrp]

Originally Posted by lirelou

Lrrp, the SF compound was more likely the B-23 compound. It was a B Team, i.e. a battalion level (or company is SF parlance) staff in command of all A Teams numbered 231 - 239. By mid-68 it also had a MIKE Force battalion which was out at some rubber plantation.

I remembered the 155th AHC as being further out than the modern flower park I mentioned, but my source insisted that it was there. It was near a traffic circle and a gas station (Esso IIRC) that was visible from the 155th ASC gate. It had been bombed in Tet, and it was still burned out when I saw it in August 68. I remember an airfield further out past the 155th, which was where the 4th Division had a Bde HQs. The road running past it made a "Y" with the left branch running to Pleiku and the right branch to Nha Trang. That is now covered with buildings. The current airport certainly matches what I remember of the CCS compound, and when I visited it several nearby coffee farms were using PSP for fencing.

The MIKE Force got banned from the B-23 bar from time to time, so you were in distinguished company. As for BMT's spelling, I noticed that on the Post Office, but I like the old way better. Besides, in our time, most of the Yards couldn't read and write. (The NVA even changed the word for post office from "Nha Giay Thep" to "Buu Dien".) Today'sFULRO spells "Dega" as "Degar".

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that was them. The B Tem. we talked to them bt they weren't going out. we got along with the SF really well, they were our teachers and we gt a lot of stuff from them. But you know how paratroopers get when they start drinking cheap booze (visualize: all the time)
The Mike Force was our only backup on frequent occasion. Most of the time we worked there we were out of artillery range.
I'm looking at BMT on Google Earth now. BMT sure has grown , even since I Was there last. Whe I was the in Tha Day it was a sleepy litttle province town, now its a major city. It was long ago. I can still pick out the hotel we stayed in.
The compound we stayed in had quarters and a big bar in it. I remember it paricularly because it was the only place I ever had a real Amerrican tunafish sandwich in Vietnam.I stayed in in it a few times when they sent out team down by itself. (my team had our own jeep the 4th Div sorta kinda let us use)
You know what they say: if you ever saw a picture of a lrrp in a jeep, the jeep was almost certainly stolen. This was true for lrrp officers too.
Gee it was fun to be in a place and time when a growing boy could have all the gunss and explosives he EVER wanted, life's been pretty tame ever since.

[lirelou]

Murder of the educated, mayors, doctors, etc. in South Vietnam was done deliberately,

Massena, to state that the VC targeted 'the educated' is overly simplistic. There were a helluva lot of educated people in the VC, and in the NVA. The VC went after people in key positions, as well as those whose opinions in their communities carried weight, if they supported the government and that support influenced others to support it.

So being 'educated' was not the basis for ending up on a target list. You could find doctors and teachers in the VC.

[Massena]

In a 'typical' communist insurgency, the intelligentsia, for lack of a better work, were targeted if they were loyal to the current regime that the insurgents were attempting to overthrow.

That included 'educated' people who would be leaders in any resistance to the insurgency.

Whether or not there were educated people in the insurgency is immaterial to the point I'm trying, and apparently, failing to make.

The Russians/Soviets did the same thing in Poland and other eastern European states they took power in during and after War II.

Sincerely,
M