Toss a fragmentation grenade into the tent of ’over-enthusiastic’ officers. No fingerprints. Voila!
The US Army was literally mutinying to get out of Vietnam
Submitted 2 days ago by 
Grumpus_Maximus@thelemmy.club to historymemes@piefed.social
https://thelemmy.club/pictrs/image/df450f37-7690-49c7-a75b-06a1ab91169a.png
Comments
PugJesus@piefed.social 2 days ago
just2look@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
You can definitely pull fingerprints from detonated explosives.
OldSageRick@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
This problem is easily solved by proactively providing your overly enthusiastic investigation team with a copy fingerprint on an self-outreach device.
Jumi@lemmy.world 1 day ago
FiniteBanjo@feddit.online 1 day ago
IMO the reason the USA lost in Vietnam is because of:
A) Inadequate treatment of the Vietnamese civilians, often targeting them instead of attempting to convert them, and generally not investing into necessary infrastructure.
B) Terrible incompetent top-level leadership prolonging the war for years for personal gains.
I think in another timeline it could have been one of the nation’s greatest accomplishments, instead it is among their greatest shames.
PugJesus@piefed.social 1 day ago
The two biggest issues are:
South Vietnam, which actually ruled the area, was only taking US advice, not orders; in reality, South Vietnam was a deeply corrupt oligarchy which didn’t care about ‘strategic objectives’ so much as enjoying the fruits of their graft for a little longer.
The US was absolutely not willing to pour in the civilian resources necessary to convince impoverished Vietnamese farmers to side with South Vietnam.
The involvement in the war to begin with, and the repeated attempts to ‘win’ the war, would rank highest in leadership mistakes.
Even the CIA recognized from the outset that South Vietnam had very little popular support.
Rothe@piefed.social 1 day ago
How on Earth would an aggressive colonialist war ever have been one of the US greatest achievements in any way? The entire premise of the war was fundamentally flawed and wrong, a military and/or political victory would not have changed that in the slightest.
PugJesus@piefed.social 1 day ago
While I agree that there was no way the Vietnam War would have been an accomplishment instead of a shame, I must point out that the war was neither aggressive nor colonialist.
The war was a horrific crime, murderous in execution, vile ideologically, and utterly unnecessary from every angle.
But the notion that the war was colonialist was a major issue of (effectively) failed communication between the US and North Vietnam. And US involvement in the war was always oriented around the survival of South Vietnam, to the point where there was never a major offensive to take North Vietnamese territory.
FiniteBanjo@feddit.online 1 day ago
Vietnam was in the middle of a civil war between a brutal dictatorship aligned with the eastern bloc and a brutal republic aligned with France and the USA.
I will always stand against autocracy. The USA and France failed to protect South Vietnam.
In the good timeline, North Vietnam fell. In a better timeline they exist in careful balance similar to thr Korean peninsula.
Jumi@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Maybe they mean a timeline where they don’t even send troops to Vietnam