1955 until 1973 saw yet another pointless war with bloodshed needlessly spilled. Of course Im referring to the Vietnam war. John F Kennedy took over the presidential role in 1963, which from the comfort of his oval office was oblivious to atrocities unfolding in northern Vietnam and Cambodia. The French, British, American, Australian and new zealanders barley knew that they were ķilling for. Movies portray patriotic soldiers obliterating villages with apache helicopters and tomahawks and F-16 jets lighting up the jungle where guerrillas were waiting in ambush, of course CCR and rolling stones blaring on the radio to keep moral high. Unfair it may of been, but enemy Ak- 47s would definitely not allow you to to return for your cold budweiser. Ground troops in platoons of 15 patrolling hostel territory with spies pretending to tend to rice fields. All is fair in love and war I guess. One minute your best friend is speaking of home, the next minute a claymore has sent him home with a flag draped over his coffin, with a letter from the commanding officer and perhaps a medal as if its going to comfort his loved ones. He was just 21. Danger lurkes with every stride, enemy and allies alike. A mothers loss is devastating beyond comprehension. Of course in America peace was preached on deaf ears. Bob Dylan, Joan Biaz, John Lennon all famously sang peace poetry. give peace a chance was Lennon famous words. The black panthers were understanderbly anti war, after all, they were suppressed in thier land yet made to fight for a land that thought of them as lower class. Not dissimilar to apartheid. As I mentioned before, every corner was frought with danger and booby traps even the best training could not prepare the soldiers for. Elvis Presley fought, but he had a rare survival instinctive as he needed to change the world with lyrics and not bombs. Blessed are those who believe in destiny. Chemistry was taking off and napalm was a destination of chaos. Radiation devastated tactical war became cat and mouse . In my opinion though, the bravest men ( who incidentally drew straws) was a platoon called the 1968 tunnel rats. You see the Viet cong were tactical in thier own right, they decided it was fruitless to defeat over powering artillery, so they dug a labyrinth of underground tunnels. They would fill then with tnt, bamboo spikes and poisonous snakes. The allies had to investigate these tunnels, and they knew exactly what dangerous awaited them. These mazes were hundreds of feet long filled with untold terror. You see, you might think that the allies could of just backed the tunnels with explosions and be done with it. But the trick the Viet cong had was to fill some of the tunnels with women and children so deep they could not be heard. The soldiers were playing rushing roulette with there lives. Another trick they used put prisoners of war in sound proof rooms. Terrifying to enter these tunnels in an understatement. 6 out of 10 tunnel rats lost their lives, as a appose to 7 out of 60 ground troops wadding through the marshes. Different times, and we can never forget the sacrifice made by these men. Unfortunately if we do, history has a way of repeating itself, and I for one dont want to be a 1968 tunnel rat thank you very much.
Posted on: Wed, 26 Nov 2014 00:06:09 +0000
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