The Most Terrifying Combat Images of the Vietnam War (Warning* Mature Audiences Only)

With the exception of the World Wars, the US war in Vietnam was arguably the most influential conflict of the 20th century for it would reshape military, political and even cultural doctrines for the following four decades. Formerly a colony of the French Empire in Asia and then being subjugated under the Japanese Empire in World War II, the people of Southeast Asia longed to be free and after a bloody and brutal campaign against the French in the 1950s, that dream looked set to become a reality.

Unfortunately, just how freedom should look in the nation that would become known as Vietnam was not just a national issue but an international one as the Cold War began to ramp up between the democratic west led by the United States of America and the Communist east led by the Soviet Union and China. In the short term, the nation was split in two with the pro-communists in the north and a pro-western faction in the south. There were promises to try to unite the country peacefully but these proved fruitless as neither side trusted the other.

Then as a communist insurgency broke out in the South under the banner of the Viet Cong and supported by the north and after a US warship was attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin, in 1965 the first contingents of US combat troops began to arrive; up until then US troops had only operated in an advisory role to the South Vietnamese Army. The government of US President Lyndon B. Johnson believed in the domino theory that if all of Vietnam fell to the communists then neighbouring countries would do the same. This would give the communist world enormous influence in the region and beyond and significantly weaken the US position if World War III ever broke out.

Thus, victory in Vietnam was seen as vital and confidence was extremely high. The US and its Allies such as Australia, New Zealand and South Korea as well as the South Vietnamese themselves enjoyed enormous advantages in firepower, training and equipment but they underestimated the tenacity and ingenuity of the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army. The war that followed would define a generation and the scars of that conflict are still yet to fully heal.

00:00 Introduction
02:51 The Burning Monk
04:58 Hueys
08:33 Combat Ejection
09:50 Booby Trap
13:00 Fire on the Flight Deck
15:23 Execution in Saigon
16:56 B-52s at Khe Sanh
20:02 Pot is Better Than Peanut Butter
21:36 Tunnel Rat
24:38 Evacuation

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Narrated by: Will Earl
Written & Researched by: Tony Wilkins
Edited by: James Wade
History Should Never Be Forgotten...

Видео The Most Terrifying Combat Images of the Vietnam War (Warning* Mature Audiences Only) канала WarsofTheWorld