“- Private Gump, what are you here for?
– To do everything you order my sergeant.
– Damn Gump! It’s the best answer I’ve ever heard in my life.”
One could speak of few wars that have penetrated as deeply into popular culture as that of Vietnam. A televised war in which the American population saw practically live how their young people razed villages or were massacred by the Vietcong. Politically, the Cold War was quietly escalating as nuclear panic and fear of communism grew in American society.
The horse galloped wildly through the streets of the big cities while a massive movement of young people proclaimed peace, free love, and a hedonistic life. All this, summed up in just under a hundred words, is a brief explanation of how the boxer that everyone saw as victorious was. However, the body of that comfortable fighter was corroded inside, while his contender had nothing to lose.
Do you want to know more? Well, we will have to liven it up with some music to put ourselves in a situation. If there was something good about such bloodshed, it is that an unprecedented cultural movement and an important advance in the musical scene were developing in parallel. Who hasn’t ever seen a movie about Vietnam and been literally blown away by its music? Although many times it was chronologically inaccurate, there are themes that simply fit the conflict like a glove.
And that’s another, in the cultural section, not only did this time contribute a lot in terms of sound, but also in terms of cinematography. Well, Hollywood has fed on the conflict to bring us gems like Apocalypse Now, Hamburger Hill, The Deer Hunter, Full Metal Jacket or Platoon – and this is just pointing out the best known -. It would also influence photography, as we will see throughout the article.
There is something that is usually forgotten or tiptoed when talking about Vietnam and that is that it all started with the Indochina War. In this war, the colonies of Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam wanted to become independent from an exhausted France. Surely, We will deal with this topic entirely in a separate article, but in this case it is important to give a few brushstrokes to situate the reader.
It all starts with France… and Spain
During the Modern Age, Spain had achieved a strong influence in Asia, especially thanks to the missions of the religious orders. Also thanks to some expeditions like that of Blas Ruíz in Indochina. However, with the decline of this and Portugal, which was the other great Asian power -although we cannot forget the influence of the United Provinces-, other states of the old continent had longed to expand to the east.
By the 19th century, colonialism was on the rise and everyone wanted to influence less developed countries in some way. With this juncture, a few Spanish and French missionaries were killed in the kingdom of Annam, what we would later know as Vietnam. Napoleon III, determined to extend his hegemony in this area, decided to carry out a punitive expedition, and thanks to the quadruple alliance, Spain jumped on the bandwagon in search of recovering that international prestige lost decades ago.
Newspapers were on fire and Hispanic patriotism came to the fore demanding just punishment for those Asian murderers. Thus began the invasion of Cochinchina as it was known at the time. Spain collaborated with 1,600 soldiers, mostly Filipinos, and with the fleet anchored in Manila.
The war lasted 4 years, from 1858 to 1862, but the conflict did not really have many difficulties, since they practically managed to expel the Annanites from the cities, where the majority of the population was found. Saigon was besieged in a Vietnamese offensive, but they were unable to prevent relief and were ultimately crushed. In 1862 a peace agreement was signed in which Spain did not receive more than some money and trading rights.
Much has been said about Spain’s actions in this war, and almost always in a negative way. This is due to the fact that her political position consisted, practically, of placing herself at the service of France without great pretensions.
A jump in time: 1945
Throughout the 20th century, indigenous elites had been forming that defended the self-determination of their people, subjugated by what they understood to be a foreign power. Many inhabitants began to form ideologically in a growing anti-Galicism. Likewise, they were impregnated with Chinese and Japanese ideas for the government of their country.
Without going any further, Ho Chí Minh, one of the main opponents, had been trained in France and Russia, where his communist ideals were fully developed. If we add to this the harsh colonial crisis caused by the crash of 1929, the fuse is lit.
Then, World War II arrives and France is devastated by German power. At this point, the Vietnamese welcome the invasion of Japan, which begins to give them greater autonomy and allow them access to positions in the bureaucracy. However, the Japanese army would commit many excesses, which would make the desire for independence arise again. The fight against the Japanese would give him an experience that would later serve to confront the French, in addition, they would obtain weapons, and the expansion of the communist ideology as it was the strongest organization of the moment.
In 1945 a series of tensions would break out that would culminate in the war in 1946. There, the French army would have great initial successes that would later be mitigated and a phase of stagnation of the conflict would begin. This would change with the performance of the distinguished general De Lattre, who would carry out a very good intervention and containment strategy. However, with his death in 1951, the war would begin to tilt again for the Vietnamese who would win at the battle of Dien Bien Phu where Giap, the Viet Minh general, would finally defeat the French who were more interested in keeping Algeria than IndoChina.
Throughout the war, the US would support France, even giving them an aircraft carrier. However, they did not see with good eyes entering the conflict.
With the fall from grace of France, Vietnam achieved its independence in two parts, North Vietnam, with a clear communist influence, and South Vietnam, with a rather diffuse ideology, as we will see later. A referendum was held to seek reunification, but there was a coup in the south and a subsequent infiltration of North Vietnamese soldiers into Southern territory. Thus began the Second Indochina War (1955-1975), this time, a Civil War in which the United States had much to say.
It is famous that the Vietnam War veterans in the US were not very well received. Instead, the French fighters were treated even worse. Nobody wanted them in France. We must remember that at that time, the Communist Party had many ballots to win the elections and the population did not see these actions with good eyes.
At the end of this section we leave you with a masterful speech taken from the film Apocalypse Now, in which at a certain moment, the protagonist arrives at an old French plantation and he explains why he has not left.
In Spanish it would say something like: «Look, captain, when my grandfather and my great-uncle got here, there was nothing, nothing. The Vietnamese were nothing. So we worked hard, very hard, and brought the “rubber” from Brazil and planted it here. We took the Vietnamese, we worked with them, we did something, something more than nothing. So when you ask me why we want to stay here, Captain, we want to stay here because it’s ours, it belongs to us. It keeps our family together. We fight for it! While you Americans are fighting for the biggest nothing in history. I’m sorry captain, I’ll see if your men need any help repairing the ship, so you can go on with your war. Good evening, Roxanne.
Vietnam, a unique country
In 1954 Vietnam had 30 million inhabitants, in 1968 the country was already populated by 40. For its extension of 333,000 km2 and its rugged geography, that population was overwhelming – now there are even more, with nearly 80 million inhabitants -, to put you in a situation, the extension of Spain has about 500,000 km2 and it is a much more practicable terrain.
As for its climate, it is variable depending on the area. In the north the climate is subtropical, so compared to the dryness in winter, the humidity in summer is terrible. There are also significant monsoon areas. The average temperature does not reach a maximum of 35º and does not usually drop below 10º in winter, however, the high humidity makes it very difficult to cope with the weather if you are a foreigner.
It was a heterogeneous territory, with large plains of elephant grass (that tall grass that is usually seen in photos of the time), large rice fields, deep valleys, steep and wooded areas… and huge crowded cities where sometimes the war did not seem to exist. . We cannot forget the long and mighty rivers from which a river war started by the French developed.
the armament
Surely our partner @HistoriaMilita I would know how to talk about this much longer and at length than the one who subscribes these words. However, he has been busy with the exciting -and unknown- body of the Zouaves so we will have to opt for the version low cost
First, highlights the arms conflict in the equipment of the infantrymen. The American was more uniform and egalitarian, while the Viet Cong soldier was quite varied and above all, more humble. Two mythical weapons from the second half of the 20th century, the M16 and the AK-47, clashed. It is true that, at the beginning of the conflict, the New Continent army would also use the M14 battle rifle, including WWII weapons such as the Thompson.
The M16 assault rifle was made by Colt and was made primarily of plastic and aluminum. The use of these materials gave it a very light weight, just under 4kg, it spat bullets at high speed looking for firepower above all else. Generally the chargers carried 30 projectiles -although at first 20- of the 5.56. Seen this way, its lightness and ease of use seemed to be a fundamental asset for a terrain as complicated as the Vietnamese, however, it presented a series of problems that could not be solved in the early stages of the war and therefore, made American soldiers detested him to the point of preferring captured weapons to the enemy. Another version says that it was spread among the soldiers that it should not be cleaned, something that was not true but that it spread in such a way that it was not cleaned and that is why it was useless. To educate the soldiers – very young – a comic was made to teach how to clean it.
The…