Viet Cong Perspective Article

[Il Duce]

Terrible internet click-inducing title and it treats someone who killed American service members very lightly but I found the perspective fascinating.

http://www.cracked.com/article_22206_8-facts-about-vietnam-war-i-learned-as-viet-cong.html

The article is essentially an interview with a Viet Cong looking back on his time fighting in the Vietnam War. Understand we have Vietnam veterans and those who lost loved ones during the war on the forum so read at your discretion.

 

[Ooh-Rah]

Thanks for posting this, I always find articles like this very interesting to read. While I may not agree with them, it is sometimes fascinating to get a perspective from the other side, I especially enjoy reading memoirs of former Japanese soldiers during World War II.

I've never seen anything from the Vietcong perspective, so I will likely give this a few clicks. Good call on putting the disclaimer out there for those members who are Vietnam vets and may not want to even open the site.

 

[pardus]

That article is fake as fuck. Absolute bullshit!

 

[Gunz]

My team fought the NLF almost exclusively. Many were young and we even encountered some female cadre members. Almost all of the enemy we killed were armed with AKs. I can't speak for any unit other than my own. We'd also recover an occasional RPG or B40 rocket launcher, maybe a few 122 rockets. But mostly AKs. They had frags they used to throw at us, some were Chicom...but a number of the frag booby-traps we found across our path were tripwired US issue M-26s or the smaller M67 "baseball" grenade...and I suspect most of these had been captured from ARVN. It's hard to tell what country the frag comes from when the first time you see it is when it's detonating.

The NLF in my AO used tunnel complexes. Obviously some of these were more elaborate than others. We never went into the tunnels. Fuck that. We'd chuck in purple smoke, cover the entrance with a poncho, and wait for the smoke to drift up through the air vents. Once we knew the extent, we'd push C4 down the vent shafts and the blow the shit out of the whole complex. Anybody who didn't die in the blast got buried alive, xin loi. Once I found a tunnel escape shaft underwater dug into the side of a river bank, like a beaver lodge.

Punji stakes were real. Some were in pits. The only one I ever personally knew of that hurt anybody was tripwire-activated and swung down from a tree.

I don't know if the article is fake or not. No clue.

 

[Il Duce]

@Ocoka One thanks for sharing. The article is from cracked and purports to be an interview - so very difficult to verify and not from the most reputable source. Your insights are very valuable - regardless of the veracity of this particular article.

 

[Gunz]

@Il Duce, nothing really struck me as implausible in this article except perhaps the way it's written. @pardus may not be wrong, it could be contrived. The guy sounds thoroughly Americanized the way he relates things. Maybe that's the way the interviewer wrote it. Of the few accounts I've read, former VC/NVA are usually not that forgiving of Americans as this guy is, and they hardly ever mention their own atrocities

My own view of the VC/NLF is that they were extremely well organized, resourceful and tough, even at the village/hamlet level, despite privations. Motivation is what it is, regardless of how it's driven, ideology, nationalism, revenge, whatever floats your boat. Certainly they were motivated. And soldiers are what they are, no matter who's army, everybody has their own reason for picking up a rifle.

He mentions executing wounded Americans, which certainly happened. But IMV it was a rather rare thing for the VC to be the masters of the field, post-contact, when fighting Americans. The ARVN, yes. VC/NLF/NVA drove the ARVN from the field on occasion and I believe that was their primary source of captured US armaments and munitions.

Our directives forbid us from violating the sanctity of Buddhist Temples, and there were temples in most villes and I was convinced then, and still am, that the NLF in our TAOR used them to cache weapons--and perhaps as rally points--in much the same way as the fedayeen and other militants used mosques in OIF. I'd like just once to see some former NLF soldier confirm that suspicion.

 

[Il Duce]

Really informative, thanks for adding. Seems like another difficulty with an article from this perspective is a single guerilla's perspective is very narrow - could be totally different in another element in another area. Glad to have your expertise to provide a broader context.

 

[HOLLiS]

I would say there were two types; Believers and nonbelievers. Believers, look into their eyes, dying they wanted to drag you to hell with them. Nonbelievers where just scared kids. Their eyes would betray them too.

NVA and VC, did more than the coup de grace, try torture and slice and dice. Ever notice the POWs in WWII, the enlisted to officer ratio?

They did not take many enlisted POW. Sort of like today and in the past, one did not want to get captured. Save the last frag or round for yourself. Charlie also had a bounty on certain people, Well that is what I heard.

Sat Cong.


I should probably should say, I worked with Hoi, he was ex-VC, a Chieu Hoi.

 

[pardus]

@Il Duce, nothing really struck me as implausible in this article except perhaps the way it's written. @pardus may not be wrong, it could be contrived. The guy sounds thoroughly Americanized the way he relates things. Maybe that's the way the interviewer wrote it. Of the few accounts I've read, former VC/NVA are usually not that forgiving of Americans as this guy is, and they hardly ever mention their own atrocities

My own view of the VC/NLF is that they were extremely well organized, resourceful and tough, even at the village/hamlet level, despite privations. Motivation is what it is, regardless of how it's driven, ideology, nationalism, revenge, whatever floats your boat. Certainly they were motivated. And soldiers are what they are, no matter who's army, everybody has their own reason for picking up a rifle.

He mentions executing wounded Americans, which certainly happened. But IMV it was a rather rare thing for the VC to be the masters of the field, post-contact, when fighting Americans. The ARVN, yes. VC/NLF/NVA drove the ARVN from the field on occasion and I believe that was their primary source of captured US armaments and munitions.

Our directives forbid us from violating the sanctity of Buddhist Temples, and there were temples in most villes and I was convinced then, and still am, that the NLF in our TAOR used them to cache weapons--and perhaps as rally points--in much the same way as the fedayeen and other militants used mosques in OIF. I'd like just once to see some former NLF soldier confirm that suspicion.

That was point number one. A 70ish year old Vietnamese is speaking like that? I don't think so.
IF this was from a VC member, it has been so thoroughly distorted by the reporter to be not creditworthy, to me at least.
Then stupid shit like "A lot of my guys thought we were still fighting the French" Huh? The Commie cadres were on vacation/non existent in his unit? Informing/brainwashing was kind of their entire reason for being.

 

[pardus]

Incidentally, there was a Dr in the New Zealand Army when I was still serving there, who was an ex VC.

 

[SpitfireV]

Incidentally, there was a Dr in the New Zealand Army when I was still serving there, who was an ex VC.

What?!

 

[pardus]

What?!

Yeah that's what I said. I never meet him personally and don't know the details. I thought it was pretty fucked up when I first heard it.

 

[Gunz]

Incidentally, there was a Dr in the New Zealand Army when I was still serving there, who was an ex VC.

Holy Cow.

I would say there were two types; Believers and nonbelievers. Believers, look into their eyes, dying they wanted to drag you to hell with them. Nonbelievers where just scared kids. Their eyes would betray them too.

NVA and VC, did more than the coup de grace, try torture and slice and dice. Ever notice the POWs in WWII, the enlisted to officer ratio?

They did not take many enlisted POW. Sort of like today and in the past, one did not want to get captured. Save the last frag or round for yourself. Charlie also had a bounty on certain people, Well that is what I heard.

Sat Cong.


I should probably should say, I worked with Hoi, he was ex-VC, a Chieu Hoi.

Charlie supposedly had a bounty on us, but that may have been scuttlebutt. I didn't want to find out. We also had ex-VC Chieu Hois, Kit Carsen Scouts, and they were fairly reliable IIRC although one didn't let them near the KAK Wheel, the encryption device we used to encode our coordinates, (definately a NOFORN on that). I fully agree with your views on VC/NVA and POWs... and saving the last round for yourself. We got into some trouble on a trail in April 71 and all of us got hit, with only a few guys capable of returning fire and the biggest fear I had was getting taken alive.

 

[AWP]

One reason the O to E ratios in Vietnam are so skewed is look who became a prisoner: aircrew. I have zero doubt that a number of enlisted were killed on the spot, particularly in S. Vietnam, but the bulk of the men captured were aircrew and very few planes with enlisted aircrew flew over N. Vietnam into RP's 5 and 6.

Cracked has pretty good articles and usually backs them up with embedded links. They aren't 100%, but I wouldn't discredit the entire article.

 

[Gunz]

I tried to get some numbers off the internet for US combat aircraft losses in VN. This was the best I could come up with, combat losses only:

B52-- 17
F4-- 454
RF4C-- 76
F100-- 198
F105-- 283
A4-- 276
A6-- 76
A7-- 55
OH6-- 842

After I saw the numbers for OH6's I gave up trying to compile the figures for helos. Suffice it to say there were thousands. As you point out FF, of the AC flying over North Vietnam only a few would have had enlisted aircrew members.

 

[HOLLiS]

One reason the O to E ratios in Vietnam are so skewed is look who became a prisoner: aircrew. I have zero doubt that a number of enlisted were killed on the spot, particularly in S. Vietnam, but the bulk of the men captured were aircrew and very few planes with enlisted aircrew flew over N. Vietnam into RP's 5 and 6.

Cracked has pretty good articles and usually backs them up with embedded links. They aren't 100%, but I wouldn't discredit the entire article.

Correct, and as you mentioned Being killed on the spot did effect those numbers.

In Bac Nam, those where air crews. For those who walked for living in the Southern parts it was different. I have a friend who was a POW, he was on a PBR. Where I was, grunts were never taken POWs as to live else where. They were either butchered (tortured) or just killed. For propaganda reasons a grunts life was worthless. 99% of what people know about Viet-Nam is propaganda. Sat Cong! BTW Toi tieng biet.

 

[CBTech]

I don't think any 70 year old talks like that let alone a 70 year old Vietnamese man. The article may have factual info/views of a former VC/NLF but it was piece written by an American and likely not a true interview. I call bullshit on the author.

 

[Gunz]

Correct, and as you mentioned Being killed on the spot did effect those numbers.

In Bac Nam, those where air crews. For those who walked for living in the Southern parts it was different. I have a friend who was a POW, he was on a PBR. Where I was, grunts were never taken POWs as to live else where. They were either butchered (tortured) or just killed. For propaganda reasons a grunts life was worthless. 99% of what people know about Viet-Nam is propaganda. Sat Cong! BTW Toi tieng biet.

Capture was a big concern among us as well. Our unit was small (10 Americans, 15-20 ARVN) and isolated with the nearest foot react, on a good day, maybe a klick away. The only thing that saved our bacon on 4/24/71 was that we'd split into 2 elements and our Alpha Team was able to get to our poz within 10 minutes of first contact, suppress fire and pull the chain on Dust-Offs and Cobra gunship support. Two Army Ranger advisors with their counterparts also reacted and were able to secure an LZ for the Hueys.

But the point is, the VC were not likely to burdon themselves with seriously wounded Americans. They didn't have the resources and were practical to the point of being anal about it. The best of them would have shot you and moved on.

Sat Cong.