Something Interesting I Found Online...

[Van Owen]

http://www.cracked.com/personal-experiences-1562-8-facts-about-vietnam-war-i-learned-as-viet-cong_p2.html

 

It's hardly a secret Hollywood usually fails with accuracy when it comes to war movies, but it was interesting to see commentary by the other side explaining exactly how they got it wrong, and even moreso pointing out that they really weren't the jungle ninjas that are frequently made out to be. Also interesting was the bit about tigers, and tiger traps. Evidently, much of the intended target for them really was tigers!

[Tim Sielbeck]

Its "Cracked" magazine. Is it a real translation of a story from a VC vet? It sems a tad to Americanized to 100% authentic. Its not that I don't think the points are true, it just seems to me that this Vietnamese man, in his mid to late 70s, speaks in an amazingly American manner.

[Van Owen]

Cracked.com while a tad odd, I've never known to actually make up stories--they're not The Onion. It all seems genuine enough, and I suspect the good English is likely the work of the translator, which was probably edited further before put in print.

[bojan]

It sound pretty similar to what my grandfather told (with less tigers but more bears and boars ) from his days as WW2 partisan in Yugoslavia.

[Brian Kennedy]

Cracked is a humor website but a good one -- I think the basic facts are probably accurate but the verbiage is obviously the USAian author's.

[chino]

I read two books written by former Vietnamese soldiers. One of them I remember is "The Sorrow of War" - former NVA. Can't remember the name of the other but it was written by a former VC.

 

I recount some things that I remember from (either or both) of these two books.

 

US troops fought in 1-yr tours. The NVA trooper fought till he can no longer fight or dies. The author fought for 10 years. They get to go on home leave each year or so. Like the VC interviewed in the website, most were young men whom were drafted and didn't care about politics or ideologies. If at all, they were just patriotic, fighting to stay alive, and fighting because they were being invaded and their families, friends and comrades expected them to fight.

 

Many went crazy. Some committed suicide, and others smoked a wild jungle plant similar to marijuana.

 

After the war they were treated like shit by the government and police, were broke, and mentally damaged.

 

...

 

In the website, they made one mistake. Vietcong doesn't translate into whatever National liberation front etc. In Vietnamese NLF translates into "Mặt trận Dân tộc Giải phóng miền Nam Việt Nam".

 

Vietcong simply meant - Viet (Vietnamese) Cong (communist). Sounding very much like the Chinese word for communist "共产“ or Gong Chan. Literally it means "collectively produce". But the two words are only used as part of the phrase "Gong Chan Zhuyi" or "collectively produce ideology" i.e. Communism, which is itself from the word "Commune" or collective.

Edited September 8, 2015 by chino