Having the benefit of first hand observation of a South Korean Marine unit and an Australian equivalent of an American Ranger outfit, these fellows were the real deal. The North were merely assisting their southern (Viet Cong) brothers. A nurse attempts to comfort a wounded U.S. Army soldier in a ward of the 8th army hospital at Nha Trang in South Vietnam on February 7, 1965. Bien Hoa. Australia's first combat casualty was Warrant Officer Kevin Conway, killed on July 6, 1964 in a Viet Cong attack on a remote US special forces base at Nam Dong near the Laotian border. In the middle distance, with a second Vietnamese body, are seven Australian soldiers milling about. (AP) Vu Thanh Lan fought with the Viet Cong in Quang Nam and Quang Ngai for more than a decade. The term is rather derogatory, however, so perhaps a better translation would be "Vietnamese commie." Seven Americans were killed in the attacks. January 1966. An extract from the late Mike Coleridge's TV news film "6 RAR in Vietnam action DPR/TV/571". Opinion Political Op-Eds ... that I saw numerous Republic of Vietnam soldiers rushing the streets. The Viet Cong arose after the defeat of the French colonial forces at Dien Bien Phu , which prompted the United States to become gradually more and more involved in Vietnam. The action was fought between Viet Cong (VC) and People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) units and elements of the 1st Australian Task Force - 6 RAR. North Vietnamese veterans I’ve spoken to have told me that they feared American firepower, rather than American troops per se. The Viet Cong (called VC) were an irregular force of peasants, farmers and the like who blended into the surroundings because they lived there. 1,400-1,500 soldiers from 275 Viet Cong Main Force Regiment and Support Companies 105 soldiers from D Coy, 6RAR, Australian Army; Three man New Zealand Artillery Forward Observation (FO) party, 161 Battery, RNZA (Royal New Zealand Artillery) Total 108 men. See more ideas about vietnam, vietnam war, vietnam veterans. They were adept at hiding among civilian populations, taking shelter in the thick jungle and moving only in the dead of night. Review Inside company’s standard cardboard box with a photo of the painted figures on the front cover, figures and other small parts are seperately inserted into transparent zip-lock bags and all lumped together into larger one. Still, Vietnam remains a central part of the Australian-American narrative, for good or ill. Which does not bode well for the situation in Iraq or Afghanistan. Ultimately we were weaker than the North and they won. Remembrance Day: Vietnam vet’s last fight for soldier recognition In the heat of a 26-day battle on Vietnamese soil in May 1968, Lieutenant Colonel George Hulse OAM thought he would die. The Tet Offensive began in stealth 50 years ago in Vietnam, but it ended up being splashed on television sets all over America. Robert C. Lafoon/National Archives. Nguyen Tien, center, a former Viet Cong soldier, shows U.S. Marine veterans his wooden leg while having coffee at the Red Beach Resort in Da Nang, Vietnam, on Sept. 25, 2015. Two Viet Cong prisoners are led to an ARVN Command Outpost at Ha Tien. Note During Operation MARSDEN in late 1969, Australian forces captured a Viet Cong dispensary that had a list of dead and wounded attributed to Long Tan. The USA, having originally decided not fight the war to win then decided to withdraw so Australia did also. National Archives and Records Administration Under terms of the agreement reached at the peace negotiations held in Paris in 1971–73, the PRG won acknowledgment of its authority in areas under its control, pending general elections to determine the future of South Vietnam. Mar 23, 2018 - The actual allies in Vietnam were small in number units that were quite specialized in function. North Vietnamese and Viet Cong. Loan calmly holsters his pistol, saying to … The Viet Cong were burning villages near ... as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to ... was born, the soldier was long gone from Vietnam. Australia’s fiercest and most decisive battle of the Vietnam War began innocuously enough. According to statistics compiled by the Australian Ministry of Defence (Australia had men in Vietnam for almost the entire conflict), 11% of all deaths and 15% of all wounds in Vietnam were due to booby traps (this is for all Allied troops, including US armed forces). By 1972, the idea that Vietnam posed a threat to Cold War America was so discredited, it sometimes sounded as if America’s only remaining war aim was to … Viet Cong and the Chinese Origins of Vietnam’s Long Civil War The origins of “Viet Cong,” like those of the Vietnam War, are not found in America’s Saigon embassy. ... Why were Viet Cong forces constantly on the move during the Vietnam War? The name Viet Cong comes from the phrase "cong san Viet Nam," meaning "Vietnamese communist." After supplies and weapons were found in a Viet Cong tunnel network, a soldier burns a nearby hut used for rice storage by the Viet Cong. Just like the "free world" forces were assisting the ARVN. A former Viet Cong commander who fought in the battle of Long Tan says he has made peace with Australian soldiers. The soldier was one of more than 100 who were wounded during Viet Cong attacks on two U.S. military compounds at Pleiku, 240 miles north of Saigon. Counting US forces alone, there were over 300,000 wounded in Vietnam. It turned public opinion against Johnson's handling of the war. They helped by tricking soldiers into thinking that they were South Vietnamese peasants, and they were harmless. An American soldier carefully examines a Vietcong tunnel--they were often boobytrapped if abandoned Close-up: Cu Chi The base area at Cu Chi was a vast network, with nearly 200 miles of tunnels. had trouble finding attackers in the dense jungles. The weapons weren’t necessarily from dead American soldiers. and there stories that the VC avoided the australian patrols from then on the US soldiers would say that the Australians could patrol without weapons without worrying about the VC . The prisoner, Viet Cong officer Nguyen Van Lem, tumbles to the pavement, blood spouting from his head. 2 of 45. The Viet Cong wanted to help Communist Vietnam make Democratic Vietnam communist. Viet Cong soldiers were trained to be subversive, evasive and crafty. Yes, Vietnam was a military defeat that killed some 58,000 American soldiers and left 75,000 severely disabled—reason enough, for many, to stuff it down the memory hole. While fighting in the war in Vietnam, American soldiers often. Actually the historical narrative is the Viet Minh and later the Viet Cong were popular uprisings. The Viet Cong forces were very successful at acquiring and using American made arms, which led directly to most of their big successes in the early to mid-60s. The contorted body of a Viet Cong wearing a light shirt and shorts, his head haloed by barbed wire, dominates the entire foreground. If they were spotted, the amount of raw destruction that could be brought down was huge. 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