"good" reasons for Vietnam war?

I'm more sorry then you will ever know. My ex-husband was in USAF for 5 1/2 years. Even though he got out in 1981, he can still experience flashbacks. Unfortunately lots of males in his family was in the military and seemed to be brainwashed to think military life & going to war to defend our country was what makes you a man & hero. My 20 year old son joined the Army in March on my damn birthday. That was not my choice of a birthday present. I would have given anything if he had just flunked all the tests that he was given before he went off to Basic Training, but just my luck he grew up healthy & smart (well not smart enough to keep from signing up in the first place.) At least if he was to sick to pass the physical or to dumb to pass the tests, he would at least be all in one piece (physically & mentally) whenever this stupid war gets over.
Before anyone tells me that the military life is great or we have good reasons to go to war whenever we don't like other countries. I have had other family & friends die in the military when they weren't even in war. 3 of my brothers went to the military. The Navy bro broke his neck, the Army bro watched his best friend die when he couldn't run fast enough to get the friend away from a helicopter, luckily the Air Force bro is now a Major and doing great.

 

Amen Sister!!!!!!

Don't let anyone brainwash you into thinking it is a good thing to join an armed force of any kind in any country. IT SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!! You have no life. Hell my husband couldn't even marry me with permission from the Army hows that for crap!!! They own you 24 hours a day 365 days a year and even on that extra day in a leap year you are there property and thats all there is to it. You can never make plans as they can say sorry even though you had leave booked, spent thousands on a holiday for the kids we have changed our minds and you have to go on an 8 week exercise in Istanbul or something stupid like that. I can't tell you how many family holidays he ended up absent from because the Army changed their minds.

EVERYONE!!!! Take my advice NEVER join the force unless it is the only thing that will keep you from getting life in jail as they are about the same sentence!!

Love & Opinions
EnonEmouse

 

I totally agree with you two. Right now, my brother and sister in law are escorting their 13 yr. old son out to Colo. to check out the Air Force Academy for his college education. My husband and I are just shaking our heads over this, wondering why they want to force their son into the "military life" and so soon too. Poor kid, he wants to go to GA Tech and NOT a military school. He's a sweet boy, very polite and courteous, smart, extremely responsible for his age. His parents say that they want him to go the military route for education, so it will be paid for free of charge by the Govt. and then, he can be on the "officers track" in the future.

It just makes me sick to think of the rigorous mental and emotional shit he will have to go through. He's already so passive and guarded in his actions, the military will really BREAK his spirit, I'm sure. I would rather see him go to a public college, and really watch his personality take off and soar on its own, not by the way of military school.

 

For the record,I flew for 21 months in vietnam as many of you know.I have never seen any kind of oil producing facility.Rubber however is a different story.There are rubber plantations all over II corps and parts of I corps.I don't know what is down south in III,and IV corps,never been down there.Maybe WE1 has some knowledge on that.

 

I whould say economic, it created jobs in the defense industry and some countires like mine made milions of products sold to the USA.

The other benifits whould be more of a stratigcal benift, like beter use ot tactics stuff like that.

Fo example the vietnam war saw birth to a new concept called the "air calvary" where troops whould be quickly gathered and quickly flown over the battlefield.

the use of helicopter for medical evacuaton, althought that whould be more of the korean war.

but the sytem was a little better in vietnam for example after a soldier was hit, a field medic whould heal the soldier, then in less then 15 minutes a chopper whould cary the wounded solder to the hospital. Most marines survived, most of the deaths during on the war where a result of people who died before the chooper arived and died on the spot incentently.

top gun was created durring that time and its possible becuase of vietnam.

Other then that i whouldn't say there where any real benifits

afterall the war caused the following

agent orange is effecting some of the people in vietnam.

Some POW's are still reported mising and are beleive to be still captured in vietnam,

the war caused a strain on the US army which left it almost unable to do its comitments around the war.but thats changed now

Harsh treatment towards american pows, watch the movie "hanoi hilton" senator Mccain was a prisoner there.

Plus many other bad causes.

but ya i whould say strategical benifits where the only good thing to come out of vietnam

but vietnam caused a lot of suffering for eveyone even the vietnmeas people watch "heaven and earth" it depicts the flight the vietnmeas people went throught, throught out this generation.

 

The defense industries always make money on war.

The strategic aspects of nam is known as lessons learned.They are being ignored in Iraq.

The Korean war saw the birth of air cav operations,albit very small ops.Also the medivac helicopters were first used in WWII in Burma.

The dustoff(medivac)ships were largley responsible for better survival rates.

Top gun was created to improve close in fighter tatics because of a low kill ratio against migs.The US depended more on long range missiles for kills.The mig pilots knew that and fought the US at a close range,rendering missiles all but useless.

Agent orange affects all who live in Vietnam as well as most of the veterans who fought there,to this day.

The pow-mia issue is still unresolved.

There were NO "strategic benifits" to come out of the vietnam war.Vietnam is a communist state.