2020 election

[Smitty-48]

And this is where all the identity politics comes from.

Those are the two Identity camps. The Hanoi Dan's. And the Hardhat Smitty's.

[heydaralon]

Fuck Dan

[Smitty-48]

This is why the Ia Drang was so seminal.

Two landing zones.

X-ray and Albany.

At X-ray, the Americans kept them at arms length and brought the firepower to bear.

At X-ray, the NVA was devastated.

Two days later, at Albany, they caught the Americans in an ambush, and that American battalion was decimated.

After the battle, the NVA had serious morale problems, because they suffered brutally.

What the NVA chain of command did, was get their guys to focus on Albany and ignore X-Ray.

The problem for the Americans, is that the America media also ignored X-ray and obsessed on Albany.

[Smitty-48]

It's like my uncle flew in that battle.

He says, as far as the Division was concerned, they won the battle.

800 American defeated 3200 NVA.

When the media declared it to be a "disaster" the Air Cav was like "WTF?!"

[heydaralon]

It's like my uncle flew in that battle.

He says, as far as the Division was concerned, they won the battle.

800 American defeated 3200 NVA.

When the media declared it to be a "disaster" the Air Cav was like "WTF?!"

Gdi why is this never fucking discussed?

[heydaralon]

Common Sense is a lie! HH is a lie! Dan talks about being New Media when in reality his shtick is older than trilobite shit. Dan was also whining about United Fruit Company and the contras or something dumb like that. This guy has costs us at least 3 wars.

[Smitty-48]

It's like my uncle flew in that battle.

He says, as far as the Division was concerned, they won the battle.

800 American defeated 3200 NVA.

When the media declared it to be a "disaster" the Air Cav was like "WTF?!"

Gdi why is this never fucking discussed?

It was discussed.

The Army tried to get the word out.

The Army pointed out that they had beat the enemy, one against four.

Did not fit with the media narrative, which was already taking shape around the narrative of the college academics.

[Smitty-48]

My uncle doesn't have tales of woe about Vietnam.

He was Air Cav.

He was Kilgore.

All his stories from Vietnam are about flying around in helicopters and annihilating the enemy with impunity.

Once in awhile they would take some causalities, but it didn't effect morale in the Air Cav.

[Smitty-48]

My uncle said he wasn't even that afraid.

They'd fly the helicopter into firestorms, and they'd be calmly chatting on the radio like it was a baseball game.

Just keep your cool on the radio, and everybody stays cool.

They had an Air Cav radio voice, the voice of calm and reason; just hang tight, we'll get to you, son, coming in hot.

They were not afraid. They were cocky, they had swagger.

[Smitty-48]

This is the voice right here, Air Cav 65';



Like I say, the Army tried to get the word out, not everything is a disaster.

It's a battle in a war, wasn't any worse than a battle in World War Two.

The difference was, in World War Two, they had the media under control.

Can you imagine what would have happened, if you had the media from Vietnam flipping out about Guadalcanal?

The war effort would have collapsed long before you got to Iwo Jima.

How long would the North Vietnamese have lasted, if they had a media flipping out about their woes?

Over a million killed. Twice as many wounded. Their troops were starving, they were eating rats.

Their Tet Offensive was a total disaster, and so where the offensives they launched after.

That's not how it was reported to the North Vietnamese.

They won the Psyops war, simple as that.