This is probably the best documentary I've seen about FAC and Misty flights in specific. Interesting also to see the plot of land where my house now stands, just north of the MACV headquarters in the b&w photo shown early in the film. A lot has changed in 50 years.
I've read about these F-100 FAC missions and always wondered about that paradox of staying fast versus IDing targets versus not going back over the same area too much.....That's some sketchy business, there....a dangerous game.
This is the first I've heard about this operation. I'm not a pilot but I wish I could have been a part of it. This video has given me a lot of respect for the F-100 and the pilots of Misty.
Interesting to compare this strategy in Vietnam and the strategy in Iraq 30 year later. Is it possible that the US military command actually learned something?I guess we should consider that Ho was originally a "freedom fighter" against French Colonialism but the US refused to support independence for Vietnam . Consider that Castro was a freedom fighter against the Batista dictatorship but the US refused to help him to achieve democracy.
I'm reading a book about the OSS and CIA and they have a picture of ho chi Minh and general giap with OSS agents back in the 40s, its crazy to think how history could have been so different
Imagine a football game where one team could only use the same play on offense and could only tackle the other team when the runner touched them. This is what the Vietnam war was!
And one team had to stay within the boundaries of the playing field but the other one could run the ball down the outside of the line, so the other team had to sneak over there to tackle them. There you go.
@@rudolphguarnacci197 And the worst thing is we supplied the refs even though they were in on what the other side was doing. Tell me that isn't the definition of insanity.
@@dukecraig2402 It's the definition of a lot of dysfuntional psychological phrases. McNamara, who admitted his mishandling of it late in his life and, from the video i saw, seemed earnest in his apology, was, in my eyes the most dysfunctional of all.
How did the NVA get tanks dn to the south.? Is it true they diss assembled and transported them in pieces along the ho chi minh trail? and then re assembled them?
No they didn't do that, they just drove them down there in the cover of the night with special trucks that had driver's who knew their particular section of the Ho Chi Mihn Trail to lead the way, once each truck driver got to the end of his section of the trail he'd turn them over to a lead driver for the next section and turn around and go back up the road to get the next group of tanks and do the same thing. Even if you disassembled tanks you'd still have to move the hull which is the size of the tank by itself so why bother disassembling them to move them? During the day they'd just park the tanks off the road in the jungle and pile tree branches with leaves on them on top to cover them up from photo reconnaissance planes. It didn't work anyway because every invasion force the North sent into the South got wiped out by US forces when they entered South Vietnam, they never could invade the South until US military forces left, all the North did all those years the US was there was send men down there to their deaths, and for what? So they could just turn around one day and normalize relations with free countries and conduct free trade with them like they are now? Their communist system didn't work and they spent years not being able to feed their own people, they gave up in the long run anyway and now kids in Vietnam are walking around drinking Pepsi and wearing Rambo t-shirts.
What a waste of good men and valuable resources. Look at at how many of the names became legends or generals; Bud Day, Dick Rutan, Gen. Fogleman, Gen. McPeak...etc
It was known as early as 63 the USA could not win that war (without invading Hanoi). In 1967, General McChristian who collated all intelligence materials and prepared reports wrote that statistics proved the USA could not win the war if they had indefinite amounts of time. He cited things like attrition, etc. The Joint Chiefs of Staff, William Westmorelan etc etc, changed his figures. At the time appx 30K NVA's were moving down the Ho Chi Min trail per month (they lied and changed the number to like 4K or something); and I forget his number for how many already in South Vietnam. Anyway, he proved unequivocally the USA would never win in a zillion years. This evidence was hidden. Video on YT of interview with McChristian. Since WW2, the US Government has been controlled by top generals with the national security state operating as their tool. Their assassinations included JFK, RFK and attempted assassinations of Nixon (twice) and Reagan. They put the hit on Nixon for his secret SALT talks with Russia and opening relations with China. They put the hit on Reagan for pulling out of the Middle East. In short, our country is run by war mongering Generals. Meanwhile: Why is no one talking about the missing 21 trillion dollars at the Pentagon? The Office of Inspector General refused to answer, and for a time, pulled the documentation off line. Later they got main stream media to criticize the findings. However, the documentation and evidence is published in its full below. The Pentagon produces two financial statements - the real one and one they give the public. Over 150 federal government agencies do this same thing. The federal policy that lets them hide the numbers like the Mafia is called FASAB Standard 56. How much money is flowing through the Federal Government Shadow System? Didn’t Eisenhower warn us of this very thing? According to General Wesley Clark, (Rhodes scholar, Oxford, valedictorian of the class of 1966 at West Point, etc.), 911 was a pretext to justify the invasion of 7 oil bearing nations. [1]
No, it wasn't known, that's a bunch of BS where people cherry pick one report out of hundreds and act like it was the only report written on what might or might not be the outcome of the war there, the US military was never task with "defeating" North Vietnam, if it would have been that's a fight that would have been over in less than 6 months, it's mission was simply to prevent the North from invading the South which is exactly what it did while it was there, every invasion force like the one in 68 during the Tet Offensive and the one in 72 during the Easter Offensive was wiped out by US forces once it entered South Vietnam. The narrative that the US "lost" the Vietnam War is a bunch of hogwash that people who hate the US like to run around saying, you can't stay in someone else's country forever fighting their war for them, sooner or later they have to put their big boy pants on and fight their own war themselves and after 10 years of training and equipping the South Vietnamese military it was time for the US to leave and for South Vietnam to take care of themselves, they're the one's who lost, they're the one's who lost their country and their freedom not the US. And your assessment of what happened in the middle east is even further off the mark, that malarkey about being reliant on the oil producing nations over there was true in the 70's but hasn't been for years, the US actually produces a surplus of it's own oil and exports it, we don't need middle eastern oil and haven't for years, we import about 15% of what we use from over there but that's only because on the east coast is oil refineries that were built 30+ years ago to process process middle eastern oil that can't process our own domestic oil because it's a different base, they only import middle eastern oil for the sake of running those refineries until they've got their investment back out of them, in the meantime as new refineries are built in the US to replace that production they're being phased out and replaced and their production is being replaced with domestic production, in something like 10 or 15 years the last of those old refineries will be completely replaced, but we currently export more than we import. So those wars in the middle east really were about terrorism and not oil after all weren't they? The days of the middle eastern nations holding sway over countries because of their oil is long over and hasn't been the reality of how things work for years, the truth is their oil is junk compared to our domestic oil anyway, it's the most impure and hardest to work with and refine oil in the world, matter of fact conventional motor oil made from our domestic base oil is so good that the API has certified it to be sold as synthetic grade oil, no kidding, the molecule chains can be refined to the point where they're identical to synthetic oil, that's why you don't see sludge buildup in engine's here in America nearly as bad as in the 70's when most of the crude oil refined was the much lower grade middle eastern oil, and it's also why oil change intervals for conventional oil is 3 times longer than it was in the 70's because our domestic conventional oil doesn't break down as fast as that middle eastern based oil does, being a mechanic since 1981 I can attest to the fact that engine's these days don't have the sludge build up's nearly as bad as engine's did back when they ran middle eastern based oil in them, not even close to the same amount and the recommended oil change intervals are 3 times longer, the same thing works for domestic gasoline, gas made from our domestic oil is much easier to make with higher octane ratings and is why in the early 80's when they made them take lead out of gas and our gas was still mostly refined from the middle eastern oil the highest octane you could find at a pump was 89, now with our domestic produced gas we've got 92 and even 94 at some stations. Not only does no one need their oil anymore no one wants it, it's junk compared to our domestic crude and OPEC can mostly only sell their oil to 3rd world countries now like in Africa.
@@dukecraig2402 What makes you say that? The following RU-vid video shows you the reports and the liars, dates and all documentation: "The Uncounted Enemy: A Vietnam Deception" Enjoy
@@dukecraig2402 You didn't watch it. The evidence is presented. There were several men who hid the facts like General William Westmoreland. The video covers the entire issue in depth and very thoroughly. The big and small players were interviewed and evidence presented. There was never a plan to "win". To win you have to roll in and sack the leadership. The purpose of war for the Americans is simply "to war" - profits for wall street and their political benefactors. Attrition, search and destroy - these are direct violations of all military doctrines from Sun Tzu to Clausewitz. People refuse to consider facts due to cognitive dissonance.
