SwiftVets.com

[George F. Thompson]

Dear Dad,
A funny thing happened to me yesterday
at Camp Bondsteel (Bosnia): A French army officer
walked up to me in the PX, and told me he thought
we (Americans) were a bunch of cowboys and were
going to provoke a war in Iraq. He said if such a
thing happens, we wouldn't be able to count on the
support of France. I told him that it didn't
surprise me. Since we had come to France's rescue
in World War I, World War II, Vietnam, and the
Cold War, their ingratitude and jealousy was due
to surface at some point in the near future
anyway. I also told him that is why France is a
third-rate military power with a socialist economy
and a bunch of f*****s for soldiers. I
additionally told him that America, being a nation
of deeds and action, not words, would do whatever
it had to do, and France's support was only for
show anyway. Just like in ALL NATO exercises, the
US would shoulder 85% of the burden, as evidenced
by the fact that this French officer was shopping
in the American PX, and not the other way around.
He began to get belligerent at that point, and I
told him if he would like to, I would meet him
outside in front of the Burger King and whip his
ass in front of the entire Multi-National Brigade
East, thus demonstrating that even the smallest
American had more fight in him than the average
Frenchman. He called me a barbarian cowboy and
walked away in a huff. With friends like these,
who needs enemies?
Tell Mom I love her,
Your loving daughter
Female Officer (name withheld)
Lt. Col., USMC
GEORGE F THOMPSON MSGT. RET .USAF/USN

[carpro]

That one's been around for a while, but I still enjoy it.
_________________
"If he believes his 1971 indictment of his country and his fellow veterans was true, then he couldn't possibly be proud of his Vietnam service."

[GM Strong]

May 5th is Cinco de mayo in Mexico. It is the day French troops under Maximillian II were defeated at the "Battle of Puebla" when Indians and mestizos with machettis stampeded a herd of cattle at them. If it had been a herd of frogs, things might have been different.
_________________
8th Army Korea 68-69

[Doc Farmer]

Hate to spoil the fun, but this is just an urban legend...

http://www.snopes.com/military/marine.htm
_________________

Fat, Bald and Ugly - And PROUD Of It!

[Snipe]

Yabut, it's a FUN urban legend.


_________________
Tin Can Sailor

[GM Strong]

It is not Urban Legend.

http://www.hpl.lib.tx.us/youth/cinco_war.html

6,000 Frech Troops defeated by Cavalry and a stampede of cattle by 2,000 Indians and Mexican

Puebla
On May 5th, 1862 the French General Conde de Lorencez attacked Puebla defended by 2,000 Mexican men in two forts commanded by General Ignacio Zaragoza. The French attacked three times but were driven off by a stampede initiated by the Zapotec indians and a perfect cavalry surprise attack led by Colonel Diaz. The French finally pulled back, but they would be back.
Occupation
The French were defeated, but they were soon reinforced by a force of 30,000 troops. The Mexicans couldn't stop them and they went right past them to Mexico City. Napoleon III sent Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian to rule this new territory. He ruled until 1867 when the French troops left and the Mexicans regained control. In June of that year he and his wife were executed.
_________________
8th Army Korea 68-69

[Rdtf]

[Rittar]

Want to sell: French Army Rifle. It has never been fired and only dropped once.

Rittar
_________________
USA, CW3 (Ret), 1971-1994

[Bob51]

[LewWaters]

Bob, I can't tell you much about modern textbooks, but my own daughters, both in their thirties now, never heard anything of Hue until I told them. Of course they heard all about My Lai.

My new step-daughters, one married to a Vietnamese born in America, also seems to have never heard of the Hue Massacre, nor has her husband. I'm assuming his family came over after the fall of Saigon, but I've never met them. Why they didn't mention it is something I don't know.

From what I've been able to gleen over the past 30 odd years is that our children are taught a very skewed history of our involvement in Viet Nam, as if we didn't all already know that.

I have a history textbook I picked up in 1980, when I took a history course here and nowhere does it mention Hue in it. My Lai, along with Kent State (complete with pictures of a dead student in the road) have fairly prominent mention in it. The book is "The National Experience," 1977, by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc.

I ended up dropping the course due to the revisionism of history that I could see then.
_________________
Clark County Conservative

[I B Squidly]

Yes Bob I heard. French Indochina was a British occupation zone but they never put boots on the ground. The locals prefered the Japanese to the French. When the French finally were let out of their goals they had their vengenance. Moreover, they employed ex-Wehrmacht soldiers to fight that war (unfortunately with US dollars).
_________________
"KILL ALL THE LAWYERS!"

-Wlm Shakespeare

[Bob51]

IB,

Thanks for the stimulus to research. There seems to be a lot of material now available on this criticial period, especially from Pentagon archives.

I found this extract interesting:

[Bob51]

[Bob51]

Lew,
Sorry, looks like the image of the text may be unreadable. Lonely Planet books are printed on thin paper and the map of the Hue Citadel is showing through. Anyway, what it says is:

"Immediately upon taking Hue, Communist political cadres implemented detailed plans to liquidate Hue's 'uncooperative' elements. Thousands of people were rounded up in extensive house-to-house searches conducted according to lists of names meticulously prepared months in advance. During the 3 and 1/2 weeks Hue remained under Communist control, approximately 3000 civilians - including merchants, Buddhist monks, Catholic priests, intellectuals and a number of foreigners as well as people with ties to the South Vietnamese government - were summarily shot, clubbed to death or buried alive. The victims were buried in shallow mass graves which were discovered around the city over the course of the next few years."

Later, the text says;
" Approximately 10,000 people died in Hue during the Tet offensive. Thousands of VC troops, 400 South Vietnamese soldiers and 150 American Marines were among the dead, but most of those killed were civilians. Long after the Vietnam war ended, one American veteran is said to have returned to Hue and, upon meeting a former VC officer, commented that the USA never lost a single major battle during the entire war. 'You are absolutely correct', the former officer agreed, 'but that is irrelevant, is it not?'"

Now you will spot a problem here. The previous extract from the Giap biography mentioned the commander of PLAF troops as having stopped the slaughter when he heard what was happening. Yet, this version implies detailed planning with careful execution over a period of weeks.

Something doesn't gel and I don't suppose the International Criminal Court will be getting documents any time soon.

Regards

Bob51

[tony54]

I got a joke about the FRENCH. I thought I would share with all you Patriots.