Vietnam War Photo Collections

4 Responses to Vietnam War Photo Collections

1. CWO RICHARD SCHWAB says:

   June 2, 2012 at 5:33 pm

   From: Richard Schwab [mailto:naparick@att.net]
   Sent: Thursday, May 31, 2012 11:43 PM
   To: Clayton Marsh
   Subject: Re: Photographer Collection: Horst Faas in Vietnam

   I feel certain that you can get EVEN BETTER photos from the Communist Party. All these photos show Americans getting killed, searching for an illusive enemy, having our aircraft shot down, etc. They even include photos by North Vietnamese photographers, the photo of the NVA guy being shot in the head in Saigon that was used by the anti-war protesters and the last photo that is supposed to show how the Americans were chased out of Vietnam even though it is TWO YEARS AFTER WE LEFT.
   This is a propaganda photo collection, big surprise it comes from the Denver Post and Horst Faas the anti-war photographer including his “napalm girl” and “Saigon Execution” photographs. Even Kent State. This gives exactly the slanted perspective of the War that Liberals and Leftists want to show. In actuality we fought and kicked ass in every single battle of the war. In the worst week of the war we lost 263 people, Tet 1968, which was such a TOTAL ROUTE that the North Vietnamese Generals, Lo Duc Tho and Madame Binh agreed to go to Paris Peace talks because they couldn’t attempt another offensive for almost three years. For the guerrillas to come out of the jungle and fight the United States conventionally ranks with some of the greatest military blunders of all time. They got stuffed.
   The North Vietnamese Generals absolutely couldn’t believe it when Walter Cronkite said it was a LOSS for the US. When they finally did believe that the US wasn’t aware they had devastated the NVA and thought Tet was not a total wipe out of our enemies, they decided NOT to have Peace talks at all and started arguing about the SHAPE of the table in Paris. HEY, Anybody remember this? Been listening to Fonda and Kerry?
   The number of US people killed there was 47,000 IN SIXTEEN YEARS, including many drunk kids with guns and explosives, less than were killed on the highways in ANY ONE YEAR of the war. Much less than cancer or heart disease. Less than were killed building the Panama Canal that Carter gave away. Less than half of what were killed in 6 hours in bombing Dresden Germany or in any big BATTLE of any major war. Nothing like the Civil War where more than 12 times as many died in four years or even Korea where 37,000 died in three years. In Vietnam less than 3,000 Americans died a year. Like American deaths in the Twin Towers in a few hours.
   In Vietnam we made THEM die for their country. Eleven guys supported every one in combat running PXs, clubs, Post Offices, shipping supplies, etc. Ever go to an Air Force base in RVN? My buddy wrote Air Force menus for four years straight. Never issued a weapon. See the Air Force swimming pool, tennis courts? Go to Cam Ranh Bay and go water skiing or scuba diving? What about R&R? See anything in these photos showing how many North Vietnamese were wiped out? See anything about them relocating the people from their cities to hide the fact that if you went South you didn’t come back? My LOH killed 313. Do you see any of them? We lost thousands, THEY LOST MILLIONS.
   I joined in 1965 and went to the Fifth Special Forces in RVN in 1967. I came back as a LOH pilot in 1971 because it was the best duty in the Army which is also why I didn’t take an R&R either time.
   Don’t buy into this War is Hell crap. Now we have The Iraq War where less than 500 Americans die a year and the Afghanistan War where less than 160 people die a year. Pretty soon it will be impossible for America to stand up for anyones right to freedom or self determination, including our own, if there is a possibility that anyone could be hurt. Don’t become a fat, balding, nostalgia buff who has his facts wrong because he lets Liberals continue to try to rewrite the history HE LIVED.

   CWO Richard Schwab
   C Trp 1/9th, A trp 3/17, F trp 4th CAV
   • Bear says:

     June 2, 2012 at 8:32 pm

     Richard, as of this Memorial Day, there are 58,281 names on our Wall. You have certainly raised some very valid points and I thank you for your post.

     I look at the photos and see a very dedicated group of young servicemen who served their country when called upon with honor and who often made the ultimate sacrifice doing so. In fact in retrospect, I believe the pictures show the heroic actions of U.S. personnel and in the long haul, the betrayal of those who opposed the war and cutoff all military aid to South Vietnam condeming South Vietnam, Cambodia & Laos to the atrocities that followed.

     We served honorably and I’ll let those who opposed the war live with the fact of millions of people that died fleeing South Vietnam into the South China Sea, and those who perished at the brutal hands of the Khmer Rouge and drove Cambodia back into the stone age.

     Thanks for your years of service and for the post!
2. CWO RICHARD SCHWAB says:

   June 4, 2012 at 7:07 pm

   Bear,

   When I first went to Vietnam in 1967 one of my friends fell in love with a prostitute and asked her to marry him and go back to the US. She said “No.” and he got a .45 from an officer and blew his brains out. An Indian friend named Perez got drunk one night and went through a hole in the wire to go swimming naked. When he started to come back an Air Force SP halted him at gunpoint. He told the SP to fuck off and was shot dead. You will find these guys and 10,783 more like them on the wall. They are Non-Hostile deaths or which the Vietnam War had 19%. The Iraq War has 21%. The Hostile RVN deaths add up to 47,424 although many of these are listed as hostile when they may not be but it looks better to the family. Jaquins threw a WP grenade and it went off immediately killing him and crashing the LOH. The WP timed fuse will exchange with the immediate smoke fuse and the night before guys were sitting in the aircraft bullshitting and playing around with the grenades. Hostile?

   I suppose anyone can chose to see these photos from whatever perspective they want, however it’s hard to escape the fact that Horst Faas didn’t take many of the photos and consequently it wasn’t a memorial to his recent death. He wasn’t shooting pictures of American aircraft being shot down in North Vietnam nor was he there photographing our imprisoned pilots in Hanoi where they were tortured and lost nearly half their body weight.
   The photo of the Vietnamese Napalm girl that won the Pulitzer Prize he didn’t shoot either but he was the Editor who allowed it printed because it was such a strong statement against the war. It was used for years by the antiwar movement to show the horror of war. It’s interesting to note that the girl was not allowed to continue her education to become a doctor in Vietnam because she was of more use to the Communists as a propaganda tool so they made her quit school. She eventually defected to Canada where she now lives.
   The execution in Saigon by the Police Chief was used to show the barbarity of our allies and the graphic appalling nature of war. It was taken by Eddie Adams, not Horst Faas although Horst did later interview the widow of the “Vietcong martyr” as Faas called him. The Police Chief told Adams that the “man had killed many of my people and yours too.”
   The Kent State photo also won a Pulitzer. It was taken by John Filo an undergraduate working in the Kent State photo lab. It isn’t hard to see how the Peace Movement used his martyrdom to their advantage.
   The photo of the helicopter above the building in Saigon was misnamed “The Fall of Saigon” even though it was nearly two years after Saigon fell. It was commonly stated that the building was the American Embassy, which it was not. This famous image was taken by Hubert van Es, a Dutch photographer working for United Press International. The civilians left on the roof waited for hours, hoping for more helicopters to arrive. To no avail.

   These Pulitzer Prize winning photos and other famous anti-war photos are sprinkled in with Horst Faas’ work. If you think it’s some accident or inadvertent mistake you are entitled to your opinion.

   Richard
   • Bear says:

     June 4, 2012 at 10:27 pm

     Richard,

     You will certainly get no argument from me on how the media and anti-war crowd used any means necessary to give aid and comfort to our enemy. They played right into their hands.

     Thanks for the great posts and factual information you’ve shared with all of us. Be well and thanks for serving our country!

Comments are closed.