Most of us know of Vietnam by watching movies or shows or even relatives but how much is real and how much is false well let's find out. let's jump into the facts and fire the first one! 

We are all taught by our parents or grandparents or even movies about Vietnam. In fact, there are many many movies or shows talking about Vietnam. The media has covered every inch of the Vietnam war. No matter who you are knowing about that was the Vietnam war is an important topic because it is in America's foundation as a country and in its history.

Men that fought in the war with hand-to-hand combat, may have PTSD after what they saw in the Vietnam war. Women that were stay-at-home moms or just married, may not have indoor people dying while getting shot at but they also had to wonder every day if their husband was dead and would never come home to their kids or even them. Regardless, this war was hard for both sides of people and they had to indoor way more than any human should in their lifetime.

The people who had been in the era of the Vietnam war could tell you about what they saw or what they had to indoor as a citizen. When you see exactly what the troops used and saw you would never see Vietnam the same and you might just have different perspectives of the Vietnam war.

1. Guns/armory:

Believe it or not, Vietnam and the US did not use the exact same weapon some were the same but not others at all. If they did use all the same weapons it would all be up to the plans and strategies but that is not true. In this situation, more firepower was always king in war, and still is it is like if you have a bigger gun than the other guy you will succeed.

In many cases, America is always a leader in firepower even looking at specific states like texas. If you or Americans did not believe in guns we would not have this beauty in the Vietnam war, “The M16 rifle is one of the world's most famous firearms, iconic as the American weapon of the Vietnam War—and, indeed, as the U.S. military's standard service rifle until only a few years ago.” If this gun was never invented we may have a different outcome of what America looks like today after the Vietnam war.

  In this situation against a national superpower like America, the Vietnam army need to have a special weapon that could knock out as many American troops as they could in one round and this horror was made, “The North Vietnamese used the DP light machine gun as their squad-level, automatic support weapon. This counterpart to the American M-60 fed cartridges using a pan magazine or belt and ranged about 875 yards.” While this DP light machine gun was extremely powerful it was not that practical compared to an M16 rifle that America was using at the time.

What happens after is that Vietnam and America both had amazing and powerful weapons but you can only go so far with just weapons. Those who think that you just have to shoot a gun to win a battle are so wrong. Those who think you have to have alan to win a battle and they are the most right you can be in the Vietnam war and the US did just that.

2. Strategies for the US:

With the army playing a huge factor in Vietnam we can not forget other branches of the US protective forces like the marine corp, Air Force, Navy, and Coast Guard units they were all trained and assisted South Vietnamese forces. Some branches weren't even known to fight with hand-to-hand combat like coastguards the original job they have is to make sure no contraband gets into the country like drugs. Couple that with the fact that some branches were not meant to fight on land, they were either meant to fight in the air or n the water but that is also a great thing. The army could not bomb trade routes but the air force could locate and destroy North Vietnamese troops and supply routes.

The US tried its best to go fast in battles.  They had to because they did not get ambushed in the thick Vietnam jungles by the people who lie in it.  An ambush was typically the last thing the US needed. If something like that did happen which sometimes it did it was a huge loss that would push the chances of victory in Vietnam direction.

While now some of us are assuming that for America we were very unorganized and did not know what we were doing it was actually the opposite 90% of the time we usually had a great plan but we all know not everything goes to plan especially not being in an area that no American people know.

There is even mention that the American people were so lost at times it was very easy for the Vietnam people to set traps and catch them off, guard. Though it is known that the Vietnamese were very hidden at times we have to remind ourselves that we as true Americans never stop fighting for freedom and that is why America is free and will hopefully stay free for the true Americans that fight for it.

3.  Cilivans and support:

Just like how war can be at times many American citizens opposed the war and would try anything to stop it as long as it did not use violence one example of what they did is protesting out of the capital or government buildings. Many people often claimed the conflict was a war against Vietnamese independence or intervention in a foreign civil war. Taking that  idea, others opposed it because they felt it lacked clear objectives and appeared to be unwinnable for America.

 Did the US kill a good number of Vietnam citizens? Well if you said yes but in a way no you would be right. They were at war with another country as the other country fought they did too so yes they did kill but Vietnam also killed American troops as well so it is almost like they did the same heinous deed and no one knows if America just kill or the vietmes just kill.  Well, you might think they had to just use guns to solve everything but you would be wrong they had to use other methods of winning the war like burning down houses. This fact shows that not one side did this terrible deed for America we call it the Vietnam war but Vietnam calls it the American war so this shows no one will admit or knows who really is to blame for this war.

Anyone that knows a little bit about war is that you protect your country until the very end of the war you shall not step down and be a traitor in the country that you live in. They also make the case that if you live in America you have to remember the people that fought for it and you may have to be one of those people in the future. Only god knows what may happen in the future.

We all can guess and may know the terror that goes through the body as hearing that people, family, or you may be drafted for war but the only people that can say what it feels like is a person that saw or went through that and lucky I am not one of those people but I may assume that you may never forget the terror of that one feeling. Couple that with the fact that you may never see a person again or you may never be seen again, and we can see why so many vets have PTSD from war.

4. Deaths:

For some people, they would think that there would be 10,000 deaths which would be horrible but people have to tell them that there are almost 6 times that. Today there are so many precautions to keep people and the military safe but back then it was a bit more rugged. 

In the Vietnam Conflict Extract Data File of the Defense Casualty Analysis System (DCAS), Extract Files contains records of 58,220 U.S. military fatal casualties of the Vietnam War. For those who have witnessed or got shot and live today themself this could have been a much bigger number of brave people who did not rescue those who were injured.

However, people may not know where these files are. These records were transferred into the custody of the National Archives and Records Administration in 2008. Back in the day, these files were constantly floating around the united states until 2008.

Things like the Vietnam war had a lot of casualties and many and I mean many Americans died but we can not forget the vietmies soldiers too because we have to rember we are all people that had a big conflict too. Most of the casualties were people dying but there were other ways to get casualties like a vehicle blowing up or a sneak attack but that just adds up with people dying as well.

5. Aftermath:

It should come as no surprise that not all soldiers died many survived in fact 3 million Americans that severed in Vietnam that are or were still alive after the war. We also have to rember that those 500,000 people had trouble with suicide and other forms of depression after the war and many may have died because of suicide or depression leading to suicide.

Some people with no experience with this topic may often believe that only certain things can cause depression or suicide but that is not true at all. These people that do research this topic have found out that, Vietnam vets may be prone to alcoholism and drug use which is not part of medical reasons for prescription use. This has been an issue for many years and is now getting light shed on it.

When it came to men talking about their feeling about the war it was mostly non-existent. As it was, you mainly did not see young Vietnam vets going to a therapy lesson after what they saw because of protests during the war. The vets did not want to get shamed after trying to get help. Now though it is a bit different than it was you can go to therapy and get the help you need without getting judged by the crowd.

Though it was very tough on the men it may have been hard on the women too. They had to wonder every day if their husband was not going to come back. There even were some support groups for only women and now that is also in action too. It is now stronger than ever with not just vet wife groups but also religious groups too. What started this was meant to help people out together but it turned into a way better and more interactive thing.