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by snozolli 505 days ago
Given the acts of brutality committed by the VC against those who didn't willingly join their cause, I wouldn't have stuck around with my family, either. One example from, as I recall, early in the division was burning alive the mayor of a village that refused to adopt communism. These things never get talked about and the only reason I've even heard of this was from listening to an interview on Dan Carlin's Hardcore History Addendum podcast.
2 comments
dylan604 505 days ago
> I wouldn't have stuck around with my family, either

Which is a major plot point of stories like Handmaid's Tale where you get caught in a civil war with opposing views of the territory you're in when it starts. You didn't start the war, but now you're an enemy for just living in your home. Do you just give up your beliefs or do you try to get out of there?

All war is hell, but civil wars especially

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p3rls 505 days ago
It's true-- just like in Marvel the comic book movie, where the bad guy causes upwards of 50% casualties on the entire planet!
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whimsicalism 504 days ago
the US literally industrialized the process of burning alive people in vietnam who didn’t support the colonial government. would love a source on the mayor claim
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snozolli 504 days ago
You're a perfect example of why reporting about Vietnam was horribly broken. We all know about the atrocities committed by the Americans, but nobody understands how horrendous the VC were, and the direct threat they presented to those conquered.

I've already given you the source for the mayor story, but you're not actually interested in it, are you? You'll stay blissfully ignorant with false plausible deniability.

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whimsicalism 504 days ago
do you have a source that’s written aka not a podcast? googling the mayor burning claim just brings me to your comment

even just a transcript of the episode you’re discussing. generally i find if someone responds with ire rather than a link, the event usually did not happen as they remembered it

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sillywalk 504 days ago
Wikipedia has an article, with links to sources. I think the main source is Douglas Pike's The Vietcong Strategy of Terror[0]. Another Vietnam Expert, Bernard Fall, documents some of it in Vietnam Witness.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viet_Cong_and_People%27s_Army_...

[0] https://web.archive.org/web/20230405095258/https://vva.vietn...

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whimsicalism 503 days ago
there is no mention of this 'mayor burning alive' story in either of these sources. nor do i really trust this book, written during the vietnam war, while the US propaganda efforts were mounting up.
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