Ia Drang......49 Years Ago!

[Boudreaux Bob]

I have heard some try to compare Malaya to Vietnam.

That just is not possible to do with any accuracy.

The Ia Drang fight occurred Forty Nine Years ago and became the cornerstone for the Tactics of both the North Vietnamese Army and the American Army. Both sides decided they had learned how to win the War during the fight.

Both were right......and both were wrong.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxPeHqH4XxI

http://www.mishalov.com/death_ia_drang_valley.html

[Hempy]

The US 'decided they had learned how to win the war'??

Reminds me...

https://kickasshistory.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/mission_custom-544f97cf891b4643721e565a28e90e4079f6a78c-s6-c30.jpg

[diginagain]

Quite by coincidence, I was standing by Rick Rescorla's memorial in Hayle just the other day...

[Boudreaux Bob]

Rescorla was quite a Man and Soldier!

[Rosevidney1]

And a friend from our schooldays.

[The Old Fat One]

I have heard some try to compare Malaya to Vietnam.

if you want to compare the US "adventure" in Vietnam to anything I suggest "The Fall of Carthage" by Adrian Goldsworthy.

Seems like Hannibal discovered in about 200bc why swanning in around in somebody else's country is not a very profitable enterprise.

Seems like a couple of thousand years later we still don't get it.

[Boudreaux Bob]

Must be our British Ancestry we have not been able to eradicate.

After all....you lot have been shown the Door in more than a few places around the World yourselves.....starting with our place twice.

[diginagain]

... and look what you've done with it since... :)

[4Greens]

The war in Malay was won because they were given independence early on. This left the majority Malay population supporting the Brits and only some of the minority chinese fighting.

[parabellum]

In Malaya the British realised that to beat the enemy they had to leave the roads, tracks etc. and take to the jungle, (as in Burma, previously), in this particular element the post WW2 resurgent SAS made their name. The British used, to a great extent, the 'Hearts and Minds' tactic and turned the locals against the terrorists, leaving the terrorists isolated as well as cut off from their supply lines. Starved of supplies, local support and roundly beaten in their own territory, the jungle, the terrorists lost.


Possibly not the entire US Army, but certainly some elements, used these same tactics it Vietnam with considerable success.

[Mr.Noritake]

Both were right......and both were wrong.


Really, Bob? Really? I think one side got it right.

Remind me which side was able to enjoy a stroll along Dong Khoi Street in Sai Gon munching on a banh mi on a sunny May afternoon in 1975...

[Lonewolf_50]

Back to the OP:
Met LTGen Moore and Joe G in person not quite 20 years ago.

They both had valuable advice to give to us younkers, part of which was how to interact professionally with the news guys when there is a war on, and why it is important to tell the soldiers' stories. <-- those soldiers are Americas sons, and now their sons and daughters. People in this land want to hear their story.