B-29 Engine Overheat Issues Question

[Robert Porter]

Ouch, I hope you did not construe my remarks about our troops being hit with Napalm as some form of anti American or anti Vietnam war rhetoric. Friendly fire is of course not friendly, and it has happened in every conflict for which we have records. It is regrettably in the extreme but it is also almost impossible to avoid sometimes. And of course it happens to all sides of every conflict. At a comfortable remove from the time period I can say I don't think we belonged in that war at all. But I will piss all over anyone that disrespects a soldier of that conflict or any other.

Our military carries out our civilian political leaders policy. Short of being ordered to commit atrocities or some such we as military members say yes sir and go do what we are asked. And we do a pretty dang good job of it for the most part. Bad things happen, really horrible wrong things happen, but I like to believe that when they do we and our allies the world over tend to do a pretty good job of identifying the perpetrators and meeting out appropriate punishment. Certainly more so than some other rogue nations track records. And no ours is not perfect by a long shot, but I do believe it is better than most.

 

[mikewint]

Robert, absolutely not, no offence whatsoever. Most only know/believe what the newspapers/media print/broadcast. War and especially guerrilla-type wars are atrocities in and of themselves and troops, even the best trained become callous. When you can't tell friend from foe and friends are killed/maimed by booby-traps, 8YO shoeshine boys, mothers with grenades under their babies, and worse your moral compass tends to shift. IMHO, US troops have shown above average restraint in the vast majority of conflicts.

 

[Reegor]

in Hue alone over 3,000 were tortured and murdered. Civilian USAID workers, missionaries and any other westerners were captured starved, tortured, and murdered with never a press comment.

Not to worry, this was covered plenty at the time. I also recall a scene of the mass graves in Hue in the movie Full Metal Jacket, directed by famous director Stanley Kubrick.

There was plenty of information about enemy atrocities, but if you only watched the nightly news it would not show up much, probably because American camera crews were not there to photograph. It was covered in the NY Times and other written press. I don't recall why I was so aware of them, except that I followed the war closely from 8th grade onward. All 4 sides denied everything, of course, and did what we now call "spin." There's a quote about this from WW I. Something like "Truth is the first casualty of war."

 

[mikewint]

I won't get started on the US press coverage of Vietnam. Tet was a total disaster for the VC and was planned as such by the NVA. After Tet the VC as a fighting force ceased to exist and the war became one of fighting NVA regulars equipped with state-of-the-art modern arms. It's a good thing that Walter Cronkite wasn't around during the Battle of the Bulge else we'd have pulled out of WWII as "unwinable".