Full Metal Jacket

[Hardrock69]

That being said, the US can mess with lesser powers but it can't mix it up with another nuclear superpower. Nobody wins so the cold war never ended. There are just more players and economic warfare is used more. Computer hacking is also part of this new war.

That is why China, The USSR and the USA have had all these little proxy wars. Vietnam was not only created to feed OUR Military Industrial Complex, but the Soviet one as well. We just set up the chessboard in Vietnam, move the pieces around until game over.

Same thing is going on with Iraq/Assramistan. While killing terrists is a very necessary thing, the US Military Industrial Complex has had a fantastic time testing new battlefield technology in REAL LIFE tactical situations.

Our armed forces are just product testers for the corporations.

[Nitro Express]

Man that is fucking cool! If your uncle is still around, you need to set up a tripod with a video camera on it, give him a pint of some good sipping whiskey and a shot glass, roll the tape, and have him record all of his stories for posterity.

My best friend's Dad served with the Flying Tigers in China in WWII. One day he came over to our house, and he sat there and told us stories about his experiences for over an hour.

This is why I prefer to read autobiographies.....you get to hear the real story from those who were actually involved in areas of history, instead of some dry recounting of events by some scholar decades or centuries later.

Back in the 70s my Dad and I went to his hometown in Southern Arkansas. Visited one of our cousins, who by that time was in his 60s. He had the rifle of a Nazi sniper that he killed while in the European theater. It was an 8mm Mauser with swastikas stamped in the barrel, and a scope. He too had a Luger.

Sadly my uncle passed away. The guy Clint Eastwood played in Grand Torino was my uncle but he was a farmer. I used to hunt with him and we did all that on horseback. He was a major horse nut. Anyways that Nazi knife he took off that German soldier was his prized trophy and he took that thing on every hunting trip. One time he downed a dear and was slitting it's throat with the Nazi knife and the deer came to and ran off with his prized knife. He combed those hills looking for it and never found it or the deer. I got to shoot the Luger one time. He also had a statue of a little boy pissing he picked up in Belgium. LOL! German fought for meddles and Americans fought for trophies.

I knew a guy in Denver that was in the Flying Tigers.

[Nitro Express]

One story he told me was the 3rd Army had advanced so far that they were behind enemy lines with no support. Anyways they broke into a jam factory to get something to eat and he says he's eating the best jam he has ever had and then all these German vehicles and troops start whizzing by the factory. So they hid out in this factory while the Germans blitzkrieged past. He also said they got into a fire fight with some German and their ammunition was faulty. Their guns wouldn't go off and so they took full advantage of that.

[Nitro Express]

He said another problem the Germans had what their heavy tanks couldn't make it across the bridges. The big tiger tank was a feared foe but it was big and heavy. The even had a bigger tank called the super tiger. He said they were no match for the air force and could be flanked but he said being ambushed by those tanks was their biggest fear. He siad the Germans were masters at camoflage so they were always wary of stumbling into an ambush. Patton's theory was to blitzkrieg them back and overwelm them. Patton was using their own tactics against them.

[Nitro Express]

My dad had a cousin that got drafted into the German army and he was stationed on the eastern front. He of course carried a K98K Mauser but said he never fired the thing in a battle. He said when his squad got into a fire fight the two MG42 machine guns did most the work. Each machine gun had a crew of three men and the rest of the squad supplied ammo to the guns. He said the Mauser was just a support weapon and the real killing was done with machine guns and artillery. So he said he was basically an ammo mule.

[Nickdfresh]

Another good book to read is called JFK by Colonel Fletcher Prouty. Sure 20% of it is about the JFK conspiracy, but 80% of the book is about how the CIA runs it's little third-world operations, most specifically, how Vietnam was a conflict CREATED by the CIA to begin with, to feed the Military Industrial Complex. The powers that be knew Vietnam was going to be one of our future Military Industrial projects by the late 40s. The certainly knew Korea was going to be the next area of conflict by the end of WWII.

He's gives WAAYYY too much credit to the CIA then. They couldn't even fucking kill Castro, but they "fed" the military industrial complex, which, incidentally really didn't need feeding from a counterinsurgency/large scale land war in a place not ideally suited to US power...

The Soviets were enough, and Vietnam set the US Army's modernization programs back almost a decade and ended the draft...

[Nitro Express]

That is why China, The USSR and the USA have had all these little proxy wars. Vietnam was not only created to feed OUR Military Industrial Complex, but the Soviet one as well. We just set up the chessboard in Vietnam, move the pieces around until game over.

Same thing is going on with Iraq/Assramistan. While killing terrists is a very necessary thing, the US Military Industrial Complex has had a fantastic time testing new battlefield technology in REAL LIFE tactical situations.

Our armed forces are just product testers for the corporations.

These are age old tested tactics. There always has to be a threat, a boogie man so to speak. If there isn't a real one, then start some shit and blame it on them. All this goes back to roman times of bread and circuses (entertainment distractions for the masses) and never ending war (enriches the elites and keeps the military busy so they won't over throw you). Nothing new really. As long as empire America controls that middle east oil, it will still be top dog for awhile. As long as the US Dollar is the oil reserve currency, they can play the money printing game.

[Nitro Express]

He's gives WAAYYY too much credit to the CIA then. They couldn't even fucking kill Castro, but they "fed" the military industrial complex, which, incidentally really didn't need feeding from a counterinsurgency/large scale land war in a place not ideally suited to US power...

The Soviets were enough, and Vietnam set the US Army's modernization programs back almost a decade and ended the draft...

The Soviets were better at espionage. The CIA couldn't hold a candle to the KGB in that regard. Where the CIA had the upper hand was it's access to technology. They were putting a tap on the soviets secure underwater communication line but of course that came to an end when the KGB espionage exposed the operation.

I don't think the CIA was totally rotten but like all agencies, there are rotten compartments inside the agency.

[hideyoursheep]

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[Nickdfresh]

The Soviets were better at espionage. The CIA couldn't hold a candle to the KGB in that regard. Where the CIA had the upper hand was it's access to technology. They were putting a tap on the soviets secure underwater communication line but of course that came to an end when the KGB espionage exposed the operation.

I don't think the CIA was totally rotten but like all agencies, there are rotten compartments inside the agency.

Yeah. But the CIA had a huge disadvantage of operating in a free society against an "Iron Curtain" while the KGB enjoyed the opposite, so HUMINT has never been the forte of the U.S.

There were instances of highly placed sources and defectors where the CIA had their "victories" as well. I think having a Soviet Colonel as a spy during the Cuban Missile Crisis may have been their crowning jewel as far as espionage goes...

[hideyoursheep]

Ermy's a riot, but IMO his best work was Boys Of Company C. He made that movie, and it's over after his last scene. A much more authentic look at VietNam-era Boot Camp, especially during the draft. Fucking great.

Oh, and I had a First Sgt. who was with the "Squawking Buzzards" during the "Hamburger Hill" period. Left 2 weeks after.

He said the film "Yellow Submarine" was more realistic. I took his word for it. I never saw the movie.