Vietnam War - Tumblr Posts
History memes #10
Images from my visit to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.
I haven't been on tumblr in a while since my mood hit a point where I didn't feel like doing much of anything except what I needed to to get by. I'll get back to posting street shots when I get the chance to shoot but I've got other things I'm working on so who knows. Without getting too deep into specifics I've started a project about history/record-keeping/the flow of information so I'll be posting about that as well.
everything is a metaphor for being trans if you try hard enough. vampirism? easy! the process of carving a statue? obviously! the horrors of womanhood? of course it is! the plot to hit 2002 video game the elder scrolls iii morrowind? what else would it be? the god damn real life vietnam war? you better fucking believe it! the right wingers were right god is dead and trans people replaced him and now each and every inch of reality is ours
Pretty much everyone over about 40 who rides a motorcycle wears this as a sticker or patch.
This flag is one of the most Weird American Things I can think of
It's the POW/MIA flag. It's flown over the White House, alongside the American flag, since the 80s (off and on). As of 2019 it's mandatory to fly it over federal government buildings; it flies over state government buildings in many places as well. It seems like a neutral sign of military support, so it's easy to pass over it without asking "wait, are there any American POWs"
Then if you look it up it's the symbol of a Vietnam-era conspiracy theory debunked in 1993. This is the flag for the 70s/80s version of Pizzagate, and it flies over the US Capitol building and White House every single day
Song of the day
(do you want the history of your favorite folk song? dm me or submit an ask and I'll do a full rundown)
"Alice's Restaurant Massacree" Arlo Guthrie, 1967
this song is hilarious and timeless. It's a classic anti-state/anti-war protest song.
Dog tags of the 58,211 American service personnel who died in the Vietnam War, hang from the ceiling of the National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum. Photo by Charles Rex Arbogast.
Rising Storm 2: Vietnam
Why did he have to go in front of my RPG right when I fire!
Rising Storm 2: Vietnam
Thank you, teammate
Rising Storm 2: Vietnam
Poor guy fell off the roof
Rising Storm 2: Vietnam
Am I doing this stealth thing right?
Remember Kamala Harris and Trump both live in Mansions and they aren't going to downsize
The Mai Lay masacre in Vietnam Nam was a brutal War Crime committed by the US Government in response to opponents of capitalism and to further the agenda of western colonization.
Similar to what the US is funding between Israel and Palestine.
I used to work with/for a Vietnam veteran Huey pilot (probably quite unusual given I’m a Brit). Never really talked about it (except a passing comment when drunk for humorous effect).
But as part of his counselling he wrote about it in an autobiographical novel, telling about flying into shitstorms and flying out with the dead and dying, being shot down in Laos, being briefly captured and extremely brutally treated by his captors, escaping, killing his captors in their sleep and eventually being recovered only to be discarded by the army brass (and being given a bill for his convalescence accommodation). And after all that crap from the enemy and his own side, he still emerged as a good guy despite the physical and mental damage suffered. I hope they still make them like him.
March 29th is National Vietnam War Veterans Day.
On March 29, 1973, the last remaining American troops withdrew from Vietnam, and President Nixon declared “the day we have all worked and prayed for has finally come.”
Today we honor and remember all of the brave men and women who served during the Vietnam War, as well as their families who also sacrificed so much. Let us give these veterans the long overdue recognition and welcome home they deserve!
i’ve mentioned this here before, but it will remain one of the most ideologically influential experiences of my life: when i was in fifth grade i did a report on post traumatic stress as manifested in veterans of the vietnam war, and my father did me the huge favor of connecting me w/ a vietnam vet friend of his who was diagnosed with PTSD, assuring him that while i was only ten i was bright and curious and he should be as honest with me about his experience as possible.Â
i remember entering his office with my tape recorder, sitting in a chair that was too big, and asking him questions about war, and his life after war, while swinging my legs over the edge of the chair. i remember being very, very quiet as he spoke of pulling the car over on the highway for fear of crashing when his hands would shake uncontrollably in response to song on the radio or a smell that he couldn’t be sure was real or sense-memory. and of ruined relationships and anger and american hypocrisy.Â
and i also remember that was the day i learned what “valor” meant. he used “valor” in a sentence and i didn’t know that word, and when i asked him to explain “valor” he became very quiet. and i can’t remember precisely what he said, if he ever offered me the dictionary definition or not, but i do remember him looking very sad, and saying something about our country’s idea of “valor”, and also something about a broken promise. and there was an edge to his words that i couldn’t parse at the time that i would later come to understand was bitterness, that he sounded bitter.Â
to this day i can’t hear or read the word “valor” without seeing sunlight coming through his office window at a slant, close-to-sunset light, and feeling the kind of quiet, confused, completely internalized panic a child feels when they sense that a grown up is trying very hard not to weep in their presence.Â
During the 1980s, more gay men died in New York City during the AIDS crisis than all recorded deaths of American soldiers in Vietnam. You need to know that.
Yoko and I meeting Henry Kissinger to talk about peace. We said to stop fighting and killing each other, he suggested that to achieve world peace we commit war crimes, bomb civilians, overthrow democratically elected leaders and kill everyone. That way we will achieve peace because when everyone’s dead they can’t fight each other. RIP.
John Lennon I’m not good with history, but did you serve bed in the Vietnam war, if you did we thank you for your service.
i had to suffer many comfortable sheets and mattresses for you
