A Vietnamese Soldier's Perspective of the Vietnam War

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• published: 25 May 2011
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Project for U.S. History class. I do not own any of the songs or images used in this video. Special thanks to Mr. Nguyen for the interview and Mr. Hoffman for lending me his video camera. I put in captions, but they aren't exactly in sync so here is the transcript as well. Transcript: "Life in the Jungle My first 2, 3 years were very nice, but not so nice in the terms of -- I'm a city boy, you know music, rockstar -- then they put me to the jungles. You know I'm just...it just destroyed me. Because in the night, I mostly cry because you get deep within the jungle with all the mountains and you don't see anybody. You just miss the light. On Fighting North Vietnam We shared the same idea: we have to stop them. Nobody knows the Communists. My family not the south people, really south. The south people they don't understand Communists that's why they support it. That's why we lose the war. But we're from the north, we migrate to the south. So my parents migrate in '54. They witnessed a whole lot of things, they know. That's why the northern people who migrate to the south fought really fine, like myself. But most of the southern people, they just...or sometimes they just run away from the frontier. Sometimes they bribe to stay home. But only northern who migrated to the south '54 really know we have to try. Otherwise, when they occupy the country, we know either they kill all of us or they will destroy the country. But luckily they don't. On Communism Most of the people who don't know Communist support them. That's why we lose the war. No matter how much bombs you bomb, it doesn't matter because this was a people's war. Every corner there, corner we don't know. You know in, myself I'm Vietnam, but I don't know whose Communist. In my, even in my unit, one or two of them for sure. One night, if they have the chance, they throw the grenade and run away and we...you know. Things like that happen. And yeah...think that happened about a couple of times in my base. On Why the South Couldn't Win the War In many cases, the family go to visit their husband right? They know where we operate, you see? Because they know everything. Where will we move, even the wives or the children, they know. And the night before, they know the next day we will move out. We didn't know. But the people outside, they know. How can we win a war like that? And one day they decide, they just ambush, they jump over us and just...90% of the time they kill most of...yeah most of the time. Yeah people don't understand, people say ok the south Vietnam, they're well-trained, they have a lot, but that doesn't matter. What matters is the people who support you."