Quote:
Originally Posted by cmac2012
We were basing our progress on the amount of dead Vietnamese. This inevitably led to a coarsening of the average soldier's feelings about the natives, severing of ears (proof of kill) etc. We were descending into barbarism.
First off, the Vietnamese were never likely to become part of China's "spreading communist beast."
The assumption that communism was like an unstoppable virus was flawed.
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So a soldier wants a momento of his kill. Isn't it like pilots painting a swastika or jap flag or a bomb on their plane for each successful kill or mission?
Well, there are several countries that DON'T feel the way you do. In fact, it was a great fear of it spreading like a cancer.
Unstoppable, no. Dangerous, yes.