Vietnam's forgotten war

clippy · Post by **clippy** » Tue Sep 16, 2014 7:55 pm

Victory over the US military is remembered each year in Vietnam as a triumph over foreign aggression in a war of national liberation.

Less celebrated is Vietnam's quiet retreat from its own deeply unpopular foreign war that ended 25 years ago this month. A war where Vietnamese troops, sent as saviours but soon seen as invaders, paid a steep price in lives and limbs during a gruelling decade-long guerilla conflict.

On the 25th anniversary of their withdrawal from Cambodia, Vietnamese veterans are still haunted by their memories of war with Pol Pot's army.

Some wonder why Cambodians are not more grateful to the troops who freed them from the brutal Khmer Rouge regime.

"Anyone who came back from Cambodia intact was a lucky person," said Nguyen Thanh Nhan, 50, a veteran of the war and author of the autobiographical book "Away from Home Season - The Story of a Vietnamese Volunteer Veteran in Cambodia".

read more
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-29106034

its maybe the last sucessful war, in that vietnam were able to defeat their enemy, the KR, install an allied government and eventually leave with a better neighbor next door

giblet · Post by **giblet** » Thu Sep 18, 2014 1:19 pm

Interesting parallel between how Americans felt in Vietnam to how the Vietnamese felt in Cambodia:
His experience parallels the disillusionment of American troops, a generation before who arrived in Vietnam believing they were coming to save a nation, only to find that many ordinary people considered them the enemy.