You decide…A Picture is worth a thousand words…
Thank you for acknowledging our efforts [Viet Thuc Forum & Readers] to honor the young American soldiers who fought for the freedom of others [in Vietnam] and have shown the “humane and compassionate side” during their “tour of duty”. War is not only a conflict justification, but also a situation to test our human values while at the edge of losing them… LuuNguyenDat, PhD
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CherriesWriter - Vietnam War website 
The very first pic of the PFC carrying the Viet Cong prisoner was my uncle. I know for a fact that he saved several Vietnamese civilians during his tour in country. There were many examples of Americans conveying compassion during our time there.
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Hi there
I am a TV producer working on a documentary about the Vietnam war. I’d love to speak to you about your uncle’s story. Could you email me on frances.beere@72films.com? Thank you!
Frances
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The sad part about it is the soldiers were spit on and cursed when they returned to America. The My Lai massacre caused that.
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I’m glad for those who kept pictoral record so we don’t have to only depend on politics.. By and large Americans are caring,compassionate people. Americans need to show the same for all our Amercan Military!
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My son’s are Vietnamese.
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Thanks I love it
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I think its a great article with truth and great details of the Vietnam War and other wars the US have been in.
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I forget where I saw the picture. It was a medic feeding a 80 year man. He carefully help him and the other around the two were busy doing the same.
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I do think most US troops did show compassion whenever possible. However, there were so many horrific things that were done back in Vietnam. Entire villages were burnt down: by either tanks, infantry, or napalm bombings. Families and the generations that came after them were cursed with cancers, birth defects, and illnesses caused by the release of agent orange, and there were incidents such as My Lai that still to this day affect how the general outside world perceives the US.
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Good to see how some soldiers are able to hold onto some semblance of their humanity, in unimaginable horror.
I believe war and other catastrophic events exposes the individual and the society they have grown up in.
The compassionate will strive to express their values at great personal cost, and the photos above are a testament to that. Anyone who has carried a child let alone an adult any distance will know how exhausting it is. Sadly the cruel, and the unsocialised psychopath will also exploit war to express their inner desires. This is one of the many reasons, for strict discipline and rigorous screening when training combatants.
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Thank you for these pictures. Vietnam Vets have a special place in my heart, I was only a child while it was going on, but I knew our soldiers were primarily doing good not what the war protesters and hippies said. I was horrified by how they were treated on their return. Thank you for your service.
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Some were compassionate and some were not. Military units are representative of society as a whole.
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Many were compassionate … some were not .. some were killed or wounded trying to be.
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Thanks for your service & God Bless You, you made it back to the world. Good article Guys I knew in school who had just returned from NAM made it clear that the war as a Grunt was different then duty in the rear. Doing Point Duty In the jungle you had to be aware of every thing and know when you saw something that did not belong and not to touch it. Survival was job #1 and do not forget it every moment of every day. I never met any grunts that agreed with the war they just wanted their tour over and none of the guys I knew wanted to be heroes but they would watch your back. They would tell you when you were at risk but also let you know when your # is up your # is up. because they had seen guys 2 feet to their left or right get it . The common factor was guys would not want to talk about it then after a few drinks they could not stop explaining how dangerous it was as if they were talking to a FNG. I knew guys who would only talk with other grunts and would not talk to anyone who had not been in the jungle because there was nothing you could say that interested them. One guy would leave in the middle of a class and walkout to pull his dirt bike off a pick up and hit the trails then he would return covered in mud but calm. Other guys suffered with injuries that changed there lives and became drunks as a way of coping with the fact that they did not deserve to be this damaged. Guys like me would protect them from themselves turn off their cars when they had passed out and take them in from the cold.. I never heard guys who had remorse about killing but remorse about buddies they could not save in the jungle or in choppers covered in slippery blood as you evacuated out of a LZ sitting on your pot not to take rounds as you pulled off. Guys did tell me about the insanity of being out on patrol for weeks and then knocking off a US supplies truck because they just want some relief and did not care what happened to them via the MP’s There was a lot of anger in these guys and the anger could explode into rage quickly if pushed.
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Thank you for your service .God bless USA . Semper Fi .
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Please write a book about the good these men did. These are the ‘baby killers’ that was thrown at them. These men were condemned when the truth of how they helped the people is ignored. They acts of kindness should and needs to be known. They have suffered a lot of PTSD because of the charges.
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Well said🙏🙏🙏🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺
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I read “The Bush,” I am the bush, every word this soldier wrote about the bush happened to me. I am a Marine grunt. Alpha Co 1stBn 7th Marines, Fox Company 2nd Bn 3rd Marines, H&S Co 2nd Bn 5th Marines.
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Whatever happened to the Black soldiers in Viet Nam? Or was the war only fought by white troops as the public is always taught to believe.
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I do have an earlier article posted on this website regarding African American Soldiers in the Vietnam War. You can read it here: https://cherrieswriter.com/2017/12/14/african-americans-in-the-vietnam-war/
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Go back and look at the pictures again. There are pictures of at least 5 American soldiers who are black (note that I did not say black soldiers). I served two tours in Nam along side soldiers who were white, soldiers who were black, soldiers who were Latino, soldiers who were native American, soldiers who were of Asian ancestry and soldiers who were biracial. We were American soldiers, all – we were brothers, all. When a fellow soldier was injured, we all picked up the slack. When we bled our blood was always the same color red. When a fellow soldier died, we all grieved.
Welcome home brothers.
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Inspiring words, I am a first time visitor to this site, I love American servicemen. 🙏🙏🇦🇺
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Thank you for posting these photos and for offering your website. The photos fill me with empathy for both the U.S. soldiers and the Vietnamese and the Cambodien people they helped. I have an interest on several levels, but first because I was born in Japan in 1962 when my father was serving in the Army. Although stationed in Japan, he was in and out of Vietnam and Cambodia before U.S. involvement was known by the American public. My dad is now 81 and I remind him that this information is now declassified, at least to some degree, and acknowledged in the research I have done for graduate coursework. I worked with Vietnam vets at a methadone clinic and at a congressman’s office where we were gathering data for Agent Orange claims in the early 1980’s when interning for college.
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Very good historic photos
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Reblogged this on The Forgotten Nationalist and commented:
Thanks to Cherries blog for this article.
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Thank you for this article. My father was a soldier and he did not leave my pregnant mother behind. He brought us both back to the states where I was born.
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Soldiers are human beings
Most human beings are good, these mostly young men were thrown into an impossible situation and a totally unwinnable war with no real idea of who they were fighting and what was happening.
In any situation people will simply crack under the pressure and awful things will happen that is the awful nature of war.
If anyone is to blame it’s the politicians and businessmen who sent them into situations like this, not the soldiers who were doing the best they could under impossible circumstances.
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I agree.
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great post. and even today our soldiers are fighting against Agent Orange, This was uncalled for by our own Government. These young men didn’t want to be in this war.. Then men were assigned numbers for the lotto draw, did they even have a chance to say I’m not going. Never. Shame on our Government,
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Our company was operating in the duc pho area in I core in 1970. Our medic delivered a baby that a young woman was struggling to birth. We had contact numerous times in the area yet this occured. We always tried to do our best.
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It makes my heart both smile and cry. What loving parents they had.
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Great pictures! You caught the great moment. I believe yes. Thank you for sharing!
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Hi there ,turn to : MANH HAI FLICKS. or NAM ROM……..A lot of old photos ,good to see ,,back to VN….Bye.
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Inspiring!
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John, I’ve been banned from sending friend requests. Facebook does this all the time although I rarely send requests. But please send one to me. I pinned your novel on Pinterest. Pleased to make your acquaintance and thanks for your support. Marjorie Haun–author of “The Heroes of the Vietnam War: Books for Children”
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I believe that throughout history (There are always exceptions) The American serviceman has been the most honorable and compassionate to don the uniform of their country!
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I ALWAYS THINK A BOUGHT THE KID EVEN TO DAY. WE ARE THE SAME BUT STILL IN A WAR.
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I believe yes yhey showed a hell of alot of compassion towards the people….eith what they went through over there i understand why they came back changed….they are still the same people but differant in a way..
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