All articles tagged with #vietnam war
Rick Springfield recounts on The Joe Rogan Experience that, at 17, he traveled to Vietnam to perform for U.S. troops in 1968 and ended up firing mortars from a defensive position near Da Nang; he later learned one mortar had killed a Viet Cong fighter, a memory he says is still hard to face, a detail he also touches on in his memoir Late, Late at Night.
Rocker Rick Springfield revealed on the Joe Rogan Experience that, as a 17-year-old musician in 1968, he entertained U.S. troops in Vietnam and, during an attack near Da Nang, helped load mortars that hit and killed a Viet Cong fighter — a memory that haunts him as the end of a life. He described the war’s unpopularity among soldiers and noted he later wrote about the incident in his 2010 memoir, Late, Late at Night.
During a 1968 Vietnam tour to entertain U.S. troops, Rick Springfield says his band was attacked and, in a split-second moment, he fired mortars that killed a man. He learned the next day that someone had been hit, a memory he says haunts him and that he didn’t fully understand what he was doing at the time. He describes the experience as “like the movies,” reflecting on being a young musician who spent about four months there with little financial reward and the heavy burden of that life-altering event.
Australian musician Rick Springfield told Joe Rogan that, while entertaining troops in Vietnam in 1968, he fired a mortar that killed a man, a moment he says has haunted him for decades.
Utah Sen. John Curtis says the Iran conflict has proceeded without congressional authorization and warns it risks repeating Vietnam-era constitutional failures, urging Congress to define the terms of U.S. involvement as casualties and costs mount.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich says Iran is trying a North Vietnam–style political strategy to wear down the U.S. and benefit from a Democratic Congress, betting that investigations into Trump would distract him while Tehran pursues its goals; the article notes Iran’s pressure in the Strait of Hormuz, the collapse of a July memorandum of understanding with Iran, and ongoing U.S. sanctions and naval pressure as Washington hardens its stance against Tehran.
President Donald J. Trump will award the Medal of Honor to three veterans—Major James Capers Jr. (USMC, ret.), Colonel John Ripley (USMC, posthumous), and Major Nicholas Dockery (US Army, ret.)—for acts of gallantry in Vietnam and Afghanistan. Capers earned it for leading a four-day reconnaissance mission in 1967 despite heavy wounds; Ripley for single-handedly destroying a bridge during a 1972 assault; Dockery for four hours of defending his platoon under heavy enemy fire in Kapisa Province, Afghanistan, in 2012, including evacuating wounded and coordinating aircraft. The release also provides the official Medal of Honor criteria.
President Trump will award Maj. James Capers Jr. the Medal of Honor for leading a nine-man reconnaissance team through a Vietnam ambush while enduring multiple wounds, prioritizing his troops and even the body of a military dog; the ceremony follows a Congressional waiver of the usual time limit after years of advocacy.
During the Vietnam War, the villagers of Vịnh Mốc built a three-level, 75-foot-deep network of tunnels to shelter from heavy bombing; around 400 residents lived underground from 1965–1972, with living spaces, a maternity ward, wells and cross-ventilation, then emerged at night to farm and gather supplies; today the tunnels are a museum and tourist site, illustrating wartime resilience and ingenious underground engineering.
Trump told NBC's Meet the Press that he didn’t promise to avoid wars, defended rebuilding a strong military, and said the Iran situation isn’t an endless war, arguing the Vietnam War lasted 19 years because of 'stupid people.'
Lionel Rosenblatt, a diplomat and longtime leader of Refugees International, died at 82; famed for challenging his State Department superiors, he personally traveled to Asia to aid displaced people and helped evacuate hundreds from Vietnam, including taking one of the last commercial flights to Saigon before its fall, and later led humanitarian work around the world.
In a CNBC interview, Trump said he would have won Vietnam quickly and Iraq in the same short timeframe, a remark that sparked a wave of online mockery on Reddit and other platforms, with critics citing his draft deferments and questioning his foreign-policy record.
Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel challenged Donald Trump’s claim about his Iran war timeline, noting that the conflict is about two months in while Trump insists it’s five months and joking that wars “take time”—a math critique he says isn’t accurate. He also questioned Trump’s claim that he would have won the Vietnam War quickly if he’d been president, highlighting the president’s inconsistent war-history statements.
Donald Trump claimed on CNBC that he would have won the Vietnam War very quickly if he had been president, a boast critics quickly challenged given that he dodged service with multiple deferments due to bone spurs; Sen. Mark Kelly called the claim an example of arrogance that contributes to prolonged wars, with other lawmakers and pundits weighing in as the Iran war dominates headlines. The piece notes the controversy comes amid ongoing scrutiny of Trump’s Iran policy and broader political backlash, including reminders of his draft history.
During a live CNBC interview about Iran, Donald Trump veered off topic to reveal a fear of stairs, reminisce about Vietnam and Iraq victories, and critique Joe Biden and Barack Obama, all while defending his approach to Iran as polls show his support slipping and peace talks continue.