Hiển thị các bài đăng có nhãn Vietnam War Glossary. Hiển thị tất cả bài đăng
Hiển thị các bài đăng có nhãn Vietnam War Glossary. Hiển thị tất cả bài đăng

Thứ Bảy, 1 tháng 9, 2012

Vietnam War Timeline


1858-1884 - France invades Vietnam and makes Vietnam a colony.
October 1930 - Ho Chi Minh helps found the Indochinese Communist Party.
September 1940 - Japan invades Vietnam.
May 1941 - Ho Chi Minh establishes the Viet Minh (League for the Independence of Vietnam).
September 2, 1945 - Ho Chi Minh declares an independent Vietnam, called the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
January 1950 - The Viet Minh receive military advisors and weapons from China.
July 1950 - The United States pledges $15 million worth of military aid to France to help them fight in Vietnam.
May 7, 1954 - The French suffer a decisive defeat at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu.
July 21, 1954 - The Geneva Accords creates a cease-fire for the peaceful withdrawal of the French from Vietnam and provides a temporary boundary between North and South Vietnam at the 17th parallel.
October 26, 1955 - South Vietnam declares itself the Republic of Vietnam, with newly elected Ngo Dinh Diem as president.
December 20, 1960 - The National Liberation Front (NLF), also called the Viet Cong, is established in South Vietnam.
November 2, 1963 - South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem is executed during a coup.
August 2 and 4, 1964 - North Vietnamese attack two U.S. destroyers sitting in international waters (the Gulf of Tonkin Incident).
August 7, 1964 - In response to the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, the U.S. Congress passes the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.
March 2, 1965 - A sustained U.S. aerial bombing campaign of North Vietnam begins (Operation Rolling Thunder).
March 8, 1965 - The first U.S. combat troops arrive in Vietnam.
January 30, 1968 - The North Vietnamese join forces with the Viet Cong to launch the Tet Offensive, attacking approximately one hundred South Vietnamese cities and towns.
March 16, 1968 - U.S. soldiers kill hundreds of Vietnamese civilians in the town of Mai Lai.
July 1968 - General William Westmoreland, who had been in charge of the U.S. troops in Vietnam, is replaced by General Creighton Abrams.
December 1968 - U.S. troops in Vietnam reaches 540,000.
July 1969 - President Nixon orders the first of many U.S. troop withdrawals from Vietnam.
September 3, 1969 - Communist revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh dies at age 79.
November 13, 1969 - The American public learns of the Mai Lai massacre.
April 30, 1970 - President Nixon announces that U.S. troops will attack enemy locations in Cambodia. This news sparks nationwide protests, especially on college campuses.
June 13, 1971 - Portions of the Pentagon Papers are published in The New York Times.
March 1972 - The North Vietnamese cross the demilitarized zone (DMZ) at the 17th parallel to attack South Vietnam in what became known as the Easter Offensive.
January 27, 1973 - The Paris Peace Accords are signed that provide a cease-fire.
March 29, 1973 - The last U.S. troops are withdrawn from Vietnam.
March 1975 - North Vietnam launches a massive assault on South Vietnam.
April 30, 1975 - South Vietnam surrenders to the communists.
July 2, 1976 - Vietnam is unified as a communist country, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
November 13, 1982 - The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. is dedicated.

Vietnam War Timeline in wiki


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Vietnam war Zippo Lighter Collection

Lot of 282 Vietnam War-era Zippo lighters featuring personalized and anonymous engravings chosen by U.S. soldiers, sailors, and airmen during deployment. The collection has been compiled individually by American artist Bradford Edwards over several years in the 1990s, on-site in Vietnam.
 
Edwards, who said in an NPR interview on the collection I’m not a Zippo collector; I’m not somebody into the Zippo, per se, explains that he is fascinated with the lighters as window in the minds and experiences of the men experiencing a certain place and time.  He has used the lighters as inspiration and media in his art, but the collection itself has grown to be a statement of its own, and became the basis of the book Vietnam Zippos: American Soldiers’ Engravings and Stories 1965-1973(Sherry Buchanan, University of Chicago Press, 2010), which was spotlighted by New York Times, NPR, and other media outlets.  The lot includes all lighters featured in that book and more.
 
Edwards estimates that he has examined tens of thousands of Vietnam Zippos.  As Vietnam has evolved into a more modern and open nation in the last 20 years, foreign tourists have driven a growing market in the mementos, leading to an explosion in fakes.  Edwards proclaims there are no real Zippos in Vietnam now. The scene is over.  James Fiorella, author of The Vietnam Zippo (Schiffer Publishing, 1998) and probably the only authority on the subject with an expertise equal to Edwards, agrees, and warns collectors that over 95% of Zippos being sold in the open-air markets of Ho Chi Minh City and Ebay alike are fakes. 
 
Edwards was careful not to target specific sentiments or designs in the engravings, but simply to seek out authenticity and let the objects speak for themselves.  As such, the lighters capture a wide range of feelings and opinions about the war, from the obscenity-laden anti-army mottoes of the unwilling draftees, to the simple love notes of the homesick, to the 8 Special Forces emblazoned lighters, conspicuously absent of any further embellishment. 
 
The Vietnam War represented something different than all other American Wars, previous and since.  There were the regular army soldiers, many raised by World War II heroes and viewing their job as a duty and privilege.  There were victims of fate, the unwilling, drafted by lottery, many poor and minority, resentful of their government and military superiors.   And there were those along for the ride, not interested in glory or politics, merely trying to follow orders and earn their ticket home.  Regardless, they were all connected by the Zippo, the utilitarian tool carried by nearly all soldiers since World War II, a symbol of dependability and the rare thing that all soldiers could count on.  Used for lighting cigarettes, heating food, illuminating letters from home, or setting fire to huts of suspected VC, Zippos were used so frequently in Search & Destroy missions that GIs nicknamed them "Zippo Missions" or "Zippo Raids.” After purchasing one from the post exchange store for $1.80, a soldier could personalize his lighter at sidewalk tents with one of wide selection of stock designs or a personalized message.
 
 
 
Many messages, especially those chosen by pre-draft in the 1960s, are related directly to combat.  Some feature the emblems of proud and storied units, often complemented by macho mottoes exhibiting the pride and hubris of soldiers willingly fighting in the world’s strongest army:
 
DEATH FROM ABOVE.
SWIFT, SILENT, DEADLY
WHEN GOD OPENED THE GATES OF HELL, THE 101st WALKED OUT
DEATH IS MY BUSINESS, AND BUSINESS HAS BEEN GOOD.
YEA THOUGH I WALK THROUGH THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH I WILL FEAR NO EVIL FOR I AM THE EVILEST SON OF A BITCH IN THE JUNGLE
KILL THEM ALL LET GOD SORT THEM OUT
STOLEN FROM A GOOK 5-11-67
35 KILLS IF YOU ARE RECOVERING MY BODY FUCK YOU
SOCK IT TO ME
GIVE NO QUARTER
YOU CAN SURF LATER
 
As the debate about the war intensified back home, soldiers became disillusioned with their mission, and the draft lottery injected a fresh force of often unwilling troops, the inscriptions evolved.  Peace signs, psychedelic designs, and cartoon characters became prevalent.  Charles Schulz’ Peanuts characters were a popular choice, as many soldiers identified with Snoopy’s fight against an imaginary enemy, the Red Baron:
 
LIFE HAS A FLAVOR THE PROTECTED WILL NEVER KNOW
FUCK IT
WHEN I DIE BURY ME FACE DOWN SO THE WORLD CAN KISS MY ASS
PLEASE DON’T TRY TO TELL ME ABOUT VIETNAM I’VE BEEN THERE
WHEN THE POWER OF LOVE IS AS STRONG AS THE LOVE OF POWER THEN THERE WILL BE PEACE
I LOVE THE FUCKING ARMY AND THE ARMY LOVES FUCKING ME
WE THE UNWILLING LED BY THE UNQUALIFIED DOING THE UNNECESSARY FOR THE UNGRATEFUL
FIGHT FOR PEACE, LIVE FOR WAR, DIE FOR NOTHING
WHEN I DIE I’LL GO TO HEAVEN BECAUSE I’VE SPENT MY TIME IN HELL
WHY ME?
 
While some pondered politics and meaning, others had their minds on the same subjects as many 19-year-old peers in America: sex and drugs.  The Playboy logo and nude women were popular motifs, as was the Zig-Zag man, taken from the packets of rolling papers used to roll the increasingly prevalent joint:
 
A FRIEND WITH WEED IS A FRIEND INDEED
ALWAYS RIPPED AND ALWAYS STONED, I MADE IT A YEAR I’M GOING HOME
 
I’D RATHER SMOKE GOD’S GRASS THAN DROWN IN MAN’S JUICE
ASK NOT WHAT YOUR HEAD CAN DO FOR YOU BUT WHAT YOU CAN DO FOR YOUR HEAD
GIRL IF YOU WANT TO FUCK SMILE WHEN YOU HAND THIS LIGHTER BACK
CANDY IS DANDY BUT SEX WON’T ROT YOUR TEETH
GIVE ME HEAD TIL I’M DEAD
I LOVE SEX SO BABY YOU CAN GIVE YOUR SOUL TO GOD BECAUSE YOUR ASS IS MINE
 
Some of the most powerful are the simplest: dedications to loved ones and hopeful sentiments from those just wanting to make it home alive.
 
I LOVE YOU MARY
TO MOM FROM A LONELY PARATROOPER
I CAME HERE AND LEFT BEHIND A NICE FAMILY AND A WONDERFUL GIRL I LOVE BUT SOMEDAY I WILL GO HOME
 
Together, the lighters tell a story of the war that cannot be found anywhere else.  They are a record soldiers’ feelings not meant for anyone but themselves, printed on a throwaway tool, capturing the spirit of the war in a way more authentic than any film, more personal than any history book, and more representative than any single soldier’s account.  The Zippo company is scheduled to produce its 500 millionth lighter this summer and will release a commemorative line meant to honor the unique status the simple lighter has earned as a physical symbol of the American experience -- and we dare to say that no grouping is or can be more representative of that sentiment than this.
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6 Tips on Photographing Vietnam


Vietnam has certainly had its ups and downs through history. But having opened its doors to tourists many years ago, it’s a country that is perfect to photograph. From the bustling chaos of the cities to the picturesque and rural northern regions, its an ideal place to add to your photography portfolio.

1. GET OFF THE BEATEN TRACK

Photographing Vietnam
Unfortunately the days of Vietnam being a mystery are over. Go to any image library and type in Halong Bay or Saigon and see how many images come up. To capture stand out images you need to seek out new places.
For example, I wasn’t expecting to find a scene as iconic as the one above when I was exploring a monastery on the outskirts of Dalat. As I walked up I noticed that the trees on either side were providing a natural frame for the giant Buddha, but I also wanted a human element in the shot. A few minutes later a group of Vietnamese women began walking up the steps so I started shooting until they reached the top and chose the best composition later in post production.

2. CHOOSE YOUR HOTEL CAREFULLY

Photographing Vietnam 2
When possible, book a hotel with a roof terrace or balcony as this is one of the best ways of getting great shots of your surroundings. And as hotels in Vietnam are so affordable you should have a whole host of places to choose from. I stayed in this hotel in Ho Chi Minh (Saigon) next to the Ben Than market because of it’s high, vast roof which provided me with a 360 degree view of the city. So during my stay I tried shooting at different times of the day until I was happy with the results.

3. BE READY

Photographing Vietnam 3
One of the things that really struck me about Vietnam was the pace of everyday life, and as a photographer you always need to be on the lookout and ready for opportunities. Your camera should be out of its case or bag, switched on and with the lens cap off.
The last thing you want is to miss a great opportunity because you weren’t prepared and always beware of thieves. For the shot above I was standing in a market when I noticed a young local girl opposite looking at me.
I knew I only had a few seconds to get the shot before she moved or my view was obstructed so I quickly lifted my camera, pointed to it so that she knew I was going to take her picture and managed to capture two shots before she shied away. One was blurred the other was this.

4. HEAD TO THE MARKETS

Photographing Vietnam 4
Vietnamese markets are a great way of getting close to the buzz of everyday life, and should absolutely be on every photographer’s shot list. Try to capture people, whether it be shoppers or market vendors going about their day to give your images a sense of realism without looking posed or contrived.

5. GET UP CLOSE

Photographing Vietnam 5Robert Capa, a famous war photographer, once said “If your pictures aren’t good enough, you aren’t close enough”. Sometimes, even though the wider shot can make a good photo, finding something within it for a close up could make a fantastic photo.
The image above is of some money left at a shrine in a small, local temple. A photo of the temple would have been one of thousands and the shrine wasn’t visually appealing so I chose to take a unique, close up shot of the money offering instead.

6. CAPTURE THE ESSENCE OF THE PLACE

Photographing Vietnam 6
One of the most fascinating things about Vietnam is the difference between it’s cities and towns from one another. From the ordered chaos of Hanoi to the serenity and beauty of Hoi An, it’s our job as photographers to capture that in a picture. For me the image above defines Hoi An and captures its beauty and calmness. So when exploring a city, a town or a village think about how you could show that place in just one picture.
Kav Dadfar is a travel photographer based in London. To see more work visitwww.dadfarphotography.com
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