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Fact: The “North Vietnamese” Army went on the offensive and in April 1975 militarily defeated the “South Vietnamese” Government. The country was finally unified as Vietnam, after untold millions of civilian deaths. The Vietnamese Army numbered around 500,000 soldiers in 1975.
Fact: In a case of a “landlord” demanding more “tribute” from the people than the people could pay, China invaded Vietnam in 1979 and was severely defeated by the battle-hardened Vietnamese Army, now totalling 700,000.
Fact: In 1985, Western Observers estimated the strength as 1.5 million soldiers.
Fact: Yet the same Western Observers in 1989 estimated the strength as less than 500,000.
What happened? How did this significant reduction in numbers happen? A million men missing? Famine? Disease? Defection? or a secret war in which the million soldiers died and being a Communist country, Vietnam never acknowledged their defeats?
NOW IT CAN BE REVEALED WHY AND HOW THIS HAPPENED.
ONE WORD: BRADDOCK!
The name that struck fear in Vietnamese circles. (Along with his colleague Rambo,) Colonel Braddock ran through the Vietnamese Army like a hot knife through butter and downsized it. What could not be achieved by the mighty B52s and the American War machine for 15 years, was achieved in two years flat. President Reagan praised Rambo on record but kept silent about Braddock; check out this clip.
https://youtu.be/pxLlPZeVYmg.
(An indirect admission of the presence of Braddock COULD be the inclusion of a clip at the beginning of the film MIA-2 where Reagan waxes poetic about there being “no last chapter, no closed book on the topic of MIAs”.)
HOW the downsizing happened, has been hinted at in this trilogy which pays homage to Colonel Braddock, that non speaking robot of a soldier whose looks alone were enough to make any non-American’s bowels involuntarily convulse. Let us look at how Braddock reduced the Vietnamese Army’s strength, a reduction from which they still have not recovered. There is enough empirical evidence to say that this reduction was real and they admitted their defeat at the hands of the Capitalist Imperialists in an indirect way – by finally throwing open the doors of their country to business. Look how well Vietnam is thriving now as a tourist and business destination. Perhaps the Vietnamese are silently thanking Braddock for down-sizing the Vietnamese Army.
Braddock. That unseen, unacknowledged silent man. Who never wanted any medals or even appreciation. What the diplomats could not do, he did. So, let us appreciate him. Thrice over.
Of course, these events never happened – neither America nor Vietnam will ever admit this. Perhaps the truth is buried in some moulding documents that will be opened only hundreds of years from now or in some electronic bits and bytes that would need multiple American and Vietnamese Presidential authorisations. Scholars will really find it difficult to find out. Some part of the HOW is shown below with the standard moniker that “All characters are fictitious and any relation to any person living or dead is a pure coincidence”. Poor Braddock. To be lost in the annals of time and still be not appreciated. This is his story. This is how the Vietnamese Army strength was reduced in the 1980s.
It is also difficult to get an actor to portray Braddock but an American actor Chuck Norris was found who fit the role. Legend has it that when Chuck Norris was born in June 1940, the Germans immediately lost the Battle of Britain for which they were preparing. When he was two years old and playing in the field, he scrawled something on the sand and immediately the Germans lost the battle of Stalingrad. When he grew up and they wanted to etch his face on Mount Rushmore, the granite there cowered so much that the sculptors gave up and let it be. It is said that a snake once bit Norris ; Norris glared at it and the snake died in agony soon after.
Missing in Action 1 – 1984
Time: 1 Hours 45 minutes
Platform: You Tube free
Body Count: 81
Plot: Braddock returns to Vietnam after 10 years (around 1984) to rescue Americans still believed to be held there. This is after his escape from there three years ago. The Vietnamese deny there are any more Americans held in POW camps and the diplomats believe them. Braddock does not think so. Expelled from Vietnam and the delegation, he returns by boat, but with enough weapons to decimate the Vietnamese Army.
This is the beginning of the decimation and downsizing of the Vietnamese Army. While 10 Americans are shown dying, an estimated 81 + 5 Vietnamese soldiers are shown dying. The kill ratio, so famous during the Vietnam War, is still in favour of the American side except that the 1 : 8 seems too low, but that can be explained by the fact that – as said earlier – when Norris plays Braddock, not a single bullet strikes him; even bullets are afraid of him. You can see this force of nature here:
Missing in Action 2 – 1985
Time: 1 Hours 35 minutes
Platform: You Tube free
Body Count: 41
Plot: Braddock escaped from Vietnam in 1984 but how did he become a POW in the first place? This is shown here and how his fellow Americans waged a nonstop war against sadistic Vietnamese Camp Commandant who has perhaps seen the 1960 Kirk Douglas movie Spartacus and has a black American captive and Braddock face off against each other. Who do you think wins in the end? How did Braddock escape with all other American POWs ten years after the war? See for yourself and wonder at this wonder of all wonders.
It is said that the American Actor Chuck Norris is perfectly cast as Braddock. Since there are no photos of how Braddock looked, we can only speculate. The fact that all the Vietnamese soldiers scream Braddock’s name, either in fright or frustration, shows that he must have been something else. This body count is more believable, as for every one America, an estimated 41 + 5 Vietnamese soldiers die; that’s a 1;40 kill ratio in the American’s favour. We can assume that these “fictional” events are close to the reality of the second chapter in the downsizing of the Vietnamese Army. See how the tortures and Braddock’s payback happened, especially the final mano-y-mano fight between Braddock and the Vietnamese Commandant:
Missing in Action 3 – 1988
Time: 1 Hours 30 minutes
Platform: You Tube free
Body Count: 56
Plot: Braddock returns to Saigon in 1975 to save his wife Lin but due to some misunderstanding she is stopped from boarding the final flights. Braddock believes she is dead. In 1988 a Polish priest carrying out charity work in Vietnam, looks up Braddock and confirms that Lin is alive with his son, who he has never seen. Suitably motivated, Braddock returns once again to Vietnam but this time to rescue not only his wife and son but many Amerasian children, who are rejected by the Vietnamese society…
Wait a minute. Is this a joke? Wasn’t Braddock in a POW camp in 1975? so how did he return to Saigon in 1975?
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Hang on. Please understand the sincere motives behind the film. Braddock may have been in a POW camp but by showing him return to Vietnam, to get his son back, the film focuses on the plight of all those Amerasian children, born out of union between American soldiers and Vietnamese women. So, this is actually a noble film in a noble cause. How Braddock manages the rescue of the children, and frightens the Vietnamese , who scream his name again in fright or frustration, forms the main focus of the film. Remember this is not about Braddock who was surely in a POW camp but about Amerasian children. Nobility. Thy name is Braddock – er – Norris.
Rating – one does not rate these films. One only watches and quivers.
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