Anthony's WPS and Vietnam Collectibles Blog

The Orgins of the War in Vietnam: Was the Vietnam War Started over an attack that never even happened?

2010-11-06T00:29:00.000-04:00

Origins of the War in Vietnam
That is, If you can even call it a war!
The situation in Vietnam was NEVER officially declared a War by congress believe it or not, Most of the troops over in Vietnam were there as a result of Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara and President Lyndon B. Johnson. And an alleged attack that might have never even happened!

McNamara

President Johnson

During President John F. Kennedy's term, there were about 500 advisers in Vietnam that were mainly there to train the South Vietnamese and NOT to engage in combat. As time went on, that number went from 500 to 16,000. Thats a little too many non-combat troops in a country that were not even at war with if you ask me.
The Advisers in Vietnam remained there to play non-combat roles until the Gulf of Tonkin Incident of 1964. This Military engagement involved the United states ship the USS Maddox and three North Vietnamese torpedo boats. The Vietnamese fired torpedoes at the Ship, and a sea battle resulted. 4 Vietnamese Sailors were Killed, and there were no US casualties, only some damage done to the Maddox. Then there was an alleged second attack which really is disputed weather it even happened or not, some people say that another torpedo was heard coming for the Maddox but the noise the radar man picked up was the ships own propellers. Also some people even doubt if the first attack even happened.

The USS Maddox

After this event, President Johnson addressed the American people with a speech in which he said that the U.S only attacked in retaliation of attack. He also dramatized the fact that Ho Chi Minh (North Vietnamese Communist) was the aggressor. This put the United States in an acceptable position with a reason for retaliating. However there is evidence that on the day when LBJ made the speech, that him and Robert McNamara were not even sure if there even was an attack! And if there was one, many people believe that it was because the U.S was asking for it. In 1964, many politicians were in favor of increasing the number of troops in Vietnam, and there was also much support for the US to drive the Communists out of South Vietnam even if it meant attacking both North Vietnam and Red China. So the U.S probably sent the Maddox into the gulf to provoke North Vietnam so that the U.S had an excuse for escalation of the war. We did not necessarily attack first, but in a sense we did by sending a ship right into the gulf looking for trouble. So as a result of this incident, Congress passed the Southeast Asia Resolution, which granted President Johnson the authority to conduct military operations in Southeast Asia without the actual declaration of war. It gave Johnson approval "to take all necessary steps, including the use of armed force, to assist any member or protocol state of the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty requesting assistance in defense of its freedom."
So for the next few years U.S involvement increased dramatically as U.S Military personnel almost hit 200,000 in 1965. And Also the U.S launched a massive bombing campaign over North Vietnam as a response to the "Attacks" of the Gulf of Tonkin Incident. 864,000 tons of American bombs were dropped on North Vietnam during Operation Rolling Thunder, all as a response to an attack which may or may not have happened.

B-52 Bomber "Carpet Bombing" North Vietnam during Operation Rolling thunder

From 65' on, the war become huge as we all know. The La Drang Valley, The Tet Offensive, Battle of Khe Sanh and so on. So makes you think, was this entire war started by the war hungry U.S politicians and not the North Vietnamese Communists? Was there even an attack? Was it an inside job? A lie? Who shot first? Who knows, but those are the facts of the most controversial conflict in American history.

New post on the way!

2010-11-05T12:41:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone! No I am not dead, I just haven't posted in about a month or so! Well I'm gonna make that all up with a new series of posts about the Vietnam war. The first post which will be out over the weekend is about how the increased U.S Involvement in the war in 1964 and why It should have never happened. Many of my upcoming posts will be about Vietnam history and my opinions as well as some interesting facts about U.S Involvement, Weather or not we won and so on. So Stick around for some god posts coming your way!

My favorites of womens soccer

2010-10-05T20:59:00.003-04:00

Hello! Today I figured that I would let everyone know who I support in the world of womens soccer! What teams and players are my favorite and all that, so let us begin!
Favorite teams:
For International teams, my favorite team is the USWNT!

Along with the USA, I also support the national teams for, Australia, Germany, and Canada

Ill be rootin for these teams during the Womens world cup in Germany 2011!

As for my favorite club or domestic team, I love and support the Washington Freedom!

The Freedom is an awesome team, and its a shame that we lost in the playoffs this year! Well get em next year!!
Now to move on to my....
Favorite Players!
Well I have quite a few, so I'll only mention some here, lets start off with my top favorite:

USWNT and Washington Freedom Defender #4 Cat Whitehill!!!
Cat is an awesome player! Shes a great defender and has a great long range kick! Her kicks are always accurate and are usually put right in front of goal so one of her teammates can head the ball home! Go Cat!

My #2 Favorite will have to be

USWNT and Washington Freedom Forward #20 Abby Wambach!!
Abby, in my opinion is the best forward in the world, yes. I picked her over Marta! I truly believe that Abby is a better player than Marta, sure she dosent have all that "Brazilian Flare" but she scores loooots of goals and is a great team player! She isn't a ball hog, and passes often, which is why she has lots of assists! And some of her goals are just insane, not to mention her headers and diving headers which are always great! Her height sure helps her in that department! I think that Abby will lead team USA to a win in the 2011 World cup!! Go Abby!

And my #3 Favorite player, and last one for this post is....

Canada WNT and FC Gold Pride Forward #12 Christine Sinclair!!
Christine is another great forward that I like! Shes like Wambach as she scores awesome goals, but she also passes and has lots of assists! She is often overshadowed by the great Marta on FC Gold Pride yet she still did amazing and led WPS in assists with 9 on the year, so hopefully the upcoming world cup will be her time to shine on a world stage! Go Christine!
Some of my other favorites are,

Tiffany Weimer ^

Rebecca Moros ^

Megan Rapinoe ^

Amy LePeilbet ^

So there you have it! my faves of the womens soccer world! Of course there are other teams I like and many other players I like a lot, but I didnt wanna make this post a mile long giving everyone there own section! So this is all for now! Thank you very much for reading! And be sure to catch the USWNT take on China PR tomorrow on ESPN 2! Who is your favorite player and whats your favorite womens soccer team? Let me know in the comments if you like!!

Vietnam War: M69 Flak Vest

2010-09-25T20:04:00.001-04:00

My next thing I'll Show you from my Vietnam War collection is my M69 Flak vest, these things are pretty hard to come by and Im really happy that I have one!

The vest is slightly small on me, but I can put it on if I wanted to, I think its a size small, I fit into a large or medium. I bought this on ebay for about 50 bucks, which isn't too bad as these usually go for about 75$ +. These vests were designed to stop shrapnel from grenades and from artillery shells and other such explosives. And also some small arms fire sometimes. Im not really sure how well they work, but they were widely used in the war. This thing is the real deal, its heavy and all that too. It has strings on the side for adjusting the size, a zipper and buttons on the front, grenade hangers , 2 pockets, and a thick protective collar. The tag on the vest basically you how to care and clean the vest.

So that's all for today's post! Thank you for reading! For you womens soccer fans out there, the championship game is tomorrow! FC Gold pride vs Philly! I'm rooting for FCGP on this one, as I am a Washington Freedom fan and I really dont wanna see the team that knocked us out of the playoffs win it all! So thanks for reading and go FCGP!

Vietnam War: M1 Helmet

2010-09-21T00:38:00.001-04:00

Hello! I haven't posted in a little while and I got some cool stuff since then, Ill save all the new stuff for another post, but if you want to check it out, I update my Youtube Account often. For today Ill give you a close up look at my M1 Helmet!

This helmet has the Mitchell Camo cover on it right now, A Helmet band for putting things on your helmet, Like the bottle of good ol' bug juice I got on there to keep the skeeters away! Heres a look on what the inside of the helmet is like:

This is the Helmet liner, a separate part from the Steel Pot of the helmet, I have the liner, a sweatband and a chinstrap on my helmet, I have pretty much all the things you can get for the M1 except for the nape strap which wasn't really on every helmet anyway. This helmet is really heavy and gives you a stiff neck if you wear it for more than 10 minutes!

And of course the bug juice! This is an original bottle from December 1966, the stuff smells... Thats all I have to say about that!
So thats all for my helmet really, Its Vietnam Era and looks awesome with the camo cover on it! Thank you for reading and dont forget to check back for more Vietnam War items, and Womens soccer Autographs, Stories and cards! Thank you for reading!
-Anthony

Hope Solo's Twitter , She be hating!

2010-09-12T16:11:00.000-04:00

Well these were all said after the Beat's 1-0 loss to Washington,
"Its official, the refs are straight bad. Its clear the league wanted dc in
playoffs. I have truly never seen anything like this. Its sad"
"A goal taken away with no explanation, one offsides call against dc, many against atlanta. An amazing all ball tackle for a red"
"We play with 10, DC with 12. Players punched in the face. Free corners. I am done playing in a league where the game is no longer In control of the players."
"The head ref calls it a goal!!!! It even goes up on the scoreboard!!! Than no explanation! Its a joke!!!! An absolute joke!"

That was said the night of the game, these comments were then said the next day around noon:
"Nice spin on the game report brunson. The little old 7th place team from
atlanta ran the show last night. was your head dizzy watching"
"Us ping the ball around the field?I'm proud of us ATL,we are beginning to
show this league how the game should be played-beautifully."
"Multiple choice question...why did the refs call back our goal? Is it... A. Free kick taken before the whistle
B. Indirect not direct"
"C. Offsides D. Foul on unknown player
Those are all the reasons we heard, so I think E is the only one that really makes sense..."
"E. We just want washington to win regardless"

And thats all. Wow Solo, really? shes just LOOKING for trouble, I am a fan of her and I think shes an excellent GK but whats all this crap about? I mean the ATL Beat had nothing to play for, they didnt even play THAT good! So Stop tootin your own horn Hope, and look, Officals in Mens soccer, Internationals, anytything! They all mess up! Not just WPS so wake up Hope. Wake up.

Also Cat Whitehill went on to say this on her twitter:
"@hopesolo your bitterness isn't good for the game or your team"
Well put Cat! Excellent! So I mean hopefully Solo will see this and notice that her own damn USWNT teammate even told her to stop, so please, stop hurting the league and stop complaining!

Vietnam War: M-16 US M7 Bayonet

2010-09-11T15:02:00.001-04:00

Hello! Today I have one of my favorite items in my collection to show you! My M7 Bayonet!

Thats the Bayonet in its holster which you can clip onto your belt, or on the case for the E-Tool shovel ( Which I have!)

This Knife is extremely sharp and I have cut my hand open by accident with it.... yeah that's kind of embarrassing but good thing I had my Vietnam Medic Kit to patch me up! Ill show you that kit in another post! So yes this bayonet was attached to M-16 Rifles in Vietnam and used for well.. stabbing obviously! But it can be used for other things, like any other knife when you're outdoors! I paid about $40 for this one on eBay and it sure looks good!
So thats it for the knife! Next post will be on some more of my Womens soccer cards! Thank you for reading!
( Also on a side note! I am sorry if any of the pictures on this blog offend anybody! I don't mean to offend anyone, In fact I'm really just showing my love for Womens Soccer, and showing off my Vietnam war collection! And I have upmost respect for anyone who was in that war, and I have no intentions on using any of this equipment on people in real life! I am not a nut!)
-Anthony

By the way, GO WASHINGTON FREEDOM TODAY!!!!

WPS: Abby Wambach Autographs!

2010-09-08T18:06:00.001-04:00

Hello everyone! Today i have a WPS themed post for y'all! (By the way, check out that awesome new picture at the top of the blog!) Today I have two of my favorite items in my collection, My Abby Wambach autographs!

She was cool enough to sign my card And also this WPS PUMA Ball!

I went to the Sky BLue FC VS. Washington Freedom game on August 11th this year in New Jersey and I had a great time! I got a lot more autographs on that ball, but Ill save them for another post as this one is all about Abby!

And before the game I managed to get a great video of her warming up and doing lots of awesome tricks with the ball! Check it out!!

Abby is one of my favorite players! She is really something else, and In my opinion, The Best womens soccer player in the world! Yes, even better than Marta! Shes a great leader and I hope that she can lead the USWNT to victory at the 2011 Women's World Cup in Germany! Thank you for reading! And check back for more WPS Soccer, and Vietnam War stuff! Thank you!
-Anthony

Vietnam War: My Jungle Jacket

2010-09-06T17:30:00.001-04:00

Hello everyone! Well on this blog Im gonna show you close up looks of items in my collection of Military items from the Vietnam War, as well as some other things, but today I have to show you this:
Vietnam War Jungle Jacket

This Jacket was used in the Vietnam War by a U.S Army Ranger in South Vietnam. It is a size Medium Regular and when I got the jacket there were no patches on it, but I had 2 patches put on the left chest of the shirt.

A U.S Army tag from the Vietnam era and also a Paratrooper Wing patch. The name tag and some other division patches were removed from the shirt and theres some marks that they left

Im Pretty sure that the patch that was on the shoulder said " Army Rangers" and the Number division he was in. I plan on getting this Cavalry patch sewn on the left shoulder

On the jacket collar I put on 2 Specialist E4 ranking pins:

So thats all for this piece of my Vietnam war collection! If youre interested in this sort of stuff, please keep reading as I will have much more items featured on here! And also If you are a fan of Womens Professional Soccer please check back here as I plan on showing my autograph collection on here too! Thank you for reading! And check out my youtube channel too! http://www.youtube.com/user/RonDarling12

Hello and welcome!

2010-09-05T02:12:00.003-04:00

Hi! Im Anthony and this is my blog! I am not entirely new to the blogging world as I used wordpress before, but I wanted to move to Blogger, because it seemed easier! So here I am! Mainly Im gonna blog about WPS which is womens soccer and also my Vietnam War collection! So look for upcoming posts in the near future and thanks for stopping by!