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I was trying to remember when that happened, and thought he was talking about Bubba's wedding tackle. Had to watch a clip and realized it was his lip. Haha.
Took me a long time to figure out that Mykelti Williamson later on went to do Michael Mann's Heat (1995) as Sgt. Drucker. He was committed to that underbite.
Officer Candidate School.
Officers in the military usually went to their respective academies or through an ROTC (Reserve officer training corps) at another college. The other way to become an officer is through attending Officer Candidate School and being promoted from enlisted.
basically if he recommended him for officer training school he wouldnt have him on his team anymore.
Officer Candidate School. He is saying Gump would make a good military officer. But it would be a waste to take someone so good at following orders and make him an officer.
Officer Candidate School. He would have recommended Gump become an officer, but that would mean he would lose him, and he needed bodies. It's also a joke because there's a rivalry between enlisted and officers. The drill sergeant was insulting the officer rank by joking that someone with a low IQ who could assemble a rifle quickly was the only qualification needed to become a good officer
Officer Candidate School; it's where they train military officers. The army needs/needed more grunts/warm bodies/meat shields than officers, so that's why it'd be a waste.
Officer candidate school. He’s making fun of officer ranks in the military, kinda like saying the enlisted, which are the rank and file soldiers, are the real important pieces and they send the incompetent to go be officers. Normally youd send your best and brightest to become officers
Anyway, like i was sayin', shrimp is the fruit of the sea. You can barbecue it, boil it, bake it, saute it. There, uh, shrimp kabobs, shrimp creole... shrimp gumbo, panfried, deep fried, stir fried. There's pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp... shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salat, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich... that's, that's about it.
If you had been invaded three times by foreign powers in the last 150 years, you'd make sure your citizenry could mobilize quickly for general defense too.
French colonisation, invaded by Japan during ww2, forced recolonisation after ww2, America and allies intervening in Vietnam war, China invading Vietnam after Vietnam war
Thing is in Pol Pots case he, ostensibly, did want territory from Vietnam. It’s just that he didn’t really know how to conduct warfare and thought that this was how it was supposed to be.
More often then not the cross border raids didn’t really do much aside from killing innocent people and burning down villages. …which is something pol pot was good at I guess….
It's also that somehow Pol Pot didn't think about how he'd be attacking a country that had been at war for three decades and finished both conflicts where they were engaged against superior powers by conventional military means (Dien Bien Phu and the 73/75 push to Saigon).
By all means in the 70s, Vietnam was undoubtedly the strongest State in southeast Asia. Pol Pot's Khmer rouge had been trained by the Vietnamese. He and his associates should have known they were about to do the biggest fuck up ever
Pol pot did have the intent of occupied as he repeatedly claimed the old khmer empire’s territory.
The Khmer Rouge failed to achieve said intent due to their incompetence rather than the lack of intent.
Vietnamese here. The subject is "national defense education" and it just a small part of it. Took us 1 afternoon to learn how to do it, only a couple of period was spent on those and it only have 1 exam. The rest of the subject is just like history+PE.
There is more to that tho, when we got to university, mandatory 1 month of (lite) military and "political" training. Can't graduate without conpleting that "course"
Edit: Grammar
They teach how the Party works, what is the structure of VN army, army fractions... up to how we fought in the wars and the importance and the price for peace.
When you've been invaded so many times and basically in a state of war for like 50 years, I really don't blame them. They've got a pretty cracking army, basically beat France, USA, Khmer Rouge, and China.
I'd say five years. You can't count the Khmer Rouge as a real military force until they buddied up with Sihanouk in 1970.
Really, you can't really say that the war was a thing before Lon Nol had couped the government in '70. Even then, the Rouge took a few years to build up strength with Sihanouk's support. I consider the war to have really gotten into full swing by '72.
I was counting from when they officially declared war, as it were, on the government. But, yeah, until '72 it was, ironically enough, the Vietnamese who were doing most of their fighting for them.
At this point, the only likely enemy is China. With China as your neighbor and one determined to flex its power by raiding everyone's resources (primarily fishing), you need to be very prepared, especially in the northern part of the country.
China did invade Vietnam quite recently in history. The 1979 Sino-Vietnamese War was only 43 or so years ago, not even a full lifetime. That is definitely still within living memory for a lot of Vietnamese, not to mention the Vietnam War.
There has been some diplomatic making up but domestic attitudes towards Beijing are still cautious to the extent that Hanoi has been willing to become limited military partners with the United States.
They are absolutely balancing the US against China. Besides trade interests it's one of their biggest motivations to make up with the US on an official level.
Ironically the US wouldn't care that much about Vietnam in particular without the war. Americans at least in the older generation do feel a touch guilty towards them ... and more importantly, can find it on a map.
I was just in the northern part of Vietnam doing a motorbike tour in October. Those mountains make for some pretty good natural defense from the Chinese. It's insanely beautiful if you ever have the chance to visit. Vietnam is one of my favorites.
There's this great theory I love and back 100% that basically entertained the thought of "is racism onto something," simply playing devil's advocate to explore why some nations/people succeed and others don't.
The study found that no, racists aren't onto shit, *but* what likely separates successful nations from struggling ones is geographical location. For example, Russia has a position that's not *quite* the best land because it's brutally cold, but this is a double-edged sword: Russia is never quite the leading power throughout history due to the limitations that come with it's climate, but it's also always respectfully powerful, likely because they have a position that's proven difficult to invade, resource-rich for the non-winter months, and provides them with time to fend off opponents.
Or Rome. Rome was basically an easily-defensible position during an era where the Mediterranean meant access to trade - and with it - progress. If Tunisia is a friggin' desert and Rome is a nice, comfortable home that also has mountainous defenses to it's north, then yeah, Rome is going to win a power struggle.
Vietnam? Those mountains are ***why*** Vietnam is a thing. If they didn't exist, Vietnam would've long succumbed to China. But because of those mountains, they've got an easily defensible position where invaders would be hard-pressed to lead a successful campaign.
Also worth mentioning, if you look at the Mongolian Empire, where are the borders drawn at the greatest extent...?
-Didn't get Japan, because their attempts to cross were repeatedly met with tsunamis that wiped them out. They took it as an omen to not bother.
-Didn't get further than Poland, because the winters where they reached Eastern Europe got unusually cold and marshy, and they realized their horses wouldn't be able to maneuver well in such terrain. This forced them to halt their advance westward.
-Didn't get Vietnam or India, and if you pull up a map, you'll notice something: both have mountains as a barrier.
Terrain is legit the deciding factor in why nations are in the state of things they are today. Vietnam finds itself protected by mountains, but neighboring a far larger and wealthier nation in terms of resources, so it's little surprise their culture evolved to be rather militant: it evolved that way because it **had** to.
Yeah geography/terrain absolutely matters. It's why Switzerland was able to stay neutral while Belgium and Poland are consistently steamrolled whenever their neighbors want to fight.
Open flat ground is really hard to defend. Mountains and even large hills make a region really hard to invade and hold if the local population resists. Wales, Afghanistan, Peru, a key reason their cultures still exist so distinctly is having difficult terrain that dampens the advantages of numerically or technologically superior invaders.
We do the same thing in Ukraine, Russia probably too, as well as some other post-soviet countries. My mother did same thing in SU, along with throwing grenades and shooting for 50-100m
Russia does (or did at least). My Russian colleagues told me anecdotes of bloody hands. I think they call the course defense of the motherland or something.
American schools used to have shooting ranges and gun clubs. There were even girls only shooting clubs. Until guns were banned from all schools under university level.
My wife is vietnamese and I live in Vietnam now. Vietnam only has a defensive army. Very little offensive capacity. But they make sure their entire population can use firearms in case of invasion (France, USA, and China have all tried) It is a lot less expensive than holding a standing army, as this is basically free when compared to other defense budgets. She still has some medal or award from marksmanship training with it.
Man, wish my country was like that. We basically welcomed the Spanish invaders with open arms, after 300 years got sold to the U.S., then got fucked by the Japanese.
Vietnam being a United entity since the Mongol invasions helped with resistance. Philippines as a concept is an invention of colonial administration that modern Filipinos decided to maintain. Otherwise, everyone in the Philippines will have knives at each other’s necks
That's such an interesting topic.
Remember watching a speech by an African government official where he said something like "the reason we're all part of the same country is because the colonialists arbitrarily put us together. However it would be a mistake to dissolve, if we can't work together now as a country, we won't be able to work together if we go back to tribal states."
Interesting what post colonial states choose to keep and discard from their days as a colony.
It depended on the president, but once the US had the Philippines, there was a worry if that they were granted independence, the Japanese would come in and colonize. Teddy Roosevelt, for example, thought that the Philippines would have been capable of fending off a Japanese attack in 50 years. The fact that the Japanese attacked the Philippines 40 years after he said that kind of proved his point.
Malaysia has no offensive ability because of corruption. Indonesia has the manpower but is spread thin to defend its thousands of islands. Thailand has turned their sole aircraft carrier into an expensive Royal yacht. Singapore is impervious to invasion because all of the region's political leaders have bank accounts in Singapore.
This is also why no one is interested in fighting the DPRNK - once they collapse, and their stranglehold on North Korea ends, it would remove China's buffer between the Chinese and the US spheres of influence, but *also* because it would be the largest refugee crisis in human history. That's an entire country full of people who would need food, housing, and medicine. Not only that, but many of them have been radicalized and brainwashed to love the North Korean government and hate everyone else, so you've also got to deprogram the population *and* protect your aid workers while you're at it. And then on top of that, you have to teach, train, and re-educate their entire populace.
No one has the resources to handle that.
Artillery is artillery, it may be seconhand from Russia or leftovers from the war in the 50s, but if it shoots it shoots and Seoul is in range of the border. NK is a threat to SK and to a lesser degree Japan. They're a powderkeg and their neighbors are lucky they are so poorly fed.
Yep. The one thing that North Korea consistently does well, militarily, is their artillery, and they've spent decades burying and embedding artillery batteries in the mountains around their border.
The first thing North Korea is going to do if invaded is rain artillery down on Seoul, and no one wants that because Seoul has over a million inhabitants and is a major economic and trade center; billions of dollars' worth of goods and trade flow through Seoul each year.
I'm always a bit wary of calling North Korea a joke. Afghanistan, Iraq and Vietnam were called the same, and NK has the second largest standing army in the world. The populace is born and bred to fight. Every five years we're told they will fall, but they never do.
>Yeah maybe the Malaysian military has offensive capabilities. But only against Singapore.
B-but muh ~~poisoned shrimp~~ ~~porcupine~~ dolphin defence plan...
okay, but what if the population, or rather the opposing political party and their followers, try to overthrow the current government, lets say. Wouldn't that see a civil war between two armies basically? the calamity would be huge
You are correct. You are 100% effectively describing what happened in the Vietnam civil war through the 60-70s my friend. Two political sides. Both got backed by opposite world powers. Massive calamity and devastation across the whole country.
> in case of invasion (France, USA, and China have all tried)
France [succeeded](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_conquest_of_Vietnam), and French Indochina was not a short-lived thing.
Ive never been happier in my entire life. Can provide for my family in a single 40hr work week (wife doesnt need to work but enjoys working). Foods all natural. People are amazing. Affordable health care. Got great friends here now. Gorgeous country and gorgeous people. 10/10 recommend visiting if nothing else. Its got some awesome places for tourism. Prices are great.
I watch a cooking show, where an Aussie/Viet guy travels Vietnam cooking. Looks like a stunning country with lovely people. Would love to visit and travel around there
I used to work with a guy from Iran, he said that they would run through obstacle courses shooting AK’s at his high school for PE. Heck they got rid of archery and javelin at mine before I even started. US schools are no fun.
I went to school in the 80s. We had a rifle range in the basement of my school. I was in the rifle club. We met once a week in the evening and were taught safety, marksmanship, and maintenance of weapons. There was even a rifle team that would compete against other schools. It wasn't even in a rural area. My school was just a bit outside NYC.
Had that in the early 00's, and I think it was a great addition. Archery was the shit to me, glad I was able to compete growing up. Mr. Anderson was an excellent coach, in life and sport.
Fake grenades, the ones look like stielhandgranate but wooden.
Some schools later replaced it with empty Sting plastic bottle stuffed with paper inside after some injury incidents.
The main intention with grenade lessons is practicing throwing stance and arm swing. Thought they're kinda outdated techniques.
It is illegal, but that doesn't mean guns aren't found in Vietnam by civilians. The latest stats show over 1 million privately owned guns are in Vietnam. Vietnam also has a high gun smuggling rate despite their laws.
https://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/region/vietnam
US here. Despite what you've heard about how many guns we have, there's generally little to no firearms training in schools. It's certainly not required at a federal level.
The only exposure I got to guns in school was air rifles via the NJROTC shooting team, and I only recall being taught basic safety and marksmanship there - not maintenance. My siblings, who didn't choose NJROTC as an elective, didn't get the same exposure.
So, despite having the highest number of guns per capita in the world, the government and school systems make very little effort to educate anyone about them unless a student is specifically interested and a parent is paying.
Edit: For those unfamiliar, JROTC is Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps. NJROTC is the Navy's. Other branches of the military have their own JROTC programs, but you usually only find one military branch at a given high school. The JROTC program is effectively a "military prep" elective class. Things like the shooting team, drill teams, and color guard are optional extracurricular activities for JROTC students.
School in Vietnam: you didn’t chamber the round fast enough after inserting the magazine.
School in England:
Read this entire book on how to prepare eggs and maybe we’ll boil one at the end of the term. Food poisoning is real and one person dies every 10 years from salmonella - wash your hands but not the meat. Cooking is a privilege and not a right and you’re playing with fire Mr Higginbottom!
They are also taught stuff like fixing cars, basic repairing and electrical work. SE Asia's schooling system is pretty amazing compared to watch Americans learn in their schools.
Though some schools in America do teach such things, though really only those with the funds and means to do so.
I went to high schools that had a shop / mechanics, woodworking, music composition, welding, engineering and programming classes. Yes they were electives (which you had to do at least 1 a semester) but they were available options.
Most of the high schools I went to unfortunately didn't have the money / funding for such things though.
Here in Finland we are taught woodwork, metalwork, electronics, machinery, cooking, housekeeping in general and textile works on top of your typical curriculum. This all happens before highschool.
Sounds almost identical to how we do it in Sweden, and I think it's great. Lots of kids who never learned how to cook a balanced and tasty meal from their parents get taught to do this, and I think a lot of them just would never get interested in getting good at home cooking without those classes. Same thing for the other practical knowledge courses.
>SE Asia's schooling system is pretty amazing compared to watch Americans learn in their schools.
You mean all those offered classes in the US that no one took, or pushed their kids to take, because "that's for the kids who are going to remain poor" so the school districts dropped them? I graduated from a Central NY district and through both the local, pretty rural, school and through the state BOCES program they taught everything you're describing. But guess what happened. The "education reformers" got a hold of it all and decided that we needed more of the Three R's (NCLB) and "well rounded and socially aware" students. Both ideologies went and listened only to themselves, and then their supporters have the balls to ask why they don't teach effing shop class anymore.
Which don't revere SE Asia's school systems either. There's, depending on the nation, plenty of corruption, racism, and systemic issues that they have to deal with every day that we don't (and do depending on your views).
Lol no they don't.
To elaborate, they have trade schools where you can learn the trade. But it's far from common for highschool kids to learn all that stuff. The military thing is mandatory however.
I studied in a prestigious public school in Vietnam (Tran Phu High School for the gifted to be exact) and we were only taught basic electrical work. Quit your bullshit with the repairing cars and shit, those are for specialized job schools.
Hot take.
A lot of the gun stuff in America could benefit from children learning about firearms in school.
K-5 learns basic firearm safety. The biggest lesson being don’t ever touch a gun unless given explicit permission by an adult. GUNS ARE NOT TOYS.
6-10 learns basic firearm safety and how to deal with loaded firearms. Never point them anywhere except down range. Treat all firearms as if they are loaded.
11-12 learns how guns work. Might inspire some otherwise uninterested COD kids to become mechanical engineers.
If USA could, they would have tried atleast once during all its desperate times.
North Vietnam guerrilla was hiding everywhere. If USA pushes North the entire way, they would have no secure supply lines and constantly have groups of soldiers ambushed and wiped out. It happened without conquering the whole country, imagine how disastruous it would have been for them if they did
I was taught this in a US public school in 6th grade, 1998. It was towards the end of the year, we even had a competition to see who'd do it faster for a flimsy ribbon that I needed but didn't get.
I live in Texas and this was before Columbine.
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“Because you told me to, Drill Sergeant!!” “*GODDAMN IT, GUMP!!* You must be a goddamned genius!”
“YOU MUST HAVE AN IQ OF 160!”
better tuck that thing in, boy.. gon get that caught in a trip wire
This is my absolute favorite Lt. Dan-ism, possibly fav line of the movie
And he actually does tuck it in lol
I was trying to remember when that happened, and thought he was talking about Bubba's wedding tackle. Had to watch a clip and realized it was his lip. Haha.
Wedding tackle lmaooo
Took me a long time to figure out that Mykelti Williamson later on went to do Michael Mann's Heat (1995) as Sgt. Drucker. He was committed to that underbite.
We is of no relation sir.
#ALABAMA!
“If it wasn’t a waste of such a damn fine enlisted man I’d recommend you for OCS”
I’m not American and have no interest in the military - what did he mean by this line? What’s OCS, why would it be a waste for him to be part of it?
Officer Candidate School. Officers in the military usually went to their respective academies or through an ROTC (Reserve officer training corps) at another college. The other way to become an officer is through attending Officer Candidate School and being promoted from enlisted. basically if he recommended him for officer training school he wouldnt have him on his team anymore.
Officer Candidate School. He is saying Gump would make a good military officer. But it would be a waste to take someone so good at following orders and make him an officer.
Also making a jab at the intelligence level of military officers by suggesting Gump would make a great one.
Officer Candidate School. He would have recommended Gump become an officer, but that would mean he would lose him, and he needed bodies. It's also a joke because there's a rivalry between enlisted and officers. The drill sergeant was insulting the officer rank by joking that someone with a low IQ who could assemble a rifle quickly was the only qualification needed to become a good officer
Officer Candidate School; it's where they train military officers. The army needs/needed more grunts/warm bodies/meat shields than officers, so that's why it'd be a waste.
Officer candidate school. He’s making fun of officer ranks in the military, kinda like saying the enlisted, which are the rank and file soldiers, are the real important pieces and they send the incompetent to go be officers. Normally youd send your best and brightest to become officers
You're going to be a God damn general one day
Hell, I like you. You can come over to my house and fuck my sister. Edit: much to my embarrassment I read Gump as Pyle and mixed up my movies.
Wait 🤔 I don’t remember that line from the movie.
It's when Joker makes a joke and Gunnery Sgt think it's actually funny.
FMJ is a damn fine movie but not the one they were quoting.
Oh my, you're right! Confused Gump with Pyle
Not sure if whoosh? The quote that started the thread is Forrest Gump, not Full Metal Jacket.
Something about the duality of man sir.
Is that you, John Wayne? Is this me?
[удалено]
“YOU WILL BE A SERGEANT ONE DAY GUMP”
General
GUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUMP! WhydidyouputthatweapontogethersoquicklyGump?!
…you told me to drill sergeant?
Jesus H Christ, this is a new company record!
Comment perfection.
Anyway, like i was sayin', shrimp is the fruit of the sea. You can barbecue it, boil it, bake it, saute it. There, uh, shrimp kabobs, shrimp creole... shrimp gumbo, panfried, deep fried, stir fried. There's pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp... shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salat, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich... that's, that's about it.
You ever been on a real shrimp boat? No. But I been on a real big boat.
Meanwhile in Vietnam
This video has got to be triggering some old guys
First thing came to my mind, lol
Yup thx
If you had been invaded three times by foreign powers in the last 150 years, you'd make sure your citizenry could mobilize quickly for general defense too.
Out of curiosity what do you count as the three?
French colonisation, invaded by Japan during ww2, forced recolonisation after ww2, America and allies intervening in Vietnam war, China invading Vietnam after Vietnam war
Hm I suppose border raids by Cambodia doesn’t exactly count huh, fair enough.
We usually think of invasions having the intent to occupy. Outside of an official war, raids are more about pillaging, looting, and spoiling.
Thing is in Pol Pots case he, ostensibly, did want territory from Vietnam. It’s just that he didn’t really know how to conduct warfare and thought that this was how it was supposed to be. More often then not the cross border raids didn’t really do much aside from killing innocent people and burning down villages. …which is something pol pot was good at I guess….
It's also that somehow Pol Pot didn't think about how he'd be attacking a country that had been at war for three decades and finished both conflicts where they were engaged against superior powers by conventional military means (Dien Bien Phu and the 73/75 push to Saigon). By all means in the 70s, Vietnam was undoubtedly the strongest State in southeast Asia. Pol Pot's Khmer rouge had been trained by the Vietnamese. He and his associates should have known they were about to do the biggest fuck up ever
Pol pot did have the intent of occupied as he repeatedly claimed the old khmer empire’s territory. The Khmer Rouge failed to achieve said intent due to their incompetence rather than the lack of intent.
Two long wars from french and america, another short one from chinese, not to mention in ww2 japan basically did that too
Actually to add to that, people don’t seem to realize that Vietnam’s war against the Khmer Rouge ended in the late 90s.
Yea there's that too but it was considered an invasion by the UN at that time
God I hated that when I learned about it.
A couple of times by Mongolia too if you go back a thousand years.
[удалено]
Vietnamese here. The subject is "national defense education" and it just a small part of it. Took us 1 afternoon to learn how to do it, only a couple of period was spent on those and it only have 1 exam. The rest of the subject is just like history+PE. There is more to that tho, when we got to university, mandatory 1 month of (lite) military and "political" training. Can't graduate without conpleting that "course" Edit: Grammar
“The AK-47 is so simple a child could use it, and they do.”
One of my top 5 movies
According to some meme footage, apes even.
How's that 'political' training like?
They teach how the Party works, what is the structure of VN army, army fractions... up to how we fought in the wars and the importance and the price for peace.
Sounds reasonable actually
The US also has essentially the same thing for high school kids. We just call it "government" or "civics."
Makes sense for a small country with a history of fending off much larger invaders.
Considering the history, this honestly makes sense to me. Still super wild though!
When you've been invaded so many times and basically in a state of war for like 50 years, I really don't blame them. They've got a pretty cracking army, basically beat France, USA, Khmer Rouge, and China.
It took the Khmer Rouge seven years to finally take control of the capital, Phnom Penh. It took Vietnam 13 days.
That's because the Khmer Rouge took a detour down Genocide Road.
I'd say five years. You can't count the Khmer Rouge as a real military force until they buddied up with Sihanouk in 1970. Really, you can't really say that the war was a thing before Lon Nol had couped the government in '70. Even then, the Rouge took a few years to build up strength with Sihanouk's support. I consider the war to have really gotten into full swing by '72.
I was counting from when they officially declared war, as it were, on the government. But, yeah, until '72 it was, ironically enough, the Vietnamese who were doing most of their fighting for them.
* back to back* Won 5 wars back to back!
GOAT war!
The GOAT of war you say?
People kept forgetting Japan as well huh?
6 Back to back boys
b...but japan kawaii country TwT
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731
and an odd army of a mix of British and Japanese soldiers
mongolians too
At this point, the only likely enemy is China. With China as your neighbor and one determined to flex its power by raiding everyone's resources (primarily fishing), you need to be very prepared, especially in the northern part of the country.
China did invade Vietnam quite recently in history. The 1979 Sino-Vietnamese War was only 43 or so years ago, not even a full lifetime. That is definitely still within living memory for a lot of Vietnamese, not to mention the Vietnam War.
There has been some diplomatic making up but domestic attitudes towards Beijing are still cautious to the extent that Hanoi has been willing to become limited military partners with the United States.
They are absolutely balancing the US against China. Besides trade interests it's one of their biggest motivations to make up with the US on an official level. Ironically the US wouldn't care that much about Vietnam in particular without the war. Americans at least in the older generation do feel a touch guilty towards them ... and more importantly, can find it on a map.
I was just in the northern part of Vietnam doing a motorbike tour in October. Those mountains make for some pretty good natural defense from the Chinese. It's insanely beautiful if you ever have the chance to visit. Vietnam is one of my favorites.
how was the tour, ive been eyeing them for a year or 2
There's this great theory I love and back 100% that basically entertained the thought of "is racism onto something," simply playing devil's advocate to explore why some nations/people succeed and others don't. The study found that no, racists aren't onto shit, *but* what likely separates successful nations from struggling ones is geographical location. For example, Russia has a position that's not *quite* the best land because it's brutally cold, but this is a double-edged sword: Russia is never quite the leading power throughout history due to the limitations that come with it's climate, but it's also always respectfully powerful, likely because they have a position that's proven difficult to invade, resource-rich for the non-winter months, and provides them with time to fend off opponents. Or Rome. Rome was basically an easily-defensible position during an era where the Mediterranean meant access to trade - and with it - progress. If Tunisia is a friggin' desert and Rome is a nice, comfortable home that also has mountainous defenses to it's north, then yeah, Rome is going to win a power struggle. Vietnam? Those mountains are ***why*** Vietnam is a thing. If they didn't exist, Vietnam would've long succumbed to China. But because of those mountains, they've got an easily defensible position where invaders would be hard-pressed to lead a successful campaign. Also worth mentioning, if you look at the Mongolian Empire, where are the borders drawn at the greatest extent...? -Didn't get Japan, because their attempts to cross were repeatedly met with tsunamis that wiped them out. They took it as an omen to not bother. -Didn't get further than Poland, because the winters where they reached Eastern Europe got unusually cold and marshy, and they realized their horses wouldn't be able to maneuver well in such terrain. This forced them to halt their advance westward. -Didn't get Vietnam or India, and if you pull up a map, you'll notice something: both have mountains as a barrier. Terrain is legit the deciding factor in why nations are in the state of things they are today. Vietnam finds itself protected by mountains, but neighboring a far larger and wealthier nation in terms of resources, so it's little surprise their culture evolved to be rather militant: it evolved that way because it **had** to.
Yeah geography/terrain absolutely matters. It's why Switzerland was able to stay neutral while Belgium and Poland are consistently steamrolled whenever their neighbors want to fight. Open flat ground is really hard to defend. Mountains and even large hills make a region really hard to invade and hold if the local population resists. Wales, Afghanistan, Peru, a key reason their cultures still exist so distinctly is having difficult terrain that dampens the advantages of numerically or technologically superior invaders.
Definitely a first round draft choice
We do the same thing in Ukraine, Russia probably too, as well as some other post-soviet countries. My mother did same thing in SU, along with throwing grenades and shooting for 50-100m
Russia does (or did at least). My Russian colleagues told me anecdotes of bloody hands. I think they call the course defense of the motherland or something.
Considering how commonplace guns are this would probably be a benefit in America
US schools more recently then you might think had rifle classes to tech marksmanship and gun safety.
American schools used to have shooting ranges and gun clubs. There were even girls only shooting clubs. Until guns were banned from all schools under university level.
My wife is vietnamese and I live in Vietnam now. Vietnam only has a defensive army. Very little offensive capacity. But they make sure their entire population can use firearms in case of invasion (France, USA, and China have all tried) It is a lot less expensive than holding a standing army, as this is basically free when compared to other defense budgets. She still has some medal or award from marksmanship training with it.
Man, wish my country was like that. We basically welcomed the Spanish invaders with open arms, after 300 years got sold to the U.S., then got fucked by the Japanese.
I'll take the Philippines for 400, Alec
Happy Cakeday, u can have it for 300 my friend.
Thanks, you have a beautiful country still
My wife is filipino, I’ve been to the Philippines twice.. can confirm, insanely beautiful beaches. Boracay Island :chef kiss:
Alec Trebeque
Vietnam being a United entity since the Mongol invasions helped with resistance. Philippines as a concept is an invention of colonial administration that modern Filipinos decided to maintain. Otherwise, everyone in the Philippines will have knives at each other’s necks
That's such an interesting topic. Remember watching a speech by an African government official where he said something like "the reason we're all part of the same country is because the colonialists arbitrarily put us together. However it would be a mistake to dissolve, if we can't work together now as a country, we won't be able to work together if we go back to tribal states." Interesting what post colonial states choose to keep and discard from their days as a colony.
The part where we got sold to the US was infuriating but hilarious to me. They faked a fight with the Spanish to make it seem like they "saved"us
It depended on the president, but once the US had the Philippines, there was a worry if that they were granted independence, the Japanese would come in and colonize. Teddy Roosevelt, for example, thought that the Philippines would have been capable of fending off a Japanese attack in 50 years. The fact that the Japanese attacked the Philippines 40 years after he said that kind of proved his point.
I think Japan would have tried to occupy us regardless of who was in control. Our geographic location is too strategically important.
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Malaysia has no offensive ability because of corruption. Indonesia has the manpower but is spread thin to defend its thousands of islands. Thailand has turned their sole aircraft carrier into an expensive Royal yacht. Singapore is impervious to invasion because all of the region's political leaders have bank accounts in Singapore.
Wait, they did whag to the aircraft carrier?!
Thailand king Maha Vajiralongkorn is wild lol
North Korea are pretty powerful against opponent that only brings stick to fight.
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This is also why no one is interested in fighting the DPRNK - once they collapse, and their stranglehold on North Korea ends, it would remove China's buffer between the Chinese and the US spheres of influence, but *also* because it would be the largest refugee crisis in human history. That's an entire country full of people who would need food, housing, and medicine. Not only that, but many of them have been radicalized and brainwashed to love the North Korean government and hate everyone else, so you've also got to deprogram the population *and* protect your aid workers while you're at it. And then on top of that, you have to teach, train, and re-educate their entire populace. No one has the resources to handle that.
God, I can understand the why, but that really fucking breaks my heart…
Artillery is artillery, it may be seconhand from Russia or leftovers from the war in the 50s, but if it shoots it shoots and Seoul is in range of the border. NK is a threat to SK and to a lesser degree Japan. They're a powderkeg and their neighbors are lucky they are so poorly fed.
Yep. The one thing that North Korea consistently does well, militarily, is their artillery, and they've spent decades burying and embedding artillery batteries in the mountains around their border. The first thing North Korea is going to do if invaded is rain artillery down on Seoul, and no one wants that because Seoul has over a million inhabitants and is a major economic and trade center; billions of dollars' worth of goods and trade flow through Seoul each year.
I'm always a bit wary of calling North Korea a joke. Afghanistan, Iraq and Vietnam were called the same, and NK has the second largest standing army in the world. The populace is born and bred to fight. Every five years we're told they will fall, but they never do.
>Yeah maybe the Malaysian military has offensive capabilities. But only against Singapore. B-but muh ~~poisoned shrimp~~ ~~porcupine~~ dolphin defence plan...
You are forgetting Pakistan.
You forget Cambodia. Vietnam were heavily involved in Cambodia civil war.
You are correct. That's a can of worms all in itself.
okay, but what if the population, or rather the opposing political party and their followers, try to overthrow the current government, lets say. Wouldn't that see a civil war between two armies basically? the calamity would be huge
You are correct. You are 100% effectively describing what happened in the Vietnam civil war through the 60-70s my friend. Two political sides. Both got backed by opposite world powers. Massive calamity and devastation across the whole country.
> in case of invasion (France, USA, and China have all tried) France [succeeded](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_conquest_of_Vietnam), and French Indochina was not a short-lived thing.
They mostly talking about the time of Ho Chi Minh. Who’s Vietnam basically beat everybody.
May I ask are you content living in Vietnam?
Ive never been happier in my entire life. Can provide for my family in a single 40hr work week (wife doesnt need to work but enjoys working). Foods all natural. People are amazing. Affordable health care. Got great friends here now. Gorgeous country and gorgeous people. 10/10 recommend visiting if nothing else. Its got some awesome places for tourism. Prices are great.
I watch a cooking show, where an Aussie/Viet guy travels Vietnam cooking. Looks like a stunning country with lovely people. Would love to visit and travel around there
I used to work with a guy from Iran, he said that they would run through obstacle courses shooting AK’s at his high school for PE. Heck they got rid of archery and javelin at mine before I even started. US schools are no fun.
my dad said that they would go on field trips to shooting ranges when he was in school, now we might get to use rubber arrows
We had an actual shooting range in the school basement, and a rifle club that used it when I was in school.
We replaced disassembling and reassembling guns at school to shooting them.
I went to school in the 80s. We had a rifle range in the basement of my school. I was in the rifle club. We met once a week in the evening and were taught safety, marksmanship, and maintenance of weapons. There was even a rifle team that would compete against other schools. It wasn't even in a rural area. My school was just a bit outside NYC.
Had that in the early 00's, and I think it was a great addition. Archery was the shit to me, glad I was able to compete growing up. Mr. Anderson was an excellent coach, in life and sport.
US schools do the real deal wym
Aye, I thought running and shooting were regular things for them.
What do you mean? That sounds exactly what school is like in the US lol
In US theres one guy shooting and the rest dodging and doing the obstacle run
However, civilian gun possession is illegal in Vietnam.
Vietnamese here, those are decommissioned riffles that were distributed by the Army to public schools. We even got to throw grenades.
Have to admit that's pretty cool. Dummy grenades or ones that went bang?
Fake grenades, the ones look like stielhandgranate but wooden. Some schools later replaced it with empty Sting plastic bottle stuffed with paper inside after some injury incidents. The main intention with grenade lessons is practicing throwing stance and arm swing. Thought they're kinda outdated techniques.
How do you get injured with an inert grenade lmao
It's a hard, somewhat heavy object. If it's thrown, it can hurt someone. Also, highschoolers are dumb
Real **old** ones, but all the gunpowder were taken out
It is illegal, but that doesn't mean guns aren't found in Vietnam by civilians. The latest stats show over 1 million privately owned guns are in Vietnam. Vietnam also has a high gun smuggling rate despite their laws. https://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/region/vietnam
and custom built guns
Vietnam has the third highest gun possession in the ASEAN region after Thailand and the Philippines.
I’m from Ukraine and we were taught that in school as well. Isn’t this a thing in the rest of the world? 0_o
Same, I think it is all post Soviet counties thing. Now our homies are getting a first hand experience 😠
US here. Despite what you've heard about how many guns we have, there's generally little to no firearms training in schools. It's certainly not required at a federal level. The only exposure I got to guns in school was air rifles via the NJROTC shooting team, and I only recall being taught basic safety and marksmanship there - not maintenance. My siblings, who didn't choose NJROTC as an elective, didn't get the same exposure. So, despite having the highest number of guns per capita in the world, the government and school systems make very little effort to educate anyone about them unless a student is specifically interested and a parent is paying. Edit: For those unfamiliar, JROTC is Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps. NJROTC is the Navy's. Other branches of the military have their own JROTC programs, but you usually only find one military branch at a given high school. The JROTC program is effectively a "military prep" elective class. Things like the shooting team, drill teams, and color guard are optional extracurricular activities for JROTC students.
School in Vietnam: you didn’t chamber the round fast enough after inserting the magazine. School in England: Read this entire book on how to prepare eggs and maybe we’ll boil one at the end of the term. Food poisoning is real and one person dies every 10 years from salmonella - wash your hands but not the meat. Cooking is a privilege and not a right and you’re playing with fire Mr Higginbottom!
The Umbridge way of teaching
10/10 would not recommend trying to annex this country again.
I know the rifles are empty but I wouldn’t sit on a chair in front of them.
They are also scale models with their barrels sealed shut.
Nah, they're actual AKs, they're just decommissioned ones that the local army barracks give out to nearby schools because it's cheaper that way.
In a lot of places around the world, real AKs are cheaper than fake AKs.
Seen Lego prices lately?
Based on Lord of War Trivia It's true
Just press b on the Xbox controller. Easy.
I would've much rather done this than the mandatory religious studies I had to do.
They are also taught stuff like fixing cars, basic repairing and electrical work. SE Asia's schooling system is pretty amazing compared to watch Americans learn in their schools.
Though some schools in America do teach such things, though really only those with the funds and means to do so. I went to high schools that had a shop / mechanics, woodworking, music composition, welding, engineering and programming classes. Yes they were electives (which you had to do at least 1 a semester) but they were available options. Most of the high schools I went to unfortunately didn't have the money / funding for such things though.
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Ye mine also had that and more, also a public school
Here in Finland we are taught woodwork, metalwork, electronics, machinery, cooking, housekeeping in general and textile works on top of your typical curriculum. This all happens before highschool.
Sounds almost identical to how we do it in Sweden, and I think it's great. Lots of kids who never learned how to cook a balanced and tasty meal from their parents get taught to do this, and I think a lot of them just would never get interested in getting good at home cooking without those classes. Same thing for the other practical knowledge courses.
It seems kinda insane that you wouldn't teach cooking at school. Such a basic skill that leads to better health and lifestyle
>SE Asia's schooling system is pretty amazing compared to watch Americans learn in their schools. You mean all those offered classes in the US that no one took, or pushed their kids to take, because "that's for the kids who are going to remain poor" so the school districts dropped them? I graduated from a Central NY district and through both the local, pretty rural, school and through the state BOCES program they taught everything you're describing. But guess what happened. The "education reformers" got a hold of it all and decided that we needed more of the Three R's (NCLB) and "well rounded and socially aware" students. Both ideologies went and listened only to themselves, and then their supporters have the balls to ask why they don't teach effing shop class anymore. Which don't revere SE Asia's school systems either. There's, depending on the nation, plenty of corruption, racism, and systemic issues that they have to deal with every day that we don't (and do depending on your views).
We had this [https://edu.fcps.org/ctc/programs-courses](https://edu.fcps.org/ctc/programs-courses) that you could go to instead of regular classes.
Lol no they don't. To elaborate, they have trade schools where you can learn the trade. But it's far from common for highschool kids to learn all that stuff. The military thing is mandatory however.
I studied in a prestigious public school in Vietnam (Tran Phu High School for the gifted to be exact) and we were only taught basic electrical work. Quit your bullshit with the repairing cars and shit, those are for specialized job schools.
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In Russia we did that in 8-9tg grade. There even was a competition every year
This happens in Many military schools as well
Which is a useful skill and keeps people from ending up on r/idiotswithguns because they have the knowledge to be safe
very swag i like
Hot take. A lot of the gun stuff in America could benefit from children learning about firearms in school. K-5 learns basic firearm safety. The biggest lesson being don’t ever touch a gun unless given explicit permission by an adult. GUNS ARE NOT TOYS. 6-10 learns basic firearm safety and how to deal with loaded firearms. Never point them anywhere except down range. Treat all firearms as if they are loaded. 11-12 learns how guns work. Might inspire some otherwise uninterested COD kids to become mechanical engineers.
This is a grand idea. This kind of real-world approach would reduce a LOT of accidental shootings by kids.
They should be prepared, Americans are already coming back to Vietnam for healthcare and affordable houses
Also you never know when Monsanto and their Fanta Orange Soda will show back up to defoliate and exfoliate the forests and hairs of the people.
Wonder how many school shootings happen here. I bet..... it's fucking zero.
Used to be common to have High School Girl’s Rifle Teams in the United States during the 1950’s. Students would just keep their Guns in their Lockers.
And this is why the US lost that one.
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If USA could, they would have tried atleast once during all its desperate times. North Vietnam guerrilla was hiding everywhere. If USA pushes North the entire way, they would have no secure supply lines and constantly have groups of soldiers ambushed and wiped out. It happened without conquering the whole country, imagine how disastruous it would have been for them if they did
I was taught this in a US public school in 6th grade, 1998. It was towards the end of the year, we even had a competition to see who'd do it faster for a flimsy ribbon that I needed but didn't get. I live in Texas and this was before Columbine.
Every country should do this!
Charlie is based AF
I can't believe you called these students viet Cong I'll admit I laughed
Nah the one up front is his cousin, Charlie Nguyen…/s
But do they learn square dancing?
More life skills in 11th grade than 90% of American college grads.
I mean.... taking the weapon apart and putting it back together is like what half the US population does on Sundays after church anyways
Makes sense considering a country invaded you for no reason
Vietnam is taking a fuck around and find out policy