radiochaser

Yeah. Right! A cousin and his son were killed by a drunk driver! The driver was a man.

No, Army Security Agency personnel were in Vietnam in 1960. First official American military death was in 1961. I worked with people during my time in Vietnam starting late 1970, who were in Vietnam then. I had instructors in my MOS that were also in Vietnam during that time. I agreed with someone else, that a president, other than Kennedy, was first sending military in. Kennedy, I believe, is the one that authorized ASA personnel. They were the ones that were the first Americans involved in the conflict there. I do think that some other American military were wounded or killed as a result of the conflict, but as collateral damage between South Vietnamese Army and the communists. From what I remember, they were there training the South Vietnamese on the U.S. military equipment provided them by the U.S.

If you mean the French version of Vietnam war, no, I think it was the Vietnamese version of communists.

Yeah, I think you are right about that. I think Kennedy authorized the Army elements that I worked with to go into Vietnam in 1960.

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Oooohhhhhh.. Look at that nasty comment/question!!!

Even Thailand had military fighting in Vietnam.

Kennedy started Vietnam. Some of the people I worked with, from late 1970 through early 1973, had a tour or two, in Vietnam starting in 1960!

Off on a tangent here .. According to a brief internet search, there were 2.7 - 3.1 million American military personnel, that were there, participating in the Vietnam war. If you include the non Vietnamese militaries, there were a lot more too. Also, between 9 and 12 million people claim to have been there, participating in the Vietnam war. I am guessing that half of the 9 - 12 million Americans that claim/claimed they were there, cannot prove they were there, because their service there was ... dum, dum, dum, dummmmmmmm, classified "TOP SECRET"!!!! I get a chuckle, sometimes, about those classified claims. I had to have a TOP SECRET clearance before I could start my MOS training. My MOS school notebook was classified SECRET with a CODE WORD. But what I was training to be, was not classified. What I did in Vietnam was not classified, just the product of the works was classified and nowadays, much of that has been declassified too. (for those that don't know and get upset with upper case words, the words CONFIDENTIAL, SECRET, and TOP SECRET, when properly used to classify a document, are always written in upper case font)

Define what you mean by a "proper war"?

Took 10-15 seconds to get the link. It has taken longer to respond and post the link. You too, can do this. https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2025/03/fact-check-president-trump-will-always-protect-social-security-medicare/

When I attended the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC), the training included martial arts. The martial arts training at FLETC was pathetic. I had better training in a Jiu Jitsu as a teenager and that wasn't enough. My hand to hand combat training in the Army Basic Training in 1969 was better than the FLETC martial arts training.

But not as much fun as having a real potato to stick those plastic parts into. Which what I remember Mr Potato head thing was when I was 5 years old.

In all the times I have been to Thailand, I was only asked for my passport one time. I was on a bus from Mukdahan to Udon Thani. At the bottom of a hill was a police roadblock. Police boarded the bus and asked everyone for their ID. They asked everyone several questions before giving their ID's back. Police officer got to me, asked for my passport, opened it up to the picture page I guess, looked at it, looked at me, then gave my passport back. Didn't ask or say anything other than, "Passport". I was the only white face on the bus. The police took several people into custody before letting the bus go on. I remember it being a long ride to Udon Thani. There was no air service at the time.