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Post by volkssturm on Nov 5, 2015 20:28:50 GMT -5
Found this mentioned on Tom Ricks "Best Defense" column. It's a scene that was deleted from "We Were Soldiers". Kind of gives the ending of the movie a whole different twist. www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlVcduLh6ec
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2nd Bat
Master sergeant
Posts: 11,813
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Post by 2nd Bat on Nov 5, 2015 22:42:01 GMT -5
The ending used in the actual movie was the only significant part of the movie that I didn't like. (It was soooo Hollywood and historically just wrong). This ending would have been spot on and would keep the movie relevant. The Westmoreland and Macnamara were definitely easy to pick out.
At that early stage in the war the US had no idea how different that war was than WW2 and Korea. Thanks for sharing. Incidentally when Col Moore was initially ordered to leave the battlefield for a personal visit with Westmoreland he refused the order. With additional urging he finally agreed.
Shortly after his departure the men were ordered to trail March to a more secure and less exposed pick up zone. The NVA had withdrawn from the area and after days on extremely intense fighting and the belief that the AO was secure, security was lax and the column was devastatingly ambushed. The bulk of the US casualties happened then. The NVA had already learned to strike hard, strike quickly, engage at grenade range or closer to protect themselves from airstrikes and artillery. They knew not to linger beyond 15 minutes and they left.
Col Moore greatly regrets obeying the order to leave his men too soon and for betraying his own promise to be the last man on a chopper. He was a great officer but he was learning how to fight there as well.
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Post by scvngr on Nov 6, 2015 18:17:19 GMT -5
Wah? the cliched "silent helicopters sneak up on the bad guys" to be too Hollywood? That clip really seems more fitting in tone, at least the book.
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Post by insterburger on Nov 6, 2015 19:08:25 GMT -5
Great scene. Except the casting for MacNamara makes it look like Colonel Moore and General Westmoreland are guests on "The Colbert Report."
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2nd Bat
Master sergeant
Posts: 11,813
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Post by 2nd Bat on Nov 6, 2015 19:44:02 GMT -5
The Macnamara character did come across as overly mousey. "Mac the knife" was far more self assured and even cocky at the time. He believed strongly that technological sophistication and weapons superiority would easily win the war and as depicted in the scene had little appreciation for the tenacity and resourcefulness of the NVA or the challenges presented by the terrain. He believed an elaborate series of sensors would enable us to so effectively monitor the infiltration routes that with air lower alone we could isolate the South. This was called Macknamaras wall or the electric fence and the US Army still had great faith in it into the early 70s.
With ammonia sniffers, ground sensors and microphones these mostly air dropped probes provided in some cases amazing real time Intel. Many were boobytrapped and no doubt tens of thousands of them are still in Laos and Cambodia.
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