- Even decades later the U.S. military is still tracking and arresting deserters from Vietnam. President Jimmy Carter pardoned civilian draft evaders in 1977. The pardon did not apply to those already serving in the military.
- In 1969, in response to one of the largest ever anti-war demonstrations, Richard Nixon wanted Army helicopters to hover over protesters and blow out their candlelit vigil.
- C-4 plastic explosive is so chemically stable it can be shot, microwaved, or even set on fire without exploding. Soldiers in Vietnam would sometimes use it for cooking fires, and, supposedly, would eat small amounts to fake illness.
- Hugh Thompson Jr., a helicopter pilot in Vietnam, threw away his Distinguished Flying Cross when he saw the citation included a fabricated account of the My Lai Massacre. The citation stated he saved a young Vietnamese girl from “intense crossfire,” when he had, in fact, saved many people from being murdered by American soldiers.
- When faced with over 1,000 North Vietnamese Army troops, Roy P. Benavidez flew into a gunfight to save 12 Special Forces soldiers with only a knife. He was shot multiple times and believed dead, until he spit in the face of the medic trying to put him in a body bag.
- When Forrest Gump talks at the Vietnam rally in Washington and the sound cuts out he actually says “Sometimes when people go to Vietnam, they go home to their mommas without any legs. Sometimes they don’t go home at all. That’s a bad thing. That’s all I have to say about that.“
- Duct Tape was used during the Vietnam War to repair helicopter rotor blades.
- In the Vietnam War, the US military produced recordings of ghostly voices and eerie sounds to play to the Vietcong, who believed that if a body wasn’t buried, the person’s soul would wander the Earth forever.
- An officer of the US Navy, James Stockdale , became a POW. To prevent his captors from using him as propaganda, he cut his scalp with razors, beat his face with a stool until he was unrecognizable, and slit his wrists.
- There actually was a John Rambo in Vietnam and his name can be found on the Vietnam Memorial. Oh, and he was awarded a silver star.
- During the frenzied Evacuation of Saigon by American Troops in 1975, one Marine drove a bread truck full of prostitutes to an airstrip in town and put them on a C-141. He said they were all personal friends, and signed as responsible for them.
- The eastern part of Laos was so heavily bombed during the Vietnam war that most people can supplement their income by collecting scrap metal 40 years later , some completely rely on it.
Charlie Company Vietnam 1966-1972 