What did soldiers in Vietnam do to pass the time when they were not fighting?

No. Turkey was not involved in the Vietnam War. However, Turkey did contribute soldiers to the Korean War (which made that war the first time that Turks and Greeks fought on the same side in any conflict). Read More

The maximum number of US soldiers in Vietnam at one time was 500, 000. 3 million Americans were in the Vietnam war altogether. Read More

In Vietnam, for the first time in US history each and every US fighting man possessed a fully automatic rifle. During WWII, each and every US fighting man possessed a semi-automatic rifle (the M1 Garand). Read More

They just said, "I did my time." Read More

At the height of the war there were approximately 500,000 US Marines, soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Coast Guardsmen in Vietnam. Read More

At the time of the Vietnam War their was about 2 million. Now their is roughly 760,000. Read More

The difficulties faced by US servicemen in Vietnam were the same difficulties faced by any and all past servicemen during war time. The tropical heat faced by US GI's in Vietnam were no worse nor no better than the Marines and Soldiers fighting in the Pacific Theater of WWII experienced. The casualties from exploding shells and flying bullets were no worse nor easier than the shells and bullets our GI's faced in the Korean War… Read More

They were busy fighting and surviving - there was no time for entertainment. Read More

They killed each other for practice. That's why we won. Read More

In the field, playing cards (gambling) was common. Read More

Over 500,000 men. Read More

Over the course of about 14 years, about 2.5 million American military spent time in Vietnam. There were as many as 500,000 troops at any one time. Read More

Night time was heavily used. Read More

A time to remember our soldiers, for fighting for our country. Read More

At the height of the Vietnam War, there were about 500,000 American soldiers in the country at any given time. Over the course of the war, about 2 million served in the nation of Vietnam. Read More

What the war in Vietnam was... it was a SHAME. Our troops were involved in a conflict that is no different than the conflicts in Afghanistan or Iraq. The brave young men and women fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq are seen as heroes; the brave young men and women who fought in Vietnam were seen as trash, killers, and every other imaginable degrading name. The main difference between these conflicts... the American news media. Please… Read More

i did a report a long time ago in school and researched this information. On average there were only about 35,000 combat soldiers in Vietnam, on the average. Which made up only about 10% of the total American soldiers in Vietnam. It takes alot of support personnel to take care of the logistics, administrative needs, and etc... for each combat soldier. The number of combat soldiers in Vietnam rose to approximately 50,000 combat soldiers during… Read More

Smoke mad blunts Read More

the conditions for the Australian soldiers was the same as all of the previous wars. But the soldiers this time didnt come back as Heroes, they suffered, faught in the worst conditions ever, against a strong army who lives in jungles and were finlly defeated. the weather and Vietnam's climax made it very difficult for the soldiers to fight, the enemy was very tough, they had very smart techniques and one of them was the… Read More

Cambodia. Read More

The U.S. involvement peaked in Vietnam in 1968. It was also the year for the highest number of casualties. Read More

The Vietnam war was one of the first wars in American history the the majority of the public didn't approve of. To the public, there was no clear purpose (or at least an unclear purpose), like during WW2, when the clear purpose was to defeat the Nazis. Therefore, for the first time, soldiers doubted what they were fighting for, and when they came back, they were looked down on and even hated. Read More

yes they do by training,fighting and many more like bathing in bath houses. Read More

Over half a million men where in country by '68/'69. Read More

France had conflicts with north Vietnam and had sent troops along before the u.s and retreated around the time the u.s. got involved. The french sent the soldiers to south Vietnam since north Vietnam was resisting colonial control from France. Read More

they cam into the battle with lots of soldiers, none of which were injured or tired like soldiers from other countries who had been fighting for a long time. these new soldiers helped to win the war Read More

Drafted men served for two years on active duty. They just did their time, and discharged. Read More

at the end of the Vietnam war. The soldiers organised a day just so that they could spend time with their loved ones. Read More

He was sort of busy fighting the Korean War at the time (1950-1953). Read More

A civil war is ONE nation fighting itself. The US Civil War is an example of ONE nation fighting itself; the North against the South. Vietnam was TWO separate nations; a North Vietnam against the South Vietnamese government. North and South Vietnam were created at the same time on or about 1954. They became one nation, for the first time in 1975, when they won the war. Read More

because the fighting was going no where and they understood that it would be a long time to ever get the north off the south back, and that signaed for a long war, and also the advantage the north Vietnam had on fighting in their own country..giving them and edge on American forces. Read More

As President Johnsson escalated the war effort, and became a hawk himself, his chief critics became known as “doves” and included antiwar protesters, college students and faculty, liberal Democrats, and many other people in various walks of life who felt that the war was immoral, dragging on to no benefit for the US, and was causing increased casualty lists to mount. Many believed the US was fighting a war against the wishes of the majority… Read More

Unknown/secret/covert. Submarines and snipers at one time (from Vietnam and previous) were considered "secret" (and un-gentlemanly/dirty fighting). Read More

When Lyndon Johnson became President following the death of John F. Kennedy, the US involvement in Vietnam was quite small. Kennedy had sent over some military advisers, but Americans were doing very little fighting in Vietnam. Johnson gradually increased the US military presence in Vietnam, which was described as the escalation of the war. Escalation was a continual process, with more and more American soldiers being sent to Vietnam. By the time Johnson left office… Read More

The soldiers mainly did chores or other things to pass the time. One soldier said, "War is 99% boredom and 1% battle. Read More

They washed themselves with water and soap. When they had lice they were taken to big vats of steamy water while their clothes were put through delousing machines but this didn't work very effectively. The ones in the active fighting did not worry about cleaning - a lot of the time they were up to their waists in muddy, bloody water. Just getting food to eat once a day was often a problem for the… Read More

1. Proved that the Reds could be stopped; thus enforcing the concept of fighting them again, this time in Vietnam. 2. Taught the US not to invade North Vietnam; as Red China entered the Korean War after the US/Allies invaded North Korea. Read More

The Rooster is symbolic for America. The Marines carried a flag with an eagle on it. No eagles were in Vietnam but they were very active in rooster farming. Therefore, Vietnam soldiers thought the eagle was a rooster so every time they would attack they would say "It's time to snuff the Rooster" or it's time to kill the Americans. When the song says "Yeah they've come to snuff the Rooster. Oh, here comes the… Read More

because of the tactics that the Vietcong were using against American soldiers. They were underground most of the time to get hospitality, food, sleep and making plans. This was a war where the USA weren't wanted (by the country - Vietnam) Read More

When the United states went to war with Vietnam, the President in that time should of made sure that they would win. President Nixon just sent a lot troops and soldiers not knowing what he was getting America into. Read More

I'm not sure that they did. Perhaps early in the war there was solid support among frontline soldiers (who, after all, have to believe that they are fighting a worthwhile cause) but I have been unable to find polling data on contemporary soldiers or veterans' attitudes toward the war. Most oral histories from veterans seem antiwar but that could be a question of who selected specific veterans to tell their stories. It also seems that… Read More

US Army M1 steel helmets were not issued with cloth camo covers as were the US Marines fighting in the Pacific, during WWII. Consequently, soldiers didn't do to much writing on steel. The common thing was to paint their division patch on the sides of the helmets (1st Infantry Division, 3rd ID, 4 ID, etc.). In Vietnam, the US Army began, for the first time, issuing cloth camo reversible covers for the steel M1 helmets… Read More

They washed themselves with water and soap. When they had lice they were taken to big vats of steamy water while their clothes were put through delousing machines but this didn't work very effectively. The ones in the active fighting did not worry about cleaning - a lot of the time they were up to their waists in muddy, bloody water. Just getting food to eat once a day was often a problem for the… Read More

A major problem about going to Vietnam was because the entire country is jungle and at that time, the US. didn't have very much experience in jungle warfare. Plus the heat and humidity was also a big factor. Read More

Martha Washington aided the soldiers fighting in the war at that time, she made clothing and was by their bedside when they were sick. she greatly encouraged them to keep going. Read More

The Vietnam war was a war fought to help unify Vietnam and stop communism. Americans had differing views on the war. Some opposed and some were for it. In the beginning there were few protests. As time went on and more US soldiers were sent home in body bags more Americans began protesting. Read More

Because at that time the British Government knew it was an unjustified war (Unlike the British Govt. that was foolish enough to support the US in Iraq) Read More

yes they did get sick. sometimes they got the flu but most of the time no one was sick because they always got shots every 2 weeks... Read More

First time US Civil War, last time Vietnam War. In between: WWI, WWII, Korea. Revolutionary War, 1812 War, Mexican War, Indian Wars, Spanish-American War, and all post Vietnam military operations have been fought by US volunteers. Read More

Vietnam was occupied by Japan from '40 until '45. Of interest, is the Royal Navy Battleship HMS Prince of Wales (of fighting the German Bismarck battleship fame) and battlecruiser HMS Repulse were both sunk by land based Japanese bombers, which took off from airfields in Vietnam. For the first time in naval history, a battleship which was underway, and fighting back, was sunk by airpower alone (10 December 1941). Read More