The Decorations and Medals of the Republic of Viet Nam (vi)

from John Sylvester, State, and Frank Foster, Army

The fifth time, June 13, 2022, I wrote here about The Decorations and Medals of the Republic of Viet Nam, I focused on the Medal for Campaigns Outside the Frontier, to observe that

the very last medal that the Republic of Viet Nam authorized, in 1973, the same year as the Paris accords before Saigon fell in 1975 to the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam in Ha Noi

shows the unified nation projecting power outwards.

The fourth time, May 9, 2022, I wrote here about The Decorations and Medals of the Republic of Viet Nam, I focused on the Hamlet Common Defense Medal, to observe that

the beginner’s decoration for the common man in the personalist revolution of the Ngo Dinh Diem administration is so rare that authors John Sylvester and Frank Foster didn’t have an example on hand to photograph for the color plates of the book,

because we assisted in the murder of Diem and his brother Nhu in 1963 the same year they authorized the medal.

The third time, April 9, 2022, I wrote here about The Decorations and Medals of the Republic of Viet Nam, I focused on the Special Service Medal, to observe that

this decoration for raiding Cambodia, Laos and the other Viet Nam covertly more than 5 times is not rare. They started awarding it May 12, 1964, that is, 3 months before we claimed that no such thing was going on in the Gulf of Tonkin

and therefore the United States of America must bomb the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam and occupy the Republic of Viet Nam. Then we bombed our ally even more than its enemy.

The second time, March 14, 2022, I wrote here on my sixty-second birthday about The Decorations and Medals of the Republic of Viet Nam, I focused on the Wound Medal, to observe that

you can’t fake blood but you can ignore that of those not citizens, so recognition for injury is proof of a nation in arms.

The first time, February 21, 2022 I wrote here about The Decorations and Medals of the Republic of Viet Nam, I observed that

the Republic of Viet Nam was a republic in Viet Nam, a community imagining themselves by public prints (Anderson, 1991) which display the body of a nation (Thongchai, 1997).

This sixth time I write here about The Decorations and Medals of the Republic of Viet Nam to repeat my assertion

that our ally was a nation. If you say rather that they were marionettes well that fits my facts too but who pulls your strings?

Viet Nam letters respects the property of others under paragraph 107 of United States Code Title 17. If we asked for permission it wouldn’t be criticism. We explain our fair use at length in the letter of September 12, 2022.

The colophon of these Viet Nam letters, directly above, shows the janitor speaking with poet David A. Willson on a Veterans Day.