VIETNAM'S WAR 40 YEARS LATER.

Erinfan

Is this story really credible ?

A father and his son have been found living in isolation deep in the forest in Tra Xinh Commune, Tay Tra District in central Quang Ngai Province.
The two, wearing only loin cloths, are reported to have been cut off from the rest of the world for 40 years.They have lived all that time largely on fruit from the forest.
The 82-year-old father, Ho Van Thanh, fled to the forest with his son 40 years ago after an explosion occurred during the war, killing two of his other sons and his mother.
The father and his son, now a 42-year-old man, have been living in a timber hut five metres above the ground.
The men were spotted by local people a few days ago and taken back to the village in Tra Phong Commune in Tay Tra District.

http://vietnamnews.vn/society/243227/father-son-live-alone-in-jungle.html

petes

Yes, I believed it!

Amirani

They'd have to be seriously retarded for it to be true.

BeerWolf

Very fashionable, loincloths.

SEPT 23 1989

I don't believe a word of it

Jester252

That one hell of an article OP

NiallSparky

NiallSparky wrote: »

They'd have to be seriously retarded for it to be true.

Why? There's tonnes of similar stories happening from World War 2 as well.

Ray Palmer

Yes believable. In the 70s they found a family in Russia that didn't know about WW2.

There are also reports of POW still being held in Vietnam I even think one was discover in the last year.

circadian

I've seen some mental things in Vietnam. This is pretty believable since Quang Ngai Province is fairly undeveloped and the weather there (minus monsoon) wouldn't get that cold. They're a tough bunch the Vietnamese, there's definitely a determination in their character.

Amirani

Deleted User wrote: »

Why? There's tonnes of similar stories happening from World War 2 as well.

Because it's retarded to decide to stay living in a jungle for 40 years.

P.C.

NiallSparky wrote: »

Because it's retarded to decide to stay living in a jungle for 40 years.

What do you think people in central Africa, central America and in Asia have been doing for many many years.

Yes, living in the jungle.

How is it retarded?

Amirani

P.C. wrote: »

What do you think people in central Africa, central America and in Asia have been doing for many many years.

Yes, living in the jungle.

How is it retarded?

There's a difference being born and brought up there in a tribe or something and moving there to avoid war and never interacting with any other humans again. That's a **** existence.

antodeco

NiallSparky wrote: »

That's a **** existence.

**** existence or not, the father did it to protect himself and the life of his son.

Lets take a modern look at it:

Zombie outbreak. You manage to get away and find somewhere isolated that is protected from Zombies. You have food, shelter and the ability to survive in this isolated area. Do you stay there, or do you leave and run the risk of being killed/eaten? Human instinct is to survive, regardless if its a pleasant existance or not

NiallSparky

NiallSparky wrote: »

Because it's retarded to decide to stay living in a jungle for 40 years.

They had no way of knowing the war was over. If you had to choose between living in a war, that has already killed many family members, or living in the relative safety of a jungle, which would you pick?

Nobody told them it was over, so they obviously just assumed it was still happening.

Mr.Prodston

NiallSparky wrote: »

Because it's retarded to decide to stay living in a jungle for 40 years.

I've seen some things in here before but this takes the biscuit.

Sure of course they knew the whole murdering of their people and absolute destruction that took place during the war was over as they fled for their lives. Do you have any idea of the devastation that took place there? If an explosion killed your mother and two sons you'd be pretty slow to go back and investigate not knowing if you'd be killed in the same manner or something worse like run into Agent Orange (Don't read if you're squirmish or in work, even if you're not it's fairly grim reading ) . If only they had smartphones or sky news to tell them everything was ok!

buck65

antodeco wrote: »

**** existence or not, the father did it to protect himself and the life of his son.

Lets take a modern look at it:

Zombie outbreak. You manage to get away and find somewhere isolated that is protected from Zombies. You have food, shelter and the ability to survive in this isolated area. Do you stay there, or do you leave and run the risk of being killed/eaten? Human instinct is to survive, regardless if its a pleasant existance or not

Er do zombies exist? Is this a new modern development I'm not aware of (packs bag).

Amirani

Mr.Prodston wrote: »

I've seen some things in here before but this takes the biscuit.

Sure of course they knew the whole murdering of their people and absolute destruction that took place during the war was over as they fled for their lives. Do you have any idea of the devastation that took place there? If an explosion killed your mother and two sons you'd be pretty slow to go back and investigate not knowing if you'd be killed in the same manner or something worse like run into Agent Orange (Don't read if you're squirmish or in work, even if you're not it's fairly grim reading ) . If only they had smartphones or sky news to tell them everything was ok!

I've been in Vietnam, and seen all the museums so that's nothing new.

I just can't imagine myself willingly leaving everything in my life to live in a jungle and never attempt to return. You'd go insane surely?

circadian

Bring a pack of cards and don't forget to count them before you leave.

Mr.Prodston

NiallSparky wrote: »

I've been in Vietnam, and seen all the museums so that's nothing new.

I just can imagine myself willing leaving everything in my life to live in a jungle and never attempt to return. You'd go insane surely?

Yeah you probably would have some mental health issues alright. I appreciate what you're saying but I don't think any of us would really know what we'd do. They didn't have the luxury of knowing for sure it was all over.

Yeah I've been there too and while it's nothing knew it doesn't make it any less of a harrowing experience.

jank

NiallSparky wrote: »

I've been in Vietnam, and seen all the museums so that's nothing new.

I just can't imagine myself willingly leaving everything in my life to live in a jungle and never attempt to return. You'd go insane surely?

How many wars have you been personally through?

Amirani

jank wrote: »

How many wars have you been personally through?

0.

Amirani

Deleted User wrote: »

They had no way of knowing the war was over. If you had to choose between living in a war, that has already killed many family members, or living in the relative safety of a jungle, which would you pick?

Nobody told them it was over, so they obviously just assumed it was still happening.

That's fair enough, and my initial comment was half in jest and half in ignorance and was probably unwarranted.

It is hard to empathise though, I'd find it impossible to live in such a situation without trying to reconnect to humanity.

kylith

I think it's certainly plausible. You hear about these things every so often; people still hiding from wars they don't know are over.

It's easy to say 'I'd try reconnect with humanity', but it's doubtful that you would if you weren't 100% sure that you'd be safe. Even if you bumped into some people and they told you it was safe to return home how would you know you could trust them? They might just be luring you back to kill you.

Amirani

kylith wrote: »

It's easy to say 'I'd try reconnect with humanity', but it's doubtful that you would if you weren't 100% sure that you'd be safe. Even if you bumped into some people and they told you it was safe to return home how would you know you could trust them? They might just be luring you back to kill you.

I think I'd rather risk death than live in isolation like that for so long. You'd go completely out of your mind, I presume the people in question did.

shane9689

he had his son to live with plus, go back to what? his village was apparently blown to ****, he had nothing to go back to but in his mind more bombs! also maybe he was on one side or the other and was afraid of who might have won, and if he went back he might be persecuted? who knows what he was thinking, but to be honest, doesn't seem like ht worst of lives, living up there

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tt2AYafET68

This springs to mind ^^^^ she basically lived throguh yet at the same time missed 70 years of history haha

kylith

NiallSparky wrote: »

I think I'd rather risk death than live in isolation like that for so long. You'd go completely out of your mind, I presume the people in question did.

Maybe, but they at least had each other to talk to. People do insane things when they're afraid, especially to protect their children.

jank

NiallSparky wrote: »

0.

So you haven't seen what war is like therefore you cannot say for certain that you would risk death in search of whats going on in the world. Easy to say that living in a peaceful leafy suburb in Ireland.

Christ the Redeemer

"war" - more like atrocity.

shane9689

Christ the Redeemer wrote: »

"war" - more like atrocity.

every war is an atrocity

Amirani

jank wrote: »

So you haven't seen what war is like therefore you cannot say for certain that you would risk death in search of whats going on in the world. Easy to say that living in a peaceful leafy suburb in Ireland.

The majority of people who have lived in war-zones don't go into permanent exile though, there's not many cases like this.

I agree though I can't say for certain. Same goes for every hypothetical scenario postulated on here though.

kylith

NiallSparky wrote: »

The majority of people who have lived in war-zones don't go into permanent exile though, there's not many cases like this.

I agree though I can't say for certain. Same goes for every hypothetical scenario postulated on here though.

Not many, but every so often you hear of islanders who don't know wars are over, or of people who've been hiding in attics for years*, or the aforementioned Russian family who'd been in the woods for decades. There are people in Alaska who would see a handful of other humans from one end of the year to the other. Some people hide and don't know they can come out, some people don't want to come out, and some people just don't want to be around other people.

* ISTR that the people hiding were ladies, and the gentleman hiding them had little impetus to tell them they didn't have to sleep with him in return for being kept hidden any more.

Christ the Redeemer

shane9689 wrote: »

every war is an atrocity

There's a difference between atrocities like this and the Iraq war and wars like WW2.

Atrocities happened during WW2 but the entire Vietnam "war" was an atrocity carried out by the united states.

jmayo

Ray Palmer wrote: »

Yes believable. In the 70s they found a family in Russia that didn't know about WW2.

And they also found a Japanese soldier still fighting the war into the 70s, until they convinced him the war was over and Japan was making a fortune seelling stuff to the yanks.

Ray Palmer wrote: »

There are also reports of POW still being held in Vietnam I even think one was discover in the last year.

Nah that was a Chuck Norris film you were watching.

Deleted User wrote: »

They had no way of knowing the war was over. If you had to choose between living in a war, that has already killed many family members, or living in the relative safety of a jungle, which would you pick?

Nobody told them it was over, so they obviously just assumed it was still happening.

Ehh didn't someone supposedly track them down 20 odd years ago and try and convince them to come out ?
And besides surely to fook they must have noticed less US planes flyng about.

Obviously the father fell apart and then just got into a rut which would not allow him reconsider.
I feel sorry for the son who has lost most of his life and now has to be someone educated and reintegrated into society even though he is in his 40s.

Jonny7

Christ the Redeemer wrote: »

There's a difference between atrocities like this and the Iraq war and wars like WW2.

Some scale and context.

More Russian POWs died in German custody than many of the higher estimates for entire casualties of the Vietnam war.

More people died at camps you've most likely never heard of like (e.g. Belzec) than combined from both Iraq wars.