snazzy uniforms
The ones with the snazzy uniforms are the ones who like the idea of playing soldier. Emphasis on "playing."
When I spoke of twentieth century military tailoring for officers, I had particularly in mind the uniformed Germans ca. 1939-1945, who, you must acknowledge, set the gold (or field-grey) standard for these outfits, and whose conduct of the war was not regarded as dilettantish or, for that matter, wanting in ruthlessness or the other martial virtues. I fear we must look elsewhere for the reason that custom-made boots lose to Ho Chi Minh sandals.
Incidentally--the good guys (if one side or the other may be granted this designation) prevailed in Vietnam. I danced, comrades, literally danced in front of the SF Chronicle vending machine on the morning in 1975 they featured the helicopters lifting off from the embassy roof, and the memory still gives me a serious case of the warm-and-fuzzies. We were definitely on the wrong side of history in that dustup, as the Marxists maintained at the time--even though history, that great joker, had a few dimensions not then anticipated by the communist powers of the day.
cordially,
