What SMOKING music are you listening to? (2025)

It is 1965 and AFRTS started the year broadcasting to 50,000 US personnel and ended it playing for just over 180,000. With the landing of the first combat troops in March AFRTS increased the number of repeating transmitters so they could be heard over the 500 mile length of Vietnam. Not only did they play music news and sports they also broadcast coded messages to all sorts of alphabet agencies across the country. Since the American military mindset was still geared to a European war some of these message were known to the North Vietnamese. They didn't know what they were exactly but after a year did get the gist of what was called "the cows". Vietnam has water buffaloes but very few cows so when AFRTS broadcasts that a farmer in Luc No reported that 20 cows escaped it didn't mean that 20 cows escaped. When other messages about cows were reported in other parts of the country eventually you can get an idea of what cows really were. It took about a year before the US stopped talking about cows. A cow was 10 VC if it was a large herd of cows a cow was 50 VC. So if the cow was part of a larger group then it was 2 cows are missing from a large herd in Quag Tre meaning 100 VC were on the move from a larger force which is different from 10 cows roaming around in Tin Seng. Now it wasn't like there were hundreds of cow messages, but enough to raise suspicion on the other side.

All this with a background of the hits of 1965



 
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