Tag: Indochina

Groovy, Man, Groovy

LIFE 3/7/49

Here we see three wasted Indochinese men being unproductive after their opium fix. LIFE magazine didn’t mince words:

This woman took a hard pass on addictive substances and showed up to the warehouse on time to dry some crepe. 

“Frontier town of Dong-Dang, south of China border, was entry point for Jap army in September 1940. American isolationists cracked, ‘We’ll die for dear old Dong-Dang.'”

The article presented a violent look at the Indo-China region, with Tran Dang Man (aka “The Pirate”) lifting his sword in allegiance to the French, whom he and his 25 Annamite troops joined as professional bandits.

French Indochina is now today’s Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos.

Cambodian soldiers man a guard tower on a highway leading to Saigon, while the bullock carts hauled rice below, hoping that the 8mm Hotchkiss machine gun wasn’t pointed their way.

In down times, men in Saigon perched on fences like birds on a wire.

This toddler seems to be wondering what the future holds.