Originally posted by Buck
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But if doing their job in the face of dramatic adversity, succeeding in getting everyone home alive, in spite of the incompetence of those above... well that just isn't a story they were comfortable publicising.
The DF in 1960 was ill equipped for a defence force of 1940. Someone decided to send this ill equipped, ill prepared force overseas, piggy-backing on the goodwill (but not support, militarily) of the larger military nations, who were busy playing their own political games.
The average public at the time knew nothing of the Army life, unless they were living in an Army town. That suited the Defence Forces of the time. Then coffins carrying Irish Young men started arriving home, killed by the people they were supposed to have been sent to help. The public woke up. They lined the streets to mourn the dead.
Jadotville was inconvenient, our European Neighbours turn on us in a country they had been removed from. This wasn't "balubas" with bows and arrows, as in Niemba. This was a militia better armed than the Irish Troops, supported by European mercenaries. It didn't suit the narrative.
So much for the UN.
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