Thread by @LunaOi_VN

The Colt 1911 is a disturbing reminder of the relationship between ideology and the material world. It exists as a direct response to problems the USA military had with wiping out and conquering indigenous peoples in the Philippines.

Today, this brutal and barbaric origin story is romanticized and used as a selling point by arms dealers in the West.

This is not to imply that the 1911 is, as an object, "evil." This is a hand-made Colt 1911 pattern pistol, one of many built by Viet Minh freedom fighters in terrible conditions (often using metal scavenged from bombs dropped on our villages).

forgottenweapons.com/viet-cong-1911…

Vo Nguyen Giap wrote extensively in People’s War, People’s Army about the lack of firearms available to Vietnam and our desperate need for weapons. Thus material conditions drove us to copy captured weapons of our imperialist oppressors.

USAmericans like to be dismissive of the "crude craftsmanship" of such Vietmamese firearm "copies." But these were made by peasants with no training in engineering and very limited tools. Nonetheless, plenty of imperialist invaders were neutralized with our "crude" weapons.

That said, we don't romanticize our low-quality wartime weapons. We may venerate war relics, but we never want to be in a situation where we can't arm ourselves with modern weapons again, which is why we go to great lengths to manufacture our own modern firearms domestically.

Being able to manufacture modern weapons as a poor developing country was no easy task, and some compromises had to be made. Developing a high tech weapons platform is something very few nations can achieve. We had to license some tech while maintaining PRODUCTION at home.

This material production is the result of an ideological mandate which stems directly from the material conditions of our revolutionary struggle... and, of course, production is restrained by material reality. The material determines, with impact from the ideal. DiaMat 101!🤓