In Vietnam We Called the Enemy "Charlie"

…have we given collective names to the enemy in other wars? If so, what were they? I’d especially like to hear the collective name of the enemy in Iraq.

IIRC the Vietnamese were Charlie because Viet Cong = VC = Victor Charlie = Charlie.

“Charlie” was short for “Victor Charlies” which was the NATO phonetic alphabet replacement for VC (alpha, bravo, charlie, delta, echo…). Germans were called Gerries but I don’t know any others.

Whoops, I hadn’t noticed Bruce Daddy’s post on the preview.

I dunno about the Americans, but IIRC the Brits in WW2 used to refer to the Germans as “Jerry”.
Come to think of it, Jerry and Charlie is somewhat more polite than “Huns” and “Gooks”.

Japenese were Japs or Nips. (Nippon?)

I do recall reading that during the Korean War American GI’s called the natives “Luke” & “Luke the Gook.” I believe that this is actually where the term gook came from, but I’m scratching at the dim recesses of memory here and haven’t had enough coffee to go cite hunting.

:cool:

KTM

In WWI the Germans were the “Krauts”, because, well, because they like sauerkraut.

And boy are they right! Yummy sauerkraut all over delicious sausages!..
I’m hungry.

I might be mistaken, but I think I have heard the term “Hadji” used as a term for the Iraqi enemy. I’m going out on an etymological limb here (read "Wild-Ass Guess), but I think the term comes from the old “Jonny Quest” cartoon show. Hadji was Jonny’s Indian sidekick. I know India ain’t Iraq, but the subtleties of geography and ethnic indentities tend to get lost when you’re making up names for the folks who are trying to kill you (and who you are trying to kill).

Other names for other wars: Germans: Kraut, Jerry, Hun; Chinese: Chicom, Gook, Chink; Japanese: Japs, Nips; Russians: Russkies, Ivan; French: Frog-eating Surrender Monkeys.

It’s obvious that political correctness is another casaulty of war.

Lampare

A particularily distasteful one, if Blackhawk Down wasn’t making it up, was Skinnies for Somalies.

Argies for Argentinians (we’re not overly inventive in the U.K.).

Hadji - the only link I could easily find:

“For most soldiers of Alpha Company, their only contact with Iraqis is with the locals allowed to work on base or deliver supplies. The soldiers call them Hadji, a term that applies to someone who has completed a trip to Mecca, but at the base it does not necessarily denote respect.”
Source

You’re half-right. Hajji is the name, but it’s used because it’s a Muslim honorific for anyone who has completed the hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca). It’s used roughly the same way we use the words “Old Man” and “Uncle” in the American South: “Uncle John” may not be your uncle; “Old Man Gates” may not be terribly old. It’s basically (and very roughly) an informal name for an older person, denoting respect. Ahmed Al-Qasir might be called “Hajji Qasir” by the local kids.

Since all of the “big important” local tribe leaders get called “Hajji Something”, GI’s (knowingly or unknowingly) made the leap that it’s a universal first name. Now all locals are “Hajji”, and the plural (“Hey, look, we got some hajjis coming over here”) isn’t a stretch.

Oh, I get it now…If I just go and make something up and try to pass it off as fact, somebody who actually KNOWS what they are talking about will politely correct me.

Hmmmm…an odd concept, yet strangely satisfying.

Lampare

I believe that “Gook” originates in Korean terms such as “Han Guk” and “Min Guk.”

I don’t know about the other disparaging nicknames, but the French have been called “frogs” for well over a hundred years. Gilbert & Sullivan’s operetta Ruddigore includes a song in which a British sailor tells of an encounter with a French frigate, the crew of which is called “Froggee”.

One story goes that during the Inchon landings, South Koreans cheered the advance of American soldiers by yelling “Taehan min-guk!” (“South Korea!”) Americans supposedly heard it as “(something) me gook!”

However, the term was also applied against the Japanese in WWII, and a variant goes back to the Philippine Insurrection ca. 1902, where the locals were called “goo-goos,” an unquestionably pejorative term.

I’ve heard that it’s even older, and comes from the Fleur-de-lis, which is vaguely froglike.

Without taxing the search engine, the term “gook” goes back in print to 1920, denigrating the Hatians. It almost certainly was used before that by the military, probably in the Philippines as Sofa King said.

“Jerry” is cited from at least 1915 to refer to the Germans.

“Charley” was a WWII US nickname for the Japanese. It was one of many. But the earlier posters are correct about the “victor/charlie” origins in Vietnam.

The really interesting thing about these terms is that they keep getting recycled over and over for apparently disparate reasons. I suspect that there is a series of gruff old sar’majors keeping the lexicon open for new slurs, new curses, and quick ways to fit a big idea into a sometimes small receptacle. If an old one matches, well it by God fits.

Among several theories, the fleur-de-lis is not considered a strong candidate by many. On the other hand, it is easier to debunk theories than to find the correct answer.

Vietnam seems to have produced many:
Dinks, no idea
Slopes/slants, obvious origin
Zips/Zipperheads, no idea

Gulf War I*
Ragheads/towelheads, headgear
Sandniggers, I remember hearing about this one for obvious reasons related to black American troops
Sandrats, less offensive to black American troops?
Camel jockeys

*I believe many of these transfered to Afgahnistan and GulfII