Bicycle Secret Weapon
- Thread starter d_dooms
- Start date
a little history:
The Ace of Spades served a famous purpose in the war in Vietnam. In February, 1966, two lieutenants of Company "C," Second Battalion, 35th Regiment, 25th Infantry Division, wrote The United States Playing Card Company and requested decks containing nothing but the "Bicycle" Ace of Spades. The cards were useful in psychological warfare. The Viet Cong were very superstitious and highly frightened by this Ace. The French previously had occupied Indo-China, and in French fortunetelling with cards, the Spades predicted death and suffering. The Viet Cong even regarded lady liberty as a goddess of death. USPC shipped thousands of the requested decks gratis to our troops in Vietnam. These decks were housed in plain white tuckcases, inscribed "Bicycle Secret Weapon." The cards were deliberately scattered in the jungle and in hostile villages during raids. The very sight of the "Bicycle" Ace was said to cause many Viet Cong to flee.
The Ace of Spades served a famous purpose in the war in Vietnam. In February, 1966, two lieutenants of Company "C," Second Battalion, 35th Regiment, 25th Infantry Division, wrote The United States Playing Card Company and requested decks containing nothing but the "Bicycle" Ace of Spades. The cards were useful in psychological warfare. The Viet Cong were very superstitious and highly frightened by this Ace. The French previously had occupied Indo-China, and in French fortunetelling with cards, the Spades predicted death and suffering. The Viet Cong even regarded lady liberty as a goddess of death. USPC shipped thousands of the requested decks gratis to our troops in Vietnam. These decks were housed in plain white tuckcases, inscribed "Bicycle Secret Weapon." The cards were deliberately scattered in the jungle and in hostile villages during raids. The very sight of the "Bicycle" Ace was said to cause many Viet Cong to flee.
I was speaking of the E tricycle gaff deck. He may have heard them say "Its like a secret weapon," and thought that the best name to call it. I've seen people do it before, so I was making sure.
As for the Vietnam deck, no reason to really use it in magic unless you plan on doing a deck switch to show the selected card is the only one not an Ace of Spades, or such.
-ThrallMind
EDIT:
Here ya go, Bicycle Secret Weapon
ok, some more history, or at least a little addition, it was later disproven and that the vietcong were afraid of the ace of spades, This error in vietnamese religious beliefs while an oversight did not change the effect that the idea had on american soldier morale. so basically, yeah we were wrong it didn't scare them but thinking it did helped us feel better while over there. just like cards make us all feel better haha
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Thats pretty cool, that would be a deck of cards that I would never open due to its historical value. On this specific deck it says Desert Shield. A similar tactic and use of the Ace as a calling card was used in the Desert Storm and Desert Shield operations. It once again purely provided a morale boost to American soldiers. I thought it was impossible to find a deck of these, guess I was wrong, but I would only buy it if I had a display case with other historic cards.
-Cyrus
-Cyrus