Comments by "Sar Jim" (@sarjim4381) on "Military History not Visualized" channel.

  1. I had to listen several times to make sure I heard you say the cigarette actually originated in the Korean War? If I did hear it right, you're quite wrong. The cigarette goes back to at least the ninth century, and cigarettes in war to the Turks. Machine made cigarettes were common by the 1880's and they went along with soldiers everywhere. Cigarettes were thought to be be so necessary for US soldiers in the field that, starting WWII, a four pack of smokes was included in every military ration produced in the US. This continued through the Korean War and Vietnam, free smokes not being removed from rations until 1972. I don't think any other country went as far as the US in providing cigarettes to its soldiers. It was certainly the most widely used psychoactive drug in military history.
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  2. Okay, that makes sense. Cigarettes existed well before the Crimean War, but that was the first time British soldiers were exposed to Turkish tobacco. They liked it a lot and were soon rolling their own. Tobacco companies had machines to roll cigarettes, and the Turkish tobacco made that a profitable enterprise.
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