VIETNAM FACT CARDS VOLUME 1 (Dart Flipcards,
1988, 66-cards) No American card publishing firm
contemporaneously touched the subject of Vietnam.
When Dino Frisella’s Montreal-based group debuted
in 1988, Vietnam scored a critical and educational
success. As much as the previously discussed sets glo-
rify and propagandize U.S. overseas military engage-
ments, this set presents a balanced, non-partisan ac-
count with thoroughly less graphic imagery. No single
historical work, let alone a card set, may adequately
convey the issues, the politics or the emotional as-
pects of the Vietnam experience. For card collectors,
Vietnam remains an important document of an era
that nearly tore a nation apart. A Vietnam Volume 2
collection emerged in 1991.
DESERT STORM (Topps, 1991, three series of 88-card
sets plus stickers) Prior to the 1991 Gulf War, trading
cards had been chie y equated with baseball. Topps’
Desert Storm composed a new ri in picture cards, and
its melody enticed the multitudes. e U.S. months-long
buildup in the region allowed Topps ample preparatory
time. When coalition forces invaded Kuwait in mid-
January, Desert Storm was printed and shipped within a
week. e cards gained springboard publicity through
network news broadcasts. Card shows were invaded
by Desert Storm-related sets and had remained visible
throughout that summer. In retrospect, Topps’ rst
Desert Storm product blazed the trail for the hobby’s
eventual Great Expansion that had been witnessed by
the mid-1990s. NSU
TOP OF THE CROP
34 Non-Sport Update
FREEDOM’S WAR (TOPPS, 1950)
VIETNAM FACT CARDS (DART FLIPCARDS, 1988) BATTLE (TOPPS, 1965) BATTLE (TOPPS, 1965)
WAR BULLETIN (PHIL. CHEWING GUM, 1965) DESERT STORM (TOPPS, 1991)