In the Vietnam War, there were rumours that the Viet Cong were superstitious about the Ace of Spades playing card (something which may have later turned out to be a complete myth).
Two lieutenants of Company "C," Second Battalion, 35th Regiment, 25th Infantry Division, wrote to the United States Playing Card Company in Feb 1966 asking if the company could send them decks with only the Ace of Spades card. The company did and sent lots of decks with just the Bicycle Aces of Spades inside.
These were sent in plain white tuck boxes with the text "Bicycle Secret Weapon."
In more recent years the "Bicycle Secret Weapon" deck has been printed at least two other times:
- For Operation Desert Shield (for the Iraq 1990 war) (Edition 2)
- And then another reprint in 2013 (Edition 3)
First edition - Vietnam
Original edition - you can compare the "B." This deck is extremely rare.
Operation Desert Shield (1990)
This is the second edition, for Operation Desert Shield (1990).
It has the Cincinnati address.
On the back it lists Bicycle 808, with "The U.S. Playing Card Co, Cincinnati, USA" and "Desert Shield" on there.
2013 reprint
The 2013 release.
On the bottom side of the case it has "(c) 2013. The United States Playing Card Company, a subsidiary of Jarden Corporation (NYSE-JAH)."
On the back it has "Bicycle 808, The U.S. Playing Card Co. Made in USA" with a date number. Interestingly, the tuck sticker is blue.
Easiest ways to identify the different editions:
- Original prints for the Vietnam War do not have the operation name. They have red and blue rider backs. They are really rare.
- The ones for the original 1990 Desert Shield have "Desert Shield" at the bottom of the tuck box.
- The 2013 ones are most common (but still hard to find) and do not have the "Desert Shield" text on the box.