In fact, according to Turse, the more morally challenged GIs and their commanders were materially and otherwise rewarded for high 'enemy' body counts! And again, 40-50 years on, with the notable exception of William Calley of My Lai infamy, relatively few GIs or mid- to senior level serving military personnel were ever held to account for any of these atrocities, and even less were found guilty or for that matter imprisoned.
And insofar as we can gather, not one US war planner or politician was even considered for prosecution for war crimes of any sort, whether in the US or in any international court. Arguably the biggest criminal of the Vietnam War and noted Nobel Peace Prize Winner, the estimable Henry Kissinger -- Nixon's then Secretary of State and National Security Adviser -- is still as we speak going 'Johnny Walker', for which we can only assume he is eternally grateful. All this not to mention those still living with the trauma he helped create, as well as the leftover unexploded ordnance that riddles the countryside and still kills and cripples young and old alike 40 years after the war ended for the Americans and their allies.
After noting that ""the army, like the marines, left a devastating trail of civilian casualties in its wake -- thousands upon thousands of non-combatants [were] beaten, wounded, raped, tortured, or killed in the years that followed (the escalation)", Turse adds:
""between the massacres carried out by members of the army and those perpetrated by marines, [they] make it abundantly clear individual soldiers and their immediate commanders were not the only ones to blame. There is, of course no excusing the acts carried out by the troops on the ground, but these actions did not occur in a vacuum. Rather, they were the unmistakable consequence of deliberate decisions made long before, at the highest levels of the military." [My Emphasis]
Suffice it to say, as showcased in Valentine's and Turse's books the rules of engagement such as they applied in 'Nam were not aberrations; they were a normal, routine part of operations, albeit unofficially. To say Vietnam was a numbers game is very much on the money. As the opening epigraph illustrates, whether combatants or non-combatants, it was the Vietnamese body count -- and only that one -- that counted for the troops, their respective commanders and the war planners and politicians back in Washington.
There is grim irony in this in that it was the body count of the American troops that helped turned the tide against the war, much like one supposes, the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts decades later. And we can easily imagine how many Vietnamese might have been left wondering if they might not have been better off having the hated French who had, as their former colonial masters, dominated the region and exploited its people for almost a hundred years prior. Better the devil you know!
None of this is to suggest that those who fought the 'good fight' thinking it was a noble cause are not deserving of our respect. At the time the mainstream media shilled the "principled" purpose of the war, much like they were to do time and time again. For this reason alone the escalation of the war received broad public acceptance both in the US and here in Australia, one of the few countries that followed America into the quagmire. Nor do revelations of the atrocities documented in these books indicate that a majority of combat troops willingly participated in such activities. In reality many GIs and their commanders were extremely disturbed by what they witnessed with some lodging formal complaints, and others suffering posttraumatic stress disorder.
But for the most part such complaints fell on deaf ears. Some were ostracised and vilified for doing so by fellow soldiers and higher ups. Abiding by the 'accepted' rules of war wasn't how the game was played in 'Nam, and the brass didn't want know about those that insisted on doing so.
Whether American or non-American, 'Nam veteran or not, anyone who still views the War as something of a worthy, noble cause, should be locked in a room and forced -- looking down the 'business end' of a locked and loaded M-16 carbine if necessary -- to read both of these books in short order before they are allowed out to face the world again. Once done, I defy any right thinking individual to walk out of this 'room' without feeling emotionally brutalised and with the same view of that world and for that matter, of war itself.
Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
2
2
1
