Editor’s Note: A recent article by Cliff Kincaid slammed Trump for cutting a trade deal with Vietnam that will undermine our domestic producers of shrimp. Fair enough, but then he proceeds to say that “[t]he American backing of South Vietnam was an ‘honorable and noble mission for freedom.' We are also backing South Korea for the same reason. it is why we should continue to back Ukraine—and the Republic of China in Taiwan.”
Balderdash and poppycock!!
The Vietnam war was NOT an honorable and noble mission for freedom. No invasions of foreign countries are honorable and noble. And backing South Korea, Ukraine, and the Republic of China in Taiwan “for the same reason" is nonsense. The US is already essentially communist, and there is no real freedom here—only licensed privileges. Are you listening Lee Greenwood?
Backing foreign countries is all about money and hegemony. War is a racket and it has bankrupted this country.
I was called antisemite for opposing the unnecessary brutality of Israel against Palestinians and Israel’s murder of American sailors on the USS Liberty. I will probably be called anti-American or a communist for criticizing the history of US brutality in Vietnam.
Anybody remember Secretary of State Colin Powell lying about weapons of mass destruction to justify the invasion of Iraq? Check out minute 19:54 in the podcast where this murderer endorsed shooting unarmed Vietnamese civilians if they ran.
Both he and the much vaunted Colonel David Hackworth are still promoted as great patriots when they were war criminals. See minute 16:55. It makes me want to throw up.
All I care about is the unvarnished truth. That’s why I don’t have many subscribers.
Vietnam War Briefing Document
I. Introduction: An Operation, Not an Aberration
The provided sources from Nick Turse's "Kill Anything That Moves" reveal a systematic and pervasive pattern of violence, brutality, and disregard for civilian life by American and allied forces during the Vietnam War. This was not merely the result of isolated incidents or rogue soldiers, but rather a consequence of deeply ingrained policies, command pressures, and a dehumanizing culture that permeated the military. The book argues that atrocities were "An Operation, Not an Aberration."
II. Culture of Violence and Dehumanization
The sources highlight how American military personnel were indoctrinated into a culture that normalized violence and dehumanized the Vietnamese population.
Indoctrination and Brainwashing: Recruits were subjected to brutal training that emphasized killing without compunction. Peter Milord, a draftee, initially "only mouthed the violent chants during his army training—‘Kill! Kill! Kill! To kill without mercy is the spirit of the bayonet!’—but later found himself being overtaken by the ethos." (p. 2) Another veteran felt "absolutely ‘brainwashed’" after chanting "kill, kill, kill" throughout training. (p. 2)
Dehumanizing Language: The Vietnamese were often referred to with derogatory terms, reflecting a widespread contempt that facilitated violence. Henry Kissinger called North Vietnam a "little fourth-rate power," while soldiers in the field regarded Vietnam as "the outhouse of Asia," "the garbage dump of civilization," or "the asshole of the world." (p. 4) Popular GI jokes included "Kill ’em all and let God sort ’em out." (p. 4) This dehumanization blurred the lines between combatants and civilians, as expressed by a soldier: "The search-and-destroy mission is just another way to shoot anything that moves." (p. 4)
"They Asked For It" Mentality: There was a prevalent attitude that Vietnamese civilians were legitimate targets if they were in an area of operations. Warrant Officer David Waldron found allegations against killing civilians "kind of crazy in that area… If they were there, Sir, they asked for it." (p. 11) This extended to policies where "If you take evasive action you are guilty," and if unarmed people ran when fired upon, troops "had permission to kill them." (p. 5)
III. Policies and Practices Leading to Civilian Casualties
The systematic nature of civilian harm was rooted in military policies and strategic objectives.
"Search and Destroy" and "Kill Anything That Moves": Commanders explicitly ordered the destruction of villages and the killing of all inhabitants. Lieutenant Robert Maynard ordered his men that "there was nothing to be left alive or unburned, as far as the children goes, let our conscience be our guide." (p. 1) Lance Corporal Olaf Skibsrud recalled being told, "They said that we were going to kill everyone in the ville and burn it down." (p. 1) Another rifleman recalled a command: "We was going to kill anything that we see and anything that moved." (p. 1) This was seen as the very definition of "search and destroy." (p. 4)
Body Count Pressure and Inflation: Robert McNamara's "scientific" and "efficient" approach to war, brought from Ford Motor Company, emphasized quantifiable results like body counts. (p. 3) This led to rampant body-count inflation, including the deliberate inclusion of civilian dead. Wayne Smith recalled, "If we came across four different body parts we called in four kills." (p. 3) Captain David Janca ordered machine gunners to open fire on a group of Vietnamese, later found to be "dead and wounded Vietnamese children," who were likely counted as enemy KIA. (p. 3) General Julian Ewell, commander of the 9th Infantry Division, explicitly demanded "4,000 of these little bastards a month," and his subordinates described him as "obsessed with having a good kill ratio and a good body count." (p. 16-17) This pressure "tended to create circumstances under which the number of civilian casualties would rise." (p. 18)
"Dry Up the Sea" Strategy: A key objective was to separate guerrillas from the population by forcibly removing villagers and destroying their homes and food sources. Whole villages were "set aflame as a matter of policy, to drive people from an area and thereby deny guerrillas access to food, support, and recruits." (p. 2) Robert Komer, special assistant for pacification, suggested "refugee programs deliberately aimed at depriving the VC of a recruiting base." (p. 6) This meant "blasting the hell out of their villages so they’ll come into our refugee camps." (p. 7) These "concentration zones" often made farming impossible, leaving peasants dispossessed and hopeless. (p. 7)
Free-Fire Zones and Harassment and Interdiction (H&I) Fire: Large areas were designated "free-fire zones" where anything could be targeted. "Harassment and interdiction" (H&I) fire involved "regular firing of shells into random areas simply to keep the enemy in a state of unease." (p. 12) In 1966, 91.2% of Army artillery fire and 88.6% of Marine Corps artillery fire were not in direct support of ground forces. (p. 12) The mindset was to "Waste ammunition like a millionaire and lives like a miser," showing little attention to civilian impact despite rhetoric of "winning hearts and minds." (p. 12)
IV. Overwhelming Firepower and Its Impact
The U.S. military deployed an unprecedented arsenal, with devastating consequences for the civilian population and the landscape.
Technological Superiority and Its Lethality: The U.S. had "more killing power, destructive force, and advanced technology than any military in the history of the world," facing guerrillas armed with "old rifles and homemade grenades." (p. 9) Weapons were designed to "maim and incapacitate people" with "smallest effective fragment" that caused immense damage and were difficult to treat. (p. 9-10)
Air Warfare: The scale of airpower was immense, with 3.4 million combat sorties flown between 1965 and 1972, a plurality in South Vietnam. (p. 10)
Napalm: Approximately "400,000 tons of it were dropped in Southeast Asia, killing most of those unfortunate enough to be splashed with it." (p. 10-11) Nguyen Van Tuan described the horrific aftermath of a napalm attack where "My schoolmates burned below the neck all died." (p. 11)
Cluster Bombs: Weapons like the "pineapple" (BLU-3) and "guava" (CBU-24) contained hundreds of steel pellets, capable of saturating areas with millions of deadly fragments. (p. 11-12) From 1966 to 1971, approximately 285 million guava bomblets were purchased—"nearly seven for each man, woman, and child in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia combined." (p. 12)
Helicopter Gunships: Helicopters, particularly the AH-1G "Huey Cobra," were notorious for "killing anything that moved." (p. 13) Warrant Officer Thomas Equels explained, "We’ve blown up villages… and that’s the job to go out and destroy… villages." (p. 13) One villager from Dinh Tuong Province stated, "If a gunner saw anyone, even a woman or a small child or a water buffalo, he blew them apart." (p. 18)
Artillery: The countryside was "continually pounded by ‘harassment and interdiction’ (H&I) fire." (p. 12) Luong Thi Oi's twelve-year-old daughter was "literally torn in two by an artillery shell." (p. 7) Luong Dai’s parents, two older brothers, a younger brother, a niece, and a nephew all died when their bunker collapsed during a U.S. bombardment. (p. 7) In just four months during Speedy Express (Jan-Apr 1969), the 9th Division fired 311,083 artillery rounds into the Mekong Delta. (p. 18)
Chemical Defoliants: "Toxic herbicides turned formerly emerald-colored areas into bare ‘white zones’ where nothing but invasive weeds would grow for years." (p. 13) In 1965, 42% of all chemical defoliants targeted food crops, turning Vietnam from a rice exporter to importer. (p. 13) A RAND Corporation analysis concluded that "the civilian population seems to carry very nearly the full burden of the results of the crop destruction program; it is estimated that over 500 civilians experience crop loss for every ton of rice denied the VC." (p. 13)
V. Specific Atrocities and Widespread Abuses
The text details numerous horrific acts committed by American and allied forces, demonstrating the breadth and depth of the violence.
Massacres of Civilians: In February 1968, Company B, 1st Battalion, 35th Infantry, was ordered to "kill anything that breathed." (p. 15) Captain Donald Reh told Lieutenant Johnny Mack Carter to "kill anything that moves" when Carter reported rounding up nineteen civilians. (p. 15)
Korean forces reportedly committed "no fewer than fourteen massacres in Quang Ngai in 1966." Kim Ki-tae, a Korean officer, described pushing "29 unarmed youths aged between 20–35 years into a bombing pit and shot them all to death." (p. 15) In Nhon Hoa hamlet, 86 of 88 people gathered by Korean troops and Americans were killed, "including forty-five children, thirty women, and eleven elderly men." (p. 15)
The Tiger Force platoon executed "two elderly blind men" and opened fire on "unarmed elderly farmers, killing four of them." (p. 16)
Lieutenant Low ordered his unit to "shoot everyone including women, children, and old men." (p. 16) Thomas Kinch described shooting an unarmed man repairing a fishing net on Low's command. (p. 16)
Soldiers indiscriminately grenaded bunkers without checking for civilians. (p. 16)
Colonel John Donaldson, commander of the Americal Division’s 11th Infantry Brigade, was known as a "gook hunter" who "flew around in the colonel’s chopper with a crate of grenades… and popped them in the rice fields over the ‘dinks’ who would attempt to run for cover when the chopper swooped down." (p. 20)
Sexual Violence: Rape was "virtually standard operating procedure" in some units. (p. 23) Soldiers would "suddenly singling out a girl to be raped." (p. 23) Cases included gang rape, mutilation, and murder of victims, such as at My Lai where women "were raped and sodomized, mutilated, and had their vaginas ripped open with knives or bayonets." (p. 24) In one instance, a 17-year-old and a younger girl were repeatedly raped, with one becoming "unconscious, with her legs in the air over the guy’s shoulders." (p. 24)
Torture and Abuse: Detainees were subjected to various forms of torture, including water torture ("taking the submarine"), suspension ("the plane ride"), electric shocks from field telephones, beatings, fingernail removal, and mock executions. (p. 25) Robert Stemme heard constant torture from his bed: "It was pretty standard practice that people got slapped around or hit with things, or guns pointed at them, or whatever." (p. 25)
Mutilation and Souvenir Collection: Soldiers collected body parts as trophies, such as ears on cords and fingers in matchboxes. One soldier "had a large jar of ears that he was selling." (p. 22) Corpses were mutilated, including carving unit initials or leaving "death cards" with slogans like "The Lord giveth and the 20mm [cannon] taketh away. Killing is our business and business is good." (p. 22)
Other Abuses: Running over civilians with vehicles was a "commonplace occurrence," leading to multiple deaths and injuries. (p. 17)
The deliberate slaughter of livestock and destruction of food caches were routine. (p. 17)
Official military brothels were established within basecamps, with "sixty curtained cubicles kept under military police guard." (p. 22) Some had "little tickets… blue ones for blow jobs, and white ones for intercourse." (p. 22)
Unpredictability and Terror: Vietnamese villagers experienced extreme unpredictability from American and Korean patrols. Phan Van Nam recounted how sometimes troops gave candy, sometimes they shot people, sometimes they burned homes: "We didn’t understand the reasons why they acted in the way they did." (p. 15) An American officer remarked, "We must terrorize the villagers even more, so they see that their real self-interest lies with us. We’ve got to start bombing and strafing the villages that aren’t friendly to the Government." (p. 8)
VI. Lack of Accountability and Cover-Ups
Despite the widespread nature of these atrocities, accountability was rare, often due to official policies and the protection of perpetrators.
Suppression of Information: Whistleblowers like Jamie Henry were warned of retribution if they spoke up. An Army lawyer advised him to "hold off on it until I was out of the service because… there are various ways of making people be quiet in the Army or doing things to make them disappear." (p. 19)
Protection of Perpetrators: Roy Bumgarner, despite a court-martial conviction for an earlier incident, was allowed to reenlist because the "army had a great need for infantrymen in Vietnam at the time." (p. 20) Colonel Murray Williams noted that Bumgarner was "contributing positively in his chosen profession," even after being convicted. (p. 20)
Denial and Justification: Commanders often denied the destruction of villages or justified it as tactical necessity. An officer clarified that a valley was not "destroyed" but "got destroyed in the process of denying it to the enemy." (p. 16) An officer who had fired on houses replied, "We were only reconning by fire… this is a free fire zone, isn’t it?" (p. 17)
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