he spoke of them being commonplace.
If people had necklaces of ears, then I would say they were pretty commonplace. Many of the events below were not discovered until a few years ago and only came to light because a Toledo newspaper did an intensive, investigative study.. I suspect there has been a cover up of many of these atrocities as some have alleged. It certainly would be in keeping with the way the US gov't has operated in the past.
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Vietnam atrocities revealed in report
Elite unit said to kill hundreds of civilians
By Associated Press, 10/20/2003
TOLEDO, Ohio --" An elite unit of American soldiers mutilated and killed hundreds of unarmed villagers over seven months in 1967 during the Vietnam War, and an Army investigation was closed with no charges filed, The Blade reported yesterday."
"Records show at least 78 were shot or stabbed, the newspaper said. Based on interviews with former Tiger Force soldiers and Vietnamese civilians, it is estimated the unit killed hundreds of unarmed people, The Blade said."
"Soldiers often cited conflicting views of commanders as a reason they killed unarmed people. Some commanders told investigators that civilians could be targeted in certain circumstances; others said they could never be attacked. During the Army's investigation, 27 soldiers said severing ears from dead Vietnamese became routine."
"There was a period when just about everyone had a necklace of ears," former platoon medic Larry Cottingham told investigators."
"The newspaper found that commanders knew about the platoon's atrocities and, in some cases, encouraged the soldiers to continue the violence. Two soldiers who tried to stop the attacks were warned by their commanders to remain quiet before transferring to other units, according to military records."
boston.com
"The truth is that atrocities were committed in Vietnam. The worst and most horrendous atrocity was officially sanctioned. The American command coldbloodedly set about to deprive the Communists of the recruits and other assistance that the peasantry could provide by emptying the countryside. Peasant hamlets in Communist-dominated areas were deliberately and relentlessly bombed and shelled. "Free-Fire Zones" - anything that moved, human or animal, could be killed - were redlined on military maps.
By 1968, civilian deaths, the great majority from airstrikes and artillery, were estimated at 40,000 a year and seriously wounded at 85,000. The wholesale killing cheapened the value of Vietnamese life in American eyes. It created an atmosphere that fostered the massacre at My Lai hamlet on March 16, 1968, when 347 Vietnamese old men, women, boys, girls and babies were butchered. That same morning an additional 90 unarmed Vietnamese were slaughtered at a nearby hamlet by a second U.S. Army unit."
kniff.de |
