Text 21674, 62 rader
Skriven 2006-08-07 06:51:00 av BOB SAKOWSKI (1:123/140)
Ärende: Read & discuss
======================

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-vietnam6aug06,0,6350517.story?coll=la-home-headlines


Civilian Killings Went Unpunished
Declassified papers show U.S. atrocities went far beyond My Lai.
By Nick Turse and Deborah Nelson, Special to The Times
August 6, 2006

The men of B Company were in a dangerous state of mind. They had lost
five men in a firefight the day before. The morning of Feb. 8, 1968,
brought unwelcome orders to resume their sweep of the countryside, a
green patchwork of rice paddies along Vietnam's central coast.

They met no resistance as they entered a nondescript settlement in Quang
Nam province. So Jamie Henry, a 20-year-old medic, set his rifle down
in a hut, unfastened his bandoliers and lighted a cigarette.

ADVERTISEMENT
Click here to find out more!
Just then, the voice of a lieutenant crackled across the radio. He
reported that he had rounded up 19 civilians, and wanted to know what
to do with them. Henry later recalled the company commander's response:

Kill anything that moves.

Henry stepped outside the hut and saw a small crowd of women and
children. Then the shooting began.

Moments later, the 19 villagers lay dead or dying.

Back home in California, Henry published an account of the slaughter and
held a news conference to air his allegations. Yet he and other Vietnam
veterans who spoke out about war crimes were branded traitors and
fabricators. No one was ever prosecuted for the massacre.

Now, nearly 40 years later, declassified Army files show that Henry was
telling the truth ? about the Feb. 8 killings and a series of other
atrocities by the men of B Company.

The files are part of a once-secret archive, assembled by a Pentagon
task force in the early 1970s, that shows that confirmed atrocities by
U.S. forces in Vietnam were more extensive than was previously known.

The documents detail 320 alleged incidents that were substantiated by
Army investigators ? not including the most notorious U.S. atrocity,
the 1968 My Lai massacre.

Though not a complete accounting of Vietnam war crimes, the archive is
the largest such collection to surface to date. About 9,000 pages, it
includes investigative files, sworn statements by witnesses and status
reports for top military brass.
[snip]

Read the full article, then comment if you will.




... Somewhere, The Founders weep at what America has come to.
--- MultiMail/Linux v0.47
 * Origin: Try Our Web Based QWK: DOCSPLACE.ORG (1:123/140)