Vietnam is back in the news

[aico]

Anyone read the article about how the gov't papers recently released about Vietnam warcrimes not only confirm all of the allegations made back then that were said to be not true, but uncovered that there were lots more warcrimes than previously thought?

Pretty much everyone one of the accusations made were true.

Not good.

Full Story

[directfiesta]

have to register

But this is no surprise, national security has always been the reason to cover up athrocities commited by countries .. ( not just the USA )

[aico]

Originally Posted by directfiesta

have to register

Really? Hmm i must have registered in the past... here's a long cut and paste.

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.

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.

The records describe recurrent attacks on ordinary Vietnamese ? families in their homes, farmers in rice paddies, teenagers out fishing. Hundreds of soldiers, in interviews with investigators and letters to commanders, described a violent minority who murdered, raped and tortured with impunity.

Abuses were not confined to a few rogue units, a Times review of the files found. They were uncovered in every Army division that operated in Vietnam.

Retired Brig. Gen. John H. Johns, a Vietnam veteran who served on the task force, says he once supported keeping the records secret but now believes they deserve wide attention in light of alleged attacks on civilians and abuse of prisoners in Iraq.

"We can't change current practices unless we acknowledge the past," says Johns, 78.

Among the substantiated cases in the archive:

? Seven massacres from 1967 through 1971 in which at least 137 civilians died.

? Seventy-eight other attacks on noncombatants in which at least 57 were killed, 56 wounded and 15 sexually assaulted.

? One hundred forty-one instances in which U.S. soldiers tortured civilian detainees or prisoners of war with fists, sticks, bats, water or electric shock.

Investigators determined that evidence against 203 soldiers accused of harming Vietnamese civilians or prisoners was strong enough to warrant formal charges. These "founded" cases were referred to the soldiers' superiors for action.

[ContentSHOOTER]

Nothing new about a government cover up, tragic none the less

[pornguy]

Man that is fucked up.

[aico]

Originally Posted by pornguy

Man that is fucked up.

Yes, it sure it. I wonder if anything will be done about it? Anyone know what the statute of limitations is on war crimes? Or if there is even one. I know that they still try Nazi war criminals when they catch em. So it has to be pretty long, or life long.

Specially is not good with all the allegations of the same things going on in Iraq right now.

[E$_manager]

that was long ago.

[GiveIntoMe]

anyone seen We Were Soldiers - mel gibson stars. pretty good movie lots of gore & shit.

[reynold]

Originally Posted by GiveIntoMe

anyone seen We Were Soldiers - mel gibson stars. pretty good movie lots of gore & shit.

I can't promise you that I will bring you all home alive. But this I swear, before you and before Almighty God, that when we go into battle, I will be the first to set foot on the field, and I will be the last to step off, and I will leave no one behind. Dead or alive, we will all come home together. So help me, God.

--Lt. Colonel Hal Moore (Mel Gibson)

[Rochard]

It's really easy to judge our soliders while sitting behind a computer.

I'm not saying this isn't a horrible event; The people involved should be charged - as well as the people who covered it up.

But man, I couldn't imagine seeing death on a daily basis and what it does to your mind.