Posted on 10/20/2003 1:36:36 PM PDT by dts32041
TOLEDO, Ohio -- An elite unit of American soldiers killed hundreds of unarmed villagers in 1967 during the Vietnam War, and an Army investigation was closed with no charges filed, the Toledo Blade reported Sunday.
Soldiers of the Tiger Force unit of the Army's 101st Airborne Division dropped grenades into bunkers where villagers -- including women and children -- hid, and shot farmers without warning, the Ohio newspaper reported.
Soldiers told the Blade that they severed ears from the dead and strung them on shoelaces to wear around their necks.
The Army's 41/2-year investigation, never before made public, was initiated by a soldier outraged at the killings.
The probe substantiated 20 war crimes by 18 soldiers and reached the Pentagon and White House before it was closed in 1975, the Blade said.
William Doyle, a former Tiger Force sergeant now living in Willow Springs, Mo., said he killed so many civilians in 1967 he lost count.
''We didn't expect to live. Nobody out there with any brains expected to live,'' he told the newspaper. ''The way to live is to kill because you don't have to worry about anybody who's dead.''
In an eight-month investigation, the Blade reviewed thousands of classified Army documents, National Archive records and radio logs and interviewed former members of the unit and relatives of those who died.
Tiger Force, a unit of 45 volunteers, was created to spy on forces of North Vietnam in South Vietnam's central highlands.
The Blade said it is not known how many Vietnamese civilians were killed.
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.
Army spokesman Joe Burlas said Sunday that only three Tiger Force members were on active duty during the investigation. He said their commanders, acting on the advice of military attorneys, determined there was not enough evidence for successful prosecution.
The only way to prosecute the soldiers was under court-martial procedures, which apply only to active military members, Burlas said.
Investigators took 400 sworn statements from witnesses, Burlas said. Some supported one another and some conflicted, he said.
According to the Blade, the rampage began in May 1967. No one knows what set it off. Less than a week after setting up camp in the central highlands, soldiers began torturing and killing prisoners in violation of American military law and the 1949 Geneva Conventions, the newspaper said.
Sgt. Forrest Miller told Army investigators the killing of prisoners was ''an unwritten law.''
Other soldiers said they sought revenge in the villages after unit members were killed and injured during sniper and grenade attacks.
''Everybody was bloodthirsty at the time, saying, 'We're going to get them back,''' former medic Rion Causey of Livermore, Calif., told the Blade.
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.
The atrocities carried out by the unit came just months before the killing of about 500 Vietnamese civilians by an Army unit in 1968 at My Lai.
In the years after that, top military officials promised to take war crime accusations seriously. But records from the Tiger Force case show that didn't happen, the Blade said.
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.
Former platoon members still could be prosecuted or sanctioned by the Army, but legal experts say that's unlikely because of the time that has elapsed.
AP
Just wondering why it showed up today on page four of the chicago sun times?
Just in time for the beginning of next years election cycle.....
When you constantly must worry over everyone that's alive, this is an abundantly sane rational.
Care to make a wild guess? Vietnam=Iraq=Quagmire=liberal=anti-american=anti-BUSH!
Resurrect the Vietnam strategy that was their glory days in the 70's; they impeached a president with this strategy.
They are deceived...the 70's are long gone...it won't work.
/sarc
As for, "unwritten rules", or, "you don't have to worry about anybody who's dead", these should be non-issues for anyone who would claim to love God.
..but the premise of one I just picked up is this exact scenario, with lots of add-ons, of course.
It was anti-military, anti-death penalty and gratuitous for him.....quite gratuitous!
I threw my copy away....the plot didn't even hold together!
But the basic bad guys were West Point generals who covered up this type of Viet Nam atrocity, and they were protrayed as really bad dudes!
Does it seem coincidental, knowing lots of folks read this kind of novel and buy into it....that those who control propaganda would pull something like this up right now.....pre election.
Or have I invested in too much tinfoil lately????
Sgt. Forrest Miller told Army investigators the killing of prisoners was ''an unwritten law.''
''Everybody was bloodthirsty at the time, saying, 'We're going to get them back,''' former medic Rion Causey of Livermore, Calif., told the Blade.
Can this writer squeeze in any more stereotypes of the blood-thirsty American soldier? Something smells about this story and its timing.
I prefer Saran Wrap!! ;-)
Yeah, about 46 years late. Part of the democRAT strategy of trying to create the perception that Iraq is a quagmire. First, they have to re-visit Vietnam and make sure to frame it in the worst possible light. Then, its time to compare Iraq to Vietnam. Add 6 months, and presto: Instant Quagmire!!
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