America's elite Tiger Force 'slaughtered civilians in Vietnam'

The Telegraph (U.K.) ^ | 10/21/03 | Oliver Poole

[Pokey78]

An elite American military unit killed and mutilated hundreds of unarmed civilians, tortured prisoners and severed ears and scalps for souvenirs during the Vietnam war, according to a newspaper investigation.

The unit, Tiger Force, was sent on a six-month spying operation in areas controlled by the North Vietnamese. Members of the unit have revealed details of a rampage that began in May 1967 in which they dropped grenades into bunkers where villagers, including women and children, were hiding.

Details of the unit's activities surfaced after an eight-month investigation by an American newspaper, The Blade, in Toledo, Ohio, that interviewed all but two of the unit's surviving members as well as Vietnamese witnesses. It also reviewed thousands of recently declassified documents.

If accounts of the atrocities are accurate, it would be one of the worst documented cases of war crimes committed by American soldiers.

One member of the unit, William Doyle, a former sergeant, said he had killed so many civilians that he had lost count. "We didn't expect to live. Nobody out there with any brains expected to live," he said.

"The way to live is to kill because you don't have to worry about anybody who's dead."

The newspaper found that the army had investigated Tiger Force for four and a half years and identified 18 soldiers who committed war crimes. The investigation's findings were sent to the defence secretary in 1975 and reports on its progress were passed on to the White House but no charges were filed.

The soldiers who were under suspicion of committing war crimes were instead allowed to resign, it is alleged.

The official inquiry found 27 soldiers in the 45-man paratrooper unit who said the severing of ears from dead Vietnamese was routine. "There was a period when just about everyone had a necklace of ears," said Larry Cottingham, the platoon medic.

The allegations include an incident in which the unit's field commander, Lt James Hawkins, shot dead an elderly carpenter who was pleading for his life.

Two soldiers who tried to stop the attacks were warned by their superiors to stay quiet and were then transferred to another unit.

Vietnamese who witnessed the attacks told The Blade that they had dug dozens of mass graves.

The atrocities were carried out the year before the infamous My Lai massacre in which an army unit killed around 500 civilians.

The Pentagon said yesterday it had no plans to re-open the investigation into the allegations.

[sistergoldenhair]

As yet again.
Why now ping.

[chesty_puller]

A report from 'The Blade'? Wow, great source!

[joesnuffy]

this screed already posted

[GOP_1900AD]

If true, then maybe more of this, right into the streets of Hanoi, would have been a good thing. And I'd say, keep right on going, fighting dirty, right into Laos and Cambodia, and up into the PRC. There is only one thing that the anti Western, Communist and more recently, Islamist rabble understand. The law of the jungle. Fight nasty and fight well....

[OldFriend]

Tailwind revisited......

[Congressman Billybob]

I heard this story on National People's Radio while driving back from D.C. Is the Toledo Blade a homosexual newspaper, as the word "Blade" indicates in other newspaper names elsewhere? Was the one soldier who allowed his name to be used about witnessing an atrocity but NOT participating in it, also a member of the "fraternity"? And is that why NPR featured this story?

Maybe the same sexual bias applies to the English newspaper that picked up the story? Whenever a story that is decades old gets picked up and repackaged, I always look for a reason why that is dehors the story itself.

Congressman Billybob

Latest column, "Three People who Have it Coming," discussion thread. IF YOU WANT A FREEPER IN CONGRESS, CLICK HERE.

[clintonh8r]

I smell Tailwind.....

[Norse]

belmont, you're right. fight nasty, fight well, fight only when you have to. that's my motto. on the streets, i will only fight if attacked, but the perp better understand that i'm going to go for the knees, gouge eyes, grab balls, anything it takes. forget that code of honor bullcrap. fighting is about survival.

[DustyMoment]

Gee, let's get into some other ancient history, why don't we?

How about an investigfation by The Blade into atrocities committed by the British against the Irish in Northern Ireland? Think the Telegraph will crow about it?

[thinktwice]

The Viet Cong hid in underground tunnels, and they died there.

A smoke grenade in one opening with a lawn blower blast blown in behind it to blow the smoke in -- to see where it came out -- to locate all the ways in and out -- and then Claymore mines used to seal off the entrances.

War is hell, folks.

[facedown]

As yet again. Why now ping.

Wesley Clark.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

35 years ago, LBJ was in the White House, I was a high school senior and very few of us wanted to join the guys from the class of 64, 65 and 66 in Viet Nam.
We didn't know that JFK had ordered the murder of the president of South Viet Nam or understand the war was being micromanaged by someone from Ford Motor Company, playing by "the rules."
Guys who returned simply said they ditched the rule book shortly after they arrived in country. Can't blame them.

What's the point of a story about our military's excesses without setting the scene and providing ballance ? Were there no Viet Cong or North Viet atrocities ?

[wimpycat]

Actually, the Telegraph is the most conservative/balanced mainstream newspaper in the UK, if that tells you anything. If this was in the Guardian, it wouldn't have even included the phrase, "If accounts of the atrocities are accurate..."

[madison10]

I had the same response--Why now?

Made the mistake of buying a Blade today. (misread the headline-thought it was commending soldiers) Pity I don't have birds or dead fish.

[madison10]

The Blade is a Liberal rag. Blade goes with Toledo, as in Spain.

[RLK]

I never heard of the tiger force. I did now a lunatic who was a machine gunner in Nam. He was given a sector of his own and everybody stayed away from him. He had a little barbed wire at the edge of his firing field. After firefights he would cut the ears off the Viet Cong and stick them on his barbed wire. He believed the Viet Cong believed they could not go into the aftelife without complete bodies. The Viet Cong kept sending their best after him. He kept posting their ears on his barbed wire. He said he had 355 ears on one sector before he was moved to a new position.

[GOP_1900AD]

We almost won. But, due to all of the undermining operations of the KGB, who had infiltrated the Civil Rights movements, radicalized elements and fomented riots in '67 and '68, followed by the steady increase in student riots right into the 1970s, Nixon took the politically "pragmatic" approach and stopped it cold in its tracks. What would Reagan have done? It's too bad he did not start in politics earlier, allowing him to be a contender for president in '68.