Army to interview witnesses of Vietnamese deaths

sfgate.com ^ | Saturday, February 14, 2004 | ©2004 Associated Press

[livesbygrace]

Military investigators will interview former members of an elite U.S. Army platoon accused of killing unarmed Vietnamese civilians in 1967, according to a published report.

The Blade of Toledo first reported in October that the Army's 101st Airborne Division Tiger Force killed civilians -- including women, children and elderly farmers -- over seven months in 1967. Tiger Force, a unit of 45 volunteers, was created to spy on forces of North Vietnam in South Vietnam's central highlands.

[livesbygrace]

The review will be conducted under the direction of acting Army Secretary Les Brownlee, who was asked to look into the matter by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.

What could he possibly be thinking?

[leadpenny]

They have to investigate. Doesn't mean anything is going to come of it. Besides, the alleged atrocities happened on LBJ/McNamara's watch - not Nixon's.

[YaYa123]

John Kerry testified before Congress about atrocities like this. He witnessed them, he knows all about this subject, first hand. He said so. John Kerry should volunteer to head another congressional investigative committee like he did on the POW issue. Do ya think he will?

[dmcnash]

Private Joker: How can you shoot women and children?

Door Gunner: Easy... you don't lead 'em so much.

[Northern Yankee]

It's no secret that we strafed and bombed civilians during the second World War. (Chuck Yeager mentions it in his book, Yeager.) Atrocities were committed on both sides. But the United States as a whole did far more to help civilians than hurt.

If they are going to dig into what the United States did during the Vietnam war, then why don't they also look at what the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong did during that same time.

Let's do some comparisons.

[cynicom]

Vietnam was a DEMOCRAT war. The media leaves that part out.

[angkor]

John Kerry ... witnessed them, he knows all about this subject, first hand.

As I posted numerous times yesterday (and will continue to do so), my wife is Vietnamese from the Delta region where Kerry was stationed. She has never, not once, ever heard of any "atrocities" being committed against civilians from friends, family, acquaintances, or newspapers. Not once. Not in her years in Vietnam, not in her time here in the States.

I've personally spent much time on the Delta in recent years, and never has any Vietnamese expressed anything other then good memories and gratitude about the behavior of U.S. forces there.

Finally, yesterday's Pho Nho - a popular Vietnamese newspaper in the DC area - ran the Kerry/Fonda story on the front page.

There were repeated references to Kerry as a "phan boi," or traitor.

[Northern Yankee]

I trust your wife more than I trust Kerry.

Maybe she'd like to run for president?

I was in the service and served with many guys who were "in Country".

Time and time again they couldn't understand all this nonsence about the US being involved in whole scale atrocties as they never participated in anything like that!

[angkor]

I forgot to mention. There were atrocities committed on the Delta, but they were carried out by the Vietcong against the civilian population. Not to mention the post-1975 decade+ of reeducation camps (five of my wife's relatives), house-to-house searches, property seizures, forced relocations, etc.

On the Delta, "Vee Cee" is still the popular description of the existing Hanoi government, and it is whispered and expressed with the utmost of contempt.

The only South Vietnamese criticism I've ever heard of our time there is that we pulled out too early, and didn't lend a hand in the early months of 1975 as had been promised.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Yeah, you don't hear much about LBJ's involvement these days.

[YaYa123]

But really.....who we gonna believe? Your Vietnamese wife or a self-serving, overly ambitious anti-American anti-war Viet Nam vet testifying before the U.S. Congress? John Kerry said he saw these things for himself. Would he lie? Under oath before the U.S.Congress?

I think reporters should ask him to refute his testimony or confirm it. Do you think they will?

(Thanks so much for your reply...I missed it yesterday. And you make me miss dear Freeper friend Old Atlanta all over again, remembering he had a lovely Vietnamese wife too.)

[LjubivojeRadosavljevic]

["They have to investigate."]

You are correct.

For example, the US can't demand for the arrests of Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic for war crimes and simultaneously not investigate its own military personnel where war crimes may or may not have been committed.

[angkor]

But really.....who we gonna believe?

It's not just my wife, it's the entire Vietnamese community here in the U.S.

You'd think that after 30 years, any stories of these alleged "atrocities" against Delta civilians would have been whispered or even openly discussed among the Vietnamese themselves. And not just here, but also amoung those still living in the Delta region.

Instead, what do they say? Almost without exception, how much they liked the American soldiers, how helpful and happy they were, what a good impression they left of America.

The only critique I've ever personally heard was from a former air traffic controller, absolutely flawless English but still trapped in Vietnam after two, three-year cycles of "reeducation". He remains sadly disapppointed that the promises of help were reneged in the months preceding April 1975.

But he still loves America and cherishes the two years he spent here in training.

[donozark]

Recall when the Vietnamese business man in Westminster, CA hung the NVA Flag up on Ho Chi Minh's birthday? Hundreds of Vietnamese showed up in protest. Flag came down.

Also, back in the 70s, when all the Vietnamese "boat people" were in camps in Japan, Phillippines,etc., the number one destination chosen by them was the US of A. Hardly indicative of a populace that had been so abused by GIs...

[donozark]

Incorrect to place alledged actions of a few GIs on the same level as actions by high-ranking officials.

[R. Scott]

John Kerry testified before Congress about atrocities like this. He witnessed them, he knows all about this subject, first hand.

First hand?
I doubt he witnessed much. He was on a Swift Boat, in the same waters of the Delta I was on. I never saw much of what happened on land.

[donozark]

Article posted here somewhere stated Kerry is now denying that he witnessed such atrocities-only that he was told by others they happened. Of course another article here showed many of those "GIs" who testified at the Winter Soldier Hearings were frauds...

[donozark]

I would note it is Dennis Kucinich, a Democrat, and current Presidential cnadidate who is pushing this. Bet he can't wait to try and "hang" some of the guys coming back from Iraq. What a bonified flaming turd this guy is...

[Fitzcarraldo]

Sounds like the "Winter Soldier" investigation is being ressurected, to give credibility to John Kerry.

[Fitzcarraldo]

LOL! Maybe JFK will concoct a story that GW was strafing civilians in Vietnam during the time he was AWOL in Alabama.