‘Look for Hospitals as Targets’ American “Bombing of Hospitals Called Routine.” 1973

Bombing of Hospitals Called Routine.” That was the August 9, 1973, Newsday coverage of congressional hearings on “clandestine U.S. air and ground activities in Cambodia and Laos”:

U.S. commanders in Vietnam placed no restrictions on ground or air attacks against Viet Cong or North Vietnamese hospitals a Senate committee was told yesterday by several Vietnam veterans.

In direct testimony and in letters, the veterans said hospitals often were considered targets rather than areas to be avoided as required by the Geneva convention on warfare.…

The committee also has been trying to determine who ordered a dual reporting system in which 3,630 B-52 raids over Cambodia were recorded falsely as having occurred in South Vietnam [that would be Henry Kissinger].

Gen. Creighton Abrams, currently the Army chief of staff and a former commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam, testified that he carried out the false reporting system, but did not create it…. Abrams said that at one point there were so many different authorizations and reporting systems being applied to the secret operations that he had trouble keeping things straight himself.

In testimony on the hospitals, Alan Stevenson, a stockbroker from San Francisco and former Army intelligence specialist, said that while in Quang Tri province in 1969, he routinely listed hospitals among targets to be struck by American fighter plans.

“The bigger the hospital, the better it was,” he said. Stevenson said he believed the hospitals were rated highly as potential targets, not because American commanders wanted to attack wounded enemy troops, but because hospital complexes were often protected by company- or battalion-sized troop units….

Something doesn’t smell right. Here is part of an email I got this morning:

WHY SO MANY PLANES WERE SHOT DOWN AND PILOTS CAPTURED IN VIETNAM

“The Secret War and Other Conflicts”
(Published 2014 by ... GENERAL PETE PIOTROWSKI
ISBN 978-1-4931-6187-4 (Hardcover)

Following is a quote of much interest, from pages 246 and 247:
“Nearly twenty years later, former Secretary of State Dean Rusk being interviewed by Peter Arnett on a C B C documentary called, “The Ten Thousand Day War”. Mr. Arnett asked, “It has been rumored that the United States provided the North Vietnamese government the names of the targets that would be bombed the following day. Is there any truth to that allegation?”

To everyone’s astonishment and absolute disgust, the former Secretary responded, “Yes. We didn’t want to harm the North Vietnamese people, so we passed the targets to the Swiss embassy in Washington with instructions to pass them to the N V N government through their embassy in Hanoi.” As we watched in horror, Secretary Rusk went on to say, “All we wanted to do is demonstrate to the North Vietnamese leadership that we could strike targets at will, but we didn’t want to kill innocent people. By giving the North Vietnamese advanced warning of the targets to be attacked, we thought they would tell the workers to stay home.” No wonder all the targets were so heavily defended day after day! The N V N obviously moved as many guns as they could overnight to better defend each target they knew was going to be attacked. Clearly, many brave American Air Force and Navy fliers died or spent years in N V N prison camps as a direct result of being intentionally betrayed by Secretary Rusk and Secretary McNamara, and perhaps, President Johnson himself.

I cannot think of a more duplicitous and treacherous act of American government officials. Dean Rusk served as Secretary of State from January 21, 1961, through to January 20, 1969, under President John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.

Mr. Peter Arnett opined that “this would be a treasonous act by anyone else.” A very sad revelation. Those who flew over North Vietnam always suspected that this was what was happening...

HERE IS THE PROOF:

https://www.truthorfiction.com/general-pete-piotrowski-says-us-alerted-north-vietnamese-before-bombing-strikes/

Utter total bullshyt. We had more restrictions than you can shake a stick at. On gunboats in I Corp we were not allowed to fire unless fired upon or we could definitely identify an armed enemy. Period. In my year there I only knew of two guys who had possibly targeted civilians for rape. If they did they were very closed mouthed about it because they would have gotten decades at Portsmouth.

No, I’m sick of these canards. This guy’s testimony is complete lies. I hope he burns in Hell.

In the case of Kosovo and Serbia it was done to break civilian spirits like the bridge bombing.

Friedman in the New York Times (4/23/99): Let’s at least have a real air war. The idea that people are still holding rock concerts in Belgrade, or going out for Sunday merry-go-round rides, while their fellow Serbs are “cleansing” Kosovo, is outrageous. It should be lights out in Belgrade: Every power grid, water pipe, bridge, road and war-related factory has to be targeted.Like it or not, we are at war with the Serbian nation (the Serbs certainly think so), and the stakes have to be very clear: Every week you ravage Kosovo is another decade we will set your country back by pulverizing you. You want 1950? We can do 1950. You want 1389? We can do 1389 too.

http://fair.org/extra/legitimate-targets/

Don't kid yourself what war is.

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