Secret files show coverup of Vietnam atrocities

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Formerly
By Nick Turse and Deborah Nelson

Los Angeles Times



DAMON WINTER / LOS ANGELES TIMES

Jamie Henry takes a break from his work as a logger in Northern California. As an Army private, Henry witnessed the massacre by U.S. troops of 19 civilians in Vietnam in 1968. He later told what he had witnessed, only to be discredited. Declassified Pentagon documents have since verified Henry's account.



DAMON WINTER / LOS ANGELES TIMES

Retired Brig. Gen. John Johns, Vietnam War veteran and member of a war-crimes task force, says crimes committed by troops during the war should be made public in light of alleged U.S. abuses in Iraq. "We can't change current practices unless we acknowledge the past," he said.




From an archive of Vietnam War abuses:

B Company had lost five men in a firefight the previous day. The morning of Feb. 8, 1968, brought unwelcome orders to resume a sweep of a green patchwork of rice paddies along Vietnam's central coast.

The men met no resistance as they entered a nondescript settlement in Quang Nam province. So medic Jamie Henry, 20, set his rifle down in a hut, unfastened his bandoliers and lighted a cigarette.

The voice of a lieutenant crackled across the radio. He had rounded up 19 civilians and wanted to know what to do. Henry 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 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. It shows that confirmed atrocities by U.S. forces during the war were more extensive than previously was known

sad sad sad... so very sad

Were you there?
If not, don't be so quick to judge.
If you were forced to go to Nam, regardless of your feelings about war, or the fight in Vietnam, and lived each day with no sound sleep; if you knew there was a good chance, not just a chance, of being hit by a sniper as you walked from your home-away-from-home; if you knew when you hit the sack each night that there was a good chance you wouldn't wake up; if you flew over Nam and watched holes appear in the sides of your helicopter; if you saw the slaughter perpetrated on civilians by the NVA and VC; if you knew that creeping up a trail could result in your legs blown off, or falling on punji stakes; if this were forced on you by a corrupt and untruthful administration; if when you came back, you were treated as a criminal, instead of one who served his country in that horror: just exactly what the hell would you do?
Iraq is very little different: those same things apply.
And for anyone who wishes to denigrate those same troops, don't. Place your anger where it belongs: with the people who sent them.

I am not judging>you though seem to be.Also you seem to have an anger problem.You never even asked my opinion before you started telling me what it is.Your real enemy seems to be the truth and not me.

why is it you are so sensitive to people who give orders to shoot anyone in sight and not to the man who carries out those order?Why the double standard?

Hardly. I know the truth, or at least part of it. Because I spent 3 tours there.
Yes, I have an anger problem. An anger problem that stems from people who didn't live then, who weren't faced with an either/or situation (either go to war or go to jail) (either fight and possibly die or go to jail), and then those people presume to make their ill-informed and ill-considered opinions known; presuming that what they read on the web are facts. More often than not, those opinions are formed by the propaganda that existed at that time, both government and media propaganda.
If you have no opinion on this, why start this thread?
Haven't we been bashed enough? Must we relive this crap to eternity?

Some people feel the need to bash our military at every turn. It is so easy for a armchair commander to make perfect decisions.

It's not a double standard.
Read my post. We had no choice: either do as you're told, or go to Leavenworth. There is no decision there. Either do it, or be court-martialled and possibly shot or at least, spend 20 years in jail.
That's the difference.
And by the people who sent us, that means the government that sent us into an undeclared war, a civil war, by reason of a trumped charge against the enemy. To quote LBJ, "Nobody over there can take a piss without my permission." Now, if you feel the need to blame someone, blame him, and not the people he forced into the place.
And if you feel the need to find atrocities, go find some of those the NVA did and start a movement on that end. Find the one that occurred in Hue in 1968, when on entry into Hue we found bulldozed trenches filled with the bodies of Hue residents murdered by the NVA. How about that?
Or maybe you could find "facts" about the helo crewmen we found in SVN who had been skinned alive by VC and left strapped in the seats to die.
Or the millions of Laotians and Cambodians murdered by Pol Pot.

You speak the truth.
By the way, I'm working on the stuff in the blog. Please have patience.

with respect maybe you should have went to Canada. maybe you wouldent be so angry now.

I have no idea how many times I have thought that is what I should have done. Unfortunately, at the time, all this "Old Glory" hype was rampant, and anyone going that direction was a traitor (especially where I grew up). There was also a move afoot to extradite "draft dodgers" back to the US for prosecution.
Before I went (years before) I was quite outspoken against our involvement, well before LBJ and his buildup in 1964. It was a real blow to me that Kennedy was murdered as he wished to remove the US from Nam. For that reason, I suspect he was a casualty of Vietnam also, involving more than just Oswald. Sidebar: Oswald was supposedly working for the Communists; the US was fighting same. If Kennedy's goal was to remove US troops from Nam, why would the Communists want him dead?
Yes, sir, you are correct: I should have gone to Canada.

If you do not like my post take it up with a moderator or start your own.You have shown a lack of integrity by coming to my post and making accusations.Not once has anyone addressed threal issue,with the exception of the first response.I believe in freedom of speech and do not believe the government or people such as some who responded to this post should try to silence people with their lies.I would never accuse you rabid of being a real american rabid.you may be a citizen,but in spirit you are more of a commie

so which one of you reported me and got my posting priveledges removed?
I got them back so your dity trick did not work.

You already know why your account was temporarily suspended, TS, this is not the place to broach the subject and/or cast aspersions. Additionally, this is a discussion board, you're bound to run into oppostition or contrary opinion when starting a thread such as this. For a believer in free speech you certainly seem aggravated by someone expressing theirs. It wasn't so much an accusation (sort of like your query regarding your suspension) as it was an observation. Not a tactful one, mind you, and the indescretion would have been dealt with not withstanding your inflametory reply.

It would be appreciated that any comments be focused on the subject matter and not the individual making them. Thank you for your cooperation.

MM

Atrocities in Viet Nam really isn't news. Been plenty of novels and movies and tell-alls about massacres like that.
Neither is a "cover-up" by the government any shocking news. Of course they would want to keep something like this quiet, even to the point of denigrating their own troops. That is just the way governments operate.
And to blame the troops is misguided, to put it tactfully. I wasn't born until Viet Nam was wrapped up, so I can only imagine the stress levels of those that were forced to be there, but I can't blame any soldier that was there. I have known too many good men still bearing scars from that conflict.
If one wants to start throwing blame around, blame the French. The asked us for aid in something that was solely their interest, and our government was stupid enough to agree.

My best friend is a Nam Vet. I've known him for many years now. I have learnt more from him in those years than I probably have my whole life. As RabidCat rightly says, don't blame the soldiers that were there, they never knew until they arrived the hell that awaited them.

And it was indeed a hell. Rage started soon after arriving, you think "attrocities" were only commited by one side? Troops would find their comrades heads on sticks to say the LEAST as they travelled. Unless you experience it (and I am thankful that I didn't) you would be filled with an unimaginable anger too. Not only at your brothers being mutilated, but at the lies you were told to get you there.

Then these injured soldiers came home and were abused in the hospitals by the staff (not all) that were part of the anti-war movement 'back home'. My buddy was in a San Diego hospital. Urine and faeces poured on him daily by some staff calling him a baby killer.

You wonder why they're angry?

It's real nice, as we sit in our comfortable homes in relatively secure surroundings criticising others, saying they have 'issues' etc. Stop for a moment and think how you'd feel if you'd lived their life, then be thankful you haven't.

[.

It would be appreciated that any comments be focused on the subject matter and not the individual making them. Thank you for your cooperation.

MM
[/quote]


Hello!Is anybody home>This is what I have been saying all along.

If you'd pay a bit more attention, Sherlock, that request was directed at everyone participating in this discussion, its not all about you.