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From: jefff@cadovax.UUCP (Jeff Fields)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Viet Nam Atrocities
Message-ID: <300@cadovax.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 21-Nov-84 12:12:05 EST
Article-I.D.: cadovax.300
Posted: Wed Nov 21 12:12:05 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 24-Nov-84 05:51:40 EST
Organization: Contel Cado, Torrance, CA
Lines: 41

<>

Jeff Hull commenting on an article by Joaquim Martillo writes:

> In article <588@ihuxt.UUCP> martillo@ihuxt.UUCP writes:
> >Compared to the East Asian communists, the USA army was a model of correct
> >and moral behavior.  
>
> True.  One of the most effective interrogation techniques the Rangers
> and Green Berets had was to threaten to turn the prisoner over to the
> ROK's (Korean Army).

	Yep. Another technique that worked really well was to take a 2 or 3
captured V.C. up in a helicopter.  The Special Forces interrogator would then
threaten to push one of the V.C. out of the moving chopper.  When the V.C.
refused to answer, he was swiftly ejected.  This usually worked in that the
remaining V.C. prisoners would respond with the requested information.
	Accounts of this happening have be witnessed by several of our troops.
One of which I personally know.

	Other examples of our "model of correct and moral behavior" in
Viet Nam include:

	- The use of agent orange and other defoliants

	- The My Lai massacre

	- Saturation bombing of Cambodia, the most heavily bombed nation in
World history

	- The policy of burning villages to the ground whether or not they
harbored V.C. or not

	The sad fact remains that although we avowed to be fighting for a moral
and just cause, our methods in Viet Nam were not entirely moral or just, even
in the context of war.  Yes, atrocities were committed on both sides.  We were
not the only perpetrators of war crimes, but our guilt remains nonetheless.

				-Jeff Fields
-- 
Pax Vobiscum.