Notes From the Editor
by Larry Kerschner
On February 1, 1968, my Infantry company was involved in an “action” that resulted in the killing of over 100 men and women in the Central Highlands of Viet Nam. Most Americans know something about the massacre at My Lai. What most Americans don’t know is that the My Lai atrocity was one of hundreds of similar massacres that occurred during the American War in Viet Nam.
A recent book Kill Anything That Moves: the Real American War in Viet Nam by Nick Turse carefully documents (with many footnotes) the commonplace “search and destroy” attitude that pervaded the U.S. military from the lowliest grunt to the highest command. In 1967, after some news reports about atrocities being committed by U.S. troops in Viet Nam, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara commissioned a report on how well U.S. troops understood the Geneva Conventions. The final 208 page report found that 96% of Marine second lieutenants interviewed indicated that they would resort to torture to obtain information. This report was never made public.
On the same day that the My Lai massacre occurred, Bravo Company, 4th Battalion, 3d Infantry entered the village of My Khe and murdered many women, children and old men. The response of the Pentagon to all of the atrocities was to cover up, coerce and intimidate witnesses so that ultimately (other than a brief house arrest for Lt. Calley) no officers who were in command of and encouraging the troops who committed these crimes were brought to trial.
One of many things that struck me in the book was a discussion about how you could tell from the air how a person was VC or NVA. The answer that if they were male of a certain age and in a certain area they were automatically guilty and subject to summary execution sounds chillingly like the justification used today and how to decide who to kill by drone attack in Pakistan, Afghanistan or Yemen. I think that everyone, especially those with “Support the Troops” bumper stickers, should read this book. It will help begin the understanding of why and how such awful actions can be done by ‘normal’ people.
Answering a question
The first man I killed was small and
hiding in the tall grass.
Being a killer forever changes you.
Even if you learn to be kind and considerate and civilized
that part of you is always
hiding down inside
awaiting a chance.
A normal person does not want to kill and
will avoid it at all costs.
The military won’t let you remain normal.
It doesn’t matter if you think
you are smart enough
not to get caught up in their lies.
They will change you.
Don’t be sucked into the biggest myth and lie
that dying for your country is somehow heroic