A common theme in American war reporting is that the US presence serves to civilize a struggle, make it more humane.
Here are excerpts from three independent sources regarding the use of napalm in civilian areas. See if you can spot the differences.
"… [ the 'struggle' ] has shocked American military observers with its senseless brutality.… They have encountered the charred bodies of women and children in villages destroyed by napalm bombs." 6/62 (1, p63)"Down at Soc Trang, one of the [US] airmen came up with the idea of putting chunks of charcoal in our napalm tanks.… the charcoal is thrown another 200 feet farther, like a burning baseball, and does further damage to the VC houses. … Tomorrow three birds are going out with one half of their load of straight napalm and the other half with charcoal napalm. A photo ship is going along to take pictures. If higher headquarters thinks it's all right, then they'll buy us the charcoal. 1/3/64" (2, p128)"[The targeting rocket] made a loud explosive honk as it left us, and hit about 50 feet from a hut, in what appeared to be a vegetable garden.…[Afterwards,] Two cans of napalm hit without exploding. Then more cans hit and part of the line of huts were obliterated in a rolling cloud of flame." 7/67 (3, p60)
"But napalm was the favorite weapon of most people [US Pilots] I talked to. 'One or two napalm attacks can change the fighting spirit of a whole company,' a Navy A-4 Skyhawk pilot, Lt. Comadr. Fitch, told me." 7/67 (3, p56)
Here are two anecdotes by source 3 regarding directing artillery fire against villages.
-----------------------"I met an FAC [forward air controller] who had been directing gunfire from [US] Navy destroyers against hootches [huts] and VC concentrations for several months. The destroyers were miles off shore in a moving ocean. This young man had been relieved of duty because he openly declared himself guilty of assisting in killing many civilians because the long-range guns fired so wildly so often, hitting homes and people in the vicinity of the target coordinates.… 'I just want to go home and forget it forever,' he said." (3, p62)"Another FAC…was going back home to the States the next day. He had been ordered to direct [ground] artillery against a village because 'three VC were reported there this morning.' He got over the village, he said, and looked down and all he could see were men, women and children walking around. He radioed back to the Arvins [Army of the Republic of Vietnam] who were waiting to fire the long-range guns and told them he didn't see anybody who resembled a VC but that there were civilians in the village. Did the province chief [an Vietnamese government official] really want the place hit? They radioed back that the province chief did, and to send the coordinates. 'I sent them' this young FAC said and drained his drink. 'You must have seen a lot of people killed.' 'No,' he said. 'No people got killed. Nobody was in the paddy where I directed the artillery fire.'" (3,63)
The first source is a US reporter, writting in 1962, when most the direct fighting in 'the struggle' was done by South Vietnamese soldiers. The US funded the war, sent weapons and craft, and trained the South Vietnamese. They also had 'advisors' who were not supposed to be directly involved in combat. "Vietnam Victory Remote Despite U.S. Aid to Diem," originally in the The New York Times, July 25, 1962, reprinted in Reporting Vietnam. Part One: American Journalism 1959-1969, Library of America (1998)
The second source is a series of letters written by an Air Force Captain to his family back in the US. The letters were published in U.S. News & World Report, May 4, 1964, after he was killed in combat in March of 1964. We Are Losing, Morale is Bad… If They'd Give Us Good Planes…", published in U.S. News & World Report, May 4, 1964 and reprinted in Reporting Vietnam. Part One: American Journalism 1959-1969. Library of America (1998)
The third source is a free-lance writer who was invited to live and fly with US pilots in Vietnam. This was in 1966/67 when most of the air war was carried out directly by US pilots. From Air War—Vietnam, Bantam Books (1967), by Frank Harvey, a free-lance writer and civilian pilot.
Here's an example from Stanley Karnow, reporting from Saigon in 1963, after the army executed the then head of state, Diem and his brother, Nhu:
ReplyDelete"he estranged himself form his main foreign supporters. …in giving free rein to his brother's repressive policies, Diem provoked the hostility of the United States, which had dedicated men and money to help save his nation. 'We wanted a change in the way this country's being run,' says a top U.S. diplomat in Saigon. 'If those in power couldn't change their ways, then we favored changing those in power. Don't misunderstand me. We didn't plot Diem's downfall. But we certainly created the climate and state of mind that inspired his opponents to overthrow him.' " (p 95)
The US had been financing the Diem government and especially their army, and had started a 'special forces' program, directing and training anti-guerrilla units that operated throughout the countryside.
We are left to believe that for two years, the US had no part in the practices of repression and was helpless to change it. And of course, that the US interest in the country was benign, 'to save it' and that the US government officials became disgusted at the repression and worked to end it.
Note the frank admission that the US had sufficient power 'to create the limate and state of mind' to generate a coup, and that this is OK.