"My testimony refers to demolishing villages for no concrete reason, throwing Vietcong
suspects out of the plane after tying and gagging them with copper wire."
Thus began the testimonies on the morning of January 31st and February 2nd, 1971 in
the city of Detroit by former combatants of the U.S. Armed Forces assigned to Vietnam
to denounce the massacres committed by their comrades against Vietnamese soldiers and civilians.
58,000 Americans and some three million Vietnamese died in that conflict, including hundreds
of thousands of civilians.
The war crimes committed by the Vietcong and U.S. troops could be cited by the thousands.
Today we will re-live the pain and anguish that men, women and children endured during
the Vietnam War, just one of many since the beginning of our existence and a small sample
of those to come, Welcome to Copernicus’s Galaxy.
What happened to U.S. prisoners captured by the Vietcong?
The capture of enemy prisoners during a war can be useful in several ways, either to obtain
information, manpower or they can even be treated as a bargaining chip for future negotiations
with the rival country if necessary.
During the Vietnam War, between 1964 and 1973, the Vietcong captured a large number of U.S.
soldiers and housed them in 13 prisons and concentration camps.
Hundreds of U.S. pilots under Operation Rolling Thunder continued to be shot down and captured
from 1965 to 1968.
From the beginning, the Vietnamese were brutal to the soldiers they captured, none were treated
humanely, as they never saw them as prisoners of war, but as outlaws in an "undeclared war".
They practiced brutal and systematic methods of torture to force the unfortunate captives
to confess to war crimes, obtain military information or even to participate in staged
propaganda where they had to show their displeasure with U.S. actions.
Severe beatings were common and more than once ended the prisoner's life.
Of course, none of those trained American soldiers cooperated easily with their captors,
they did everything possible to avoid saying a single word, enduring the immense pain until
they literally broke.
This, together with tortures such as waterboarding, which consisted of pouring water over a cloth
that covered the prisoners’ face, made them say anything to stop their agony.
Not only was physical torture applied to the soldiers, but their psyche was also played
with in different ways.
They used any means necessary to break their will, such as prolonged isolation, lack of
food and drink, and deplorable hygiene conditions that promoted diseases and inadequate ventilation
that led to sores on the skin.
There were two escape attempts by notable American POWs during the Vietnam War, but
to the misfortune of any American prisoner, the Vietnamese were able to take away all
traces of hope and will to fight on.
Navy Lieutenant George Coker and USAF Captain George McKnight orchestrated an escape from
the "Dirty Bird" prison camp, however, they were recaptured only 15 miles away and transferred
to "Alcatraz" prison, which specialized in solitary confinement in small, dark, filthy
cells, where they were held at least 15 hours every day and constantly tortured.
But without a doubt, the period of greatest cruelty occurred during the months following
the May escape attempt in 1969, when Air Force Captains John Dramesi and Edwin Atterberry
planned and carried out an elaborate escape plan in which they had even made clothing
and accessories to blend in with the native population....
but such an elaborate plan allowed them only a few moments of freedom as they were recaptured
soon after and their actions resulted in horrific reprisals against all prisoners, whether they
were involved or not.
Whipping sessions lasted for days with Navy Lieutenant Commander Red McDaniel receiving
over 700 lashes, and electric shocks.
Brutal beatings were suffered especially by Dramesi as he was forced to write and record
apologies, while listening to the screams of his partner Atterberry as he was murdered.
A silenced crime: The My Lai massacre
Here there are no unpunished sides because in the war everyone has blood on their hands.
The Vietnamese were cruel to the Americans, and the American soldiers exhibited ruthless,
monstrous behavior.
There were no arguments that validated causing such suffering to any living being.
It is known that the US Army committed many atrocious war crimes during the armed conflict
in Vietnam.
There are testimonies and confessions in documents and data that confirm many of the suspicions
and there are even photographs that show images so crude and brutal that they’re unbearable
to see and that point to the US Army as the perpetrators of bloody carnage... but, even
so, it is easy for "Uncle Sam" to sweep everything under the rug and turn a blind eye.
Among the few that were really made public was the My Lai massacre, which took place
on the morning of March 16, 1968.
On that sad day, approximately 500 innocent civilians who lived in that town were murdered
in cold blood.
Men, women, the elderly and children who, without putting up any resistance, received
all the firepower of the unit commanded by Captain Ernest Medina.
Charlie Company landed that morning in the vicinity of that village.
Among its members was Lieutenant William Calley, an important figure in this massacre, who
would be the only one accused and condemned for what happened that day.
According to statements made by Captain Medina's subordinates, he had assured them that all
civilians had been evacuated and that they could shoot to kill anything that moved, which
they did without any remorse.
In only 4 hours they exterminated nearly all the inhabitants of this town, houses were
set on fire and grenades were thrown into caves where entire families fled to take refuge.
Lieutenant Calley alone ordered the execution of 150 people including young children, the
elderly and pregnant women in a ditch.... had it not been for a U.S. helicopter crew
flying overhead that realized what was happening, there would not have been a single survivor.
As expected, the U.S. government and military only officially acknowledged 200 civilian
casualties that day due to an alleged artillery error.
Calley received a life sentence that would be reduced first to 20 years, then to 10 years
and finally he would only serve 4 years in the comfort of his apartment.
Vietcong Atrocities in the Vietnam War
Fear is a powerful weapon.
Sowing fear in the hearts of both your allies and your enemies can change the balance in
your favor even when your capabilities and resources are less than those of your opponents.
This was well known by the members of the Vietcong, who despite being largely made up
of guerrillas, had little firepower and were outnumbered compared to the U.S. Army.
With the use of unconventional strategies and taking advantage of their environment,
they decimated their enemy sometimes without even being seen, demoralizing the U.S. soldiers.
But their crime does not lie in the battle tactics they took against their enemies, what
makes their actions remembered as atrocities are attacks on villages where they systematically
murdered men, women and children through their "special activity cells" with the sole intention
of proving to them that the South Vietnamese government could not protect them.
They planted mortars outside refugee camps, placed mines on roads frequented by villagers
to blow up mostly civilian buses and randomly bombed major cities with 122 millimeter rockets.
The Vietcong were killing more than 1500 South Vietnamese civilians per month at their most
brutal stage.
An estimated 30,062 civilians and political officials were killed between 1964 and 1971,
while another 45,500 were kidnapped.
One of the biggest massacres committed by their men was the one that took place during
the battle of Hue, beginning on January 31, 1968 and concluding 26 days later.
During this time, hell was unleashed for the inhabitants of that city because as soon as
the Vietcong soldiers arrived, they received the order to judge and annihilate anyone they
considered an enemy, spy, traitor or simply who did not sympathize with their cause...
They showed no mercy whatsoever because not only did they finish off the political oppositions
or the foreign residents, but they murdered their entire families.
Children and women were shot.
School teachers, American civilians and religious leaders were also victims of that holocaust.
These facts were compiled by journalists like Don Oberdorfer who at the end of 1969 visited
Hue to interview its inhabitants.
His notes contain the last moments of thousands of people who did not deserve to die in that
way.
Among them is Pham Van Tuong, a simple janitor at the government information office.
He hid with his children, a 3 year old girl and a 5 year old boy and two nephews.
When they were found by Vietcong soldiers, they were shot dead at that very moment just
because they worked there, and then their bodies were exhibited in the street.
Over the months, hundreds of ditches with thousands of bodies bound by the arms and
showing signs of having been tortured, beaten to death, executed by firearms or even buried
alive, were found in the Hue area.
It is estimated that around 6000 civilians and prisoners of war lost their lives at the
hands of the Vietcong during this massacre.
Agent Orange: A devastating chemical shadow
It was not enough for the United States to fight battles against the Vietcong, so the
American presence also withered the green of its jungles and contaminated its rivers
and lands with a powerful chemical that left physical and psychological after-effects that,
more than 50 years later, continue to cause malformations in newborns, serious diseases
and damage to vegetation.
Known as "Agent Orange" this herbicide and defoliant was part of the dioxin group composed
of TCDD, which is extremely toxic.
It was sprayed by US forces on approximately 2.5 million hectares of forest in southern
Vietnam to destroy the vegetation that served as protection and a hiding place for the enemy.
6,000 missions were carried out under the name of "Operation Ranch Hand" approved by
the then US President John F. Kennedy, who concealed from the public how harmful this
chemical would be for the inhabitants of those lands.
About 45 million liters of Agent Orange were used, exposing 4.8 million Vietnamese, causing
serious soft tissue diseases, benign lymphoma, leukemia and chlorosis The chemical also affects
fetuses in the wombs of infected people and is linked to congenital malformations.
Current data shows that about 150 thousand children have been born with diseases such
as cleft lip, cleft palate, spinal clefts, nerve disorders, among others, in the last
3 decades and at least 20 thousand of those originally exposed have died from the terrible
agent orange.
However, some U.S. Army soldiers were not spared its effects.
According to Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, former U.S. Chief of Naval Operations, more than
1,000 U.S. soldiers were exposed to this dioxin.
The "ladies" of sin in the Vietnam War
In Vietnam, offering favors related to pleasure is not only frowned upon, but is a crime.
Since more than 50 years ago until now, Vietnamese morality has been strictly judged, however,
in 2013 it was estimated that there were more than 71 thousand ladies of sin throughout
the territory.
It is well known that this area is one of the most lucrative in the world and as in
all wars, especially if the United States is involved, it is common for soldiers to
seek fun and spend the night with a young lady from the surrounding area, often resulting
in scandals due to infections, non-consensual encounters and of course, unacknowledged children.
During the Vietnam War, it is estimated that there were around 300 thousand ladies of sin
scattered throughout the country who congregated in the bars that American soldiers and Vietnamese
civilians used to visit to offer their services.
However, foreigners were not limited to spending the night with these maidens because there
was more than one case in which American soldiers satisfied their desires with maids, laundresses,
cooks or any woman who performed any work for them, sometimes with full consent of both
parties and many others forced.
There were cases where the military men fell in love with the Vietnamese girl with whom
they had relations, taking care of her and even the children they had together, promising
them not to have to sell their services again... but that fantasy crumbled when at the end
of the war, American soldiers were deployed back to their homes, leaving pregnant women
or even mothers and babies... children who in the future would be discriminated against
for being children of the enemy and who would find it difficult to find employment in any
field.
It is sad, the suffering caused by war conflicts of the human race is usually persistent, leaving
a permanent mark for the rest of the lives of those involved and affecting third parties,
innocent people who are extinguished after the sound of a gun... we can only pray that
the most powerful people, those who pull the strings of the world powers are aware and
never press that red button... otherwise, we hope we’ll be here to tell you about
it, at Copernicus's Galaxy.