Kill Anything That Moves The Real American War in Vietnam - Research Paper Example

Kill Anything That Moves the Real American War in Vietnam In the “Kill Anything That Moves the Real American War in Vietnam” byNick Turse (2013). The book is very captivating and the book lays emphasis on the Vietnamese history of civilization. Turse, the author of the book goes an extra mile to investigate the cause of the war and he conducts interviews both in the U S and in Vietnam in order to get to the root cause of the problem. All this took place during the First World War. A Vietnam veteran by the name of Charles Mc Duff had noted the sufferings of the people of Vietnam and he inscribed a letter to the president of the U S back then who was President Richard Nixon. He was trying to plead with the president Nixon to withdraw his troops in the Southeast Asia. He had observed the injustices taking place in the Southeast Asia and the massive killing of people by the American troops (Nick 1). Major General Franklin Davis was the one who responded to the letter a few weeks later he said to him “ I presume that you have you have promptly reported such actions” that was the reply he got. What were so painful are the events that took place on March 15, 1968, Captain Medina had ordered the killing of everything in My Lai. Medina had ordered, “Kill everything in the village” and it was a very painful loss and the killings had accumulated to a massacre that had led to the killings of very many innocent Vietnamese (pg. 3). Some of the news had leaked to the CBS news and an army inquiry had to chip in to explain this and the matter and they said that thirty eight individuals were involved in misconduct at the massacre. All the blame went to this soldiers and later only one who was convicted and that is lieutenant Calley and people would wonder with all those killings that that had happened in My Lai could it have been LieutenantCalley who had done it alone. President Kennedy when he was in power, he associated with the southern Vietnam and had deployed 11000 U S military. They fought against the guerilla wars that took place in the area. After the assassination of J F Kennedy president Lyndon took over and the fighting continued where there was bombing taking place in the north of Vietnam. The war was getting more and bigger and in the year 1969 more troops were taken to Vietnam. Kill Anything That Moves the Real American War in Vietnam, the author of the book tries to get to the bottom of the matter and he interviews some Vietnamese witnesses who were present during the massacre. He explains in the book that most of the people he got to ask the questions avoided them to the best of their interest since they never wanted to recall the painful moments that they went through. The author says that, “some had little remorse and one of the interrogators told me that the actions were merely standard operating procedure”. The inspector general of the United States defended the Vietnamese people by saying, “Vietnamese victims were innocent civilians loyal to the republican of Vietnam”. No action was taken even after the release of such strong evidence. Many of the interviews the author had with the farmers, they explained that the war involved the U S marines and not the soldiers (pg. 45). In the first chapter, “AN OPERATION, NOT AN ABERATION” the chapter is very wide and goes through a series of happenings at the Southeast Asia where there was a massacre that had taken place called My Lai. There had been so many things that had happened between the U S and the Vietnams. The two countries had been involved in a civil war that had led to the mass killings of people on both sides but the most affected people were the Vietnamese since they had lost many lives as compared to the Vietnamese. The brutality was so much that even the author tries to explain the brutality, “An officer snatched a woman by the hair furthermore, shot herpoint- blank with a pistol. In another case a woman holding a child was shot and the baby she was holding fell and as the child hit the ground the GI released on the child with his M-16 mechanical rifle” (pg. 3. This was the situation in My Lai. The united states do not admit that the war was based on the revolution where the Vietnamese people were fighting in order to protect their families (pp. 1-46). The massacre at Trieu Ai was also bad news to the people of Vietnamese. It all began in a way that most of the people do not understand up to the date today. It began on 21st October, 1967 when members of company B. in a patrol of a marine and a battalion. One of the marines was killed and three others were injured. A meeting was held by the marine’s leaders and they came to an agreement and Lieutenant Bailey went back with the conclusion they come up with. There had been a Booby trap and they had to act towards it. Lieutenant Bailey had also succumbed minor injuries and the message he had for the people after the Platoon was killed is that, “they would kill everyone in the Ville and burn it down. Trieu Ai was a farming village where the people of this village involved themselves in farming activities. They reared cows and chicken and also did faring of cassava and sweet potatoes. The younger men and the boys who were in the camps were restricted to stay in the camps whereas the other people went to get their belongings back home. This was on October the 21st. the Trieu Ai village was invaded, the angry marines fired their riffles destroying the shelters of the houses of these villagers. The set fire all over the structures and after all this they had killed most of the guerillas nguyen Van Phuoc, a young villager explains the events of that day “I went through much pain when I saw the nearby shelter been set ablaze and my mother who was holding my younger brother was shot at my presence and I had to help my brother so I took him, I was thirteen years old by then.” (pg.46). Inthis chapter, “the massacre at Trieu Ai we come to find out that aerial bombing was commonly used and we also come to learn the spirit of the trainees that is “KILL, KILL, KILL” .After this American planners divided the map of south Vietnam into five sectors. The marines were now joined in Army units. In 1965 there were about 184000 us military personnel. The army was not different in any way and still the brutality went on and the killing raping and torturing was also evident (pp.1-72.) The system of suffering is very common in “Kill Anything That Moves the Real American War in Vietnam”. The war managers in Vietnam had their goal which was too kill as many Vietnamese fighters until they were unable to replace those killed in the war. There had been so much pressure and the marines were required to increase the body count. It was an important thing to them and in order for a police to be promoted he had to have a high body count.Rion Causey, of the 101st Airborne Division said that, “It was all about body count. Our commanders just wanted body count.”(pg.15).This notion of competition of the body count had led to the killing of very many innocent lives. So much of the injustices that had happened in the two massacres were not looked at in a good manner. The Americans would deny so much that they were right by fighting in Vietnam. After the war there were a panel that was to try figure out the massacre in the Trieu Ai and the peers’ panel had named 28 officers who were to preside over the case and give a report finally at the end of it all. The investigations got more serious in the 1970’s. A lot of evidence had come up but still the case did not seem to prevail it did not get far. One of the main investigators in the case Buckley presented some of his findings about the killings in My Lai and he had responses that he was not supposed to investigate on how the Americans fought in the war but to focus on a single war crime. Shimkin was also an investigator and he did his investigations through some collaborating Vietnamese who had witnessed the situation. Buckley had come up with another source and he stated, “four years have convinced me that terrible crimes have been committed in Vietnam, thousands among unarmed civilians have been killed by American fire power” (pg. 109). This was the compliments he had made after he had compiled his research. He went on and said that “the killings did not happen by accident and they were intended. The American way of fighting has made their deaths inevitable”. (Pg.109). He went on and said that all the deaths that had occurred could end up not being accounted for. According to the speedy express findings is that an estimate of between 5000-7000 civilians had been killed (pg. 112) Mr. Jamie Henry died in the year 2010 and had something that he had to say after he had been shown by the author documents that contained details of soldiers from his company. Fellow witnesses to the killings he talked to the army investigators as the Vietnam War was slowly been forgotten. All the veterans had told the investigators that nineteen or more children had been held when an American officer went to look for volunteers to carry out the superiors orders of “ shoot anything that moves” (pg. 1) The army after finding out the truth did not talk about the issue either to Henry or to the American citizens. No action was taken. There was not even any person locked in prison for this in order to pay for the consequences. All the investigation that had been taken was of no use but confuse the citizens that something was trying to be done but behind it all it ended that way. Henry had shared a lot of things with the author and concerning the memories of the massacre. He also talked to the author about the threats that he had received from other soldiers if he dared to confess the truth about the brutality that had taken place. Jamie Henry had also had made efforts to make the Army to investigate and he wanted the public to get aware of the misdeeds of the soldiers and what they had caused to the Vietnamese. In Vietnam they have got many beliefs about the deceased. They believe that when people die ‘bad deaths’ that they are forced to suffer as “wandering” ghosts. (pg. 3) it is said that the people of Vietnam still experience the violence that ended in their lives. Summary Times have passed and many Presidents have been elected to serve the United States and many presidents have tried to rebrand the war but still America is the cause of conflict and after all this the author asks whether Iraq was turned to be the new Vietnam or either Afghanistan. He continues to ask more questions, “Do we see the light at the end of the tunnel? Are we winning “hearts and minds”? Are we applying the lessons of Vietnam?” The Vietnamese civilian suffering won’t be forgotten anytime soon unless something is done. These should be the questions that the United States should have in mind. Something needs to be done concerning the case. Justice should be achieved in this case. Reference Nick Turse, (2013). Kill Anything That Moves the Real American War in Vietnam. New York: Henry Holt And Company. Read More