<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt;color:#000000;"><DIV>Part of a critical discussion of Restropo:</DIV>
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<P>As the American War in Vietnam staggered to a close, U.S. troops were in an open state of rebellion. Fraggings -- attacks on commanders (often by <I>frag</I>mentation grenade) -- were rising, so was the escape into drug use. Troops bucked orders, mutinied, and regularly undertook "search and evade" missions, holing up in safe spots while calling in false coordinates. </P>
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<P>AWOLs and desertions went through the roof. During World War II, Marine Corps desertion rates peaked at 8.8 per 1,000 in 1943. In 1972, the last full year of U.S. combat in Vietnam, the Marines had a desertion rate of 65.3 per 1,000. And precious few Marines were even in Vietnam at that point. AWOL rates were also staggering -- 166.4 per 1,000 for the much more numerous Army and 170 per 1,000 for the Marines. In a widely-read 1971 <I>Armed Forces Journal</I> article, retired Colonel Robert D. Heinl, Jr., wrote, "By every conceivable indicator, our army that now remains in Vietnam is in a state of approaching collapse, with individual units avoiding or having refused combat, murdering their officers and noncommissioned officers, drug-ridden, and dispirited where not near-mutinous." </P>
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<P><A href="http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/07/13-11">http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/07/13-11</A></P></DIV></div><br>
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