[Peace-discuss] Dulce bellum inexpertis

[C. G. Estabrook]

[For those of us whose memories run back more than 35 years, more
confirmation of the suspicion many held then that My Lai was not an
isolated incident. For all of us, a disturbing reminder of apparently not
untypical practices of the US military.  --CGE]

 America's elite Tiger Force 'slaughtered civilians in Vietnam'
 By Oliver Poole in Los Angeles
 (Filed: 21/10/2003)

An elite American military unit killed and mutilated hundreds of unarmed
civilians, tortured prisoners and severed ears and scalps for souvenirs
during the Vietnam war, according to a newspaper investigation.

The unit, Tiger Force, was sent on a six-month spying operation in areas
controlled by the North Vietnamese. Members of the unit have revealed
details of a rampage that began in May 1967 in which they dropped grenades
into bunkers where villagers, including women and children, were hiding.

Details of the unit's activities surfaced after an eight-month
investigation by an American newspaper, The Blade, in Toledo, Ohio, that
interviewed all but two of the unit's surviving members as well as
Vietnamese witnesses. It also reviewed thousands of recently declassified
documents.

If accounts of the atrocities are accurate, it would be one of the worst
documented cases of war crimes committed by American soldiers.

One member of the unit, William Doyle, a former sergeant, said he had
killed so many civilians that he had lost count. "We didn't expect to
live. Nobody out there with any brains expected to live," he said.

"The way to live is to kill because you don't have to worry about anybody
who's dead."

The newspaper found that the army had investigated Tiger Force for four
and a half years and identified 18 soldiers who committed war crimes. The
investigation's findings were sent to the defence secretary in 1975 and
reports on its progress were passed on to the White House but no charges
were filed.

The soldiers who were under suspicion of committing war crimes were
instead allowed to resign, it is alleged.

The official inquiry found 27 soldiers in the 45-man paratrooper unit who
said the severing of ears from dead Vietnamese was routine. "There was a
period when just about everyone had a necklace of ears," said Larry
Cottingham, the platoon medic.

The allegations include an incident in which the unit's field commander,
Lt James Hawkins, shot dead an elderly carpenter who was pleading for his
life.

Two soldiers who tried to stop the attacks were warned by their superiors
to stay quiet and were then transferred to another unit.

Vietnamese who witnessed the attacks told The Blade that they had dug
dozens of mass graves.

The atrocities were carried out the year before the infamous My Lai
massacre in which an army unit killed around 500 civilians.

The Pentagon said yesterday it had no plans to re-open the investigation
into the allegations.

[Information appearing on telegraph.co.uk is the copyright of Telegraph
Group Limited and must not be reproduced in any medium without licence.]