[Peace-discuss] U.S troop rebellion in Vietnam

[David Green]

Part of a critical discussion of Restropo:

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 fragmentation 
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. 
 
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 Armed Forces Journal 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." 
 
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/07/13-11


      
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