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

[C. G. Estabrook]

Part of the living memory of those years even if not in the history 
books/official propaganda - but it's interesting to put some numbers on it.

Thanks for this.  I hadn't seen it. --CGE

On 7/13/10 5:03 PM, David Green wrote:
> 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 /frag/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.
>
> 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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