New Documents Show Vietnam Atrocities by U.S. Soldiers
The LA Times today reports on newly released Pentagon documents showing atrocities committed by U.S. armed forces during the Vietnam War were far greater in number and scope than previously acknowledged.
The files are part of a once-secret archive, assembled by a Pentagon task force in the early 1970s, that shows that confirmed atrocities by U.S. forces in Vietnam were more extensive than was previously known. The documents detail 320 alleged incidents that were substantiated by Army investigators -- not including the most notorious U.S. atrocity, the 1968 My Lai massacre.
....The records describe recurrent attacks on ordinary Vietnamese -- families in their homes, farmers in rice paddies, teenagers out fishing. Hundreds of soldiers, in interviews with investigators and letters to commanders, described a violent minority who murdered, raped and tortured with impunity. Abuses were not confined to a few rogue units, a Times review of the files found. They were uncovered in every Army division that operated in Vietnam.
Much of the 8 page article concerns the slaughter of 19 civilians in an incident previously reported but never confirmed until now. The LA Times has put some of the records online. My Left Wing has more about the article. As to the sourcing, it is
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