In 1968, the army formed a unit called Task Force Baker. They were to "engage and destroy" a village where Viet Cong were suspected to be taking refuge in. Thus, they committed the My Lai Massacre. This was the mass murder about ~500 unarmed civilians, including men, women, children, and infants. The American soldiers would rape and mutilate many of the women before killing them. Only the leader of responsible platoon, Second Lieutenant William Calley, was convicted of war crimes, and he only spent 3.5 years under house arrest.The Task Force Baker entered the village in the morning, originally sticking to their plan of searching for evidence of Viet Cong. However, things spiralled out of control, and they began shooting anyone who moved, burning huts, and raping women. Some were dragged into ditches and murdered with machine guns.
About two hours into the disaster, a pilot flying overhead noticed a large number of bodies and put an end to the affair, ordering his own reinforcements to fire at the American soldiers if they continued shooting.
The massacre was covered up until November 1969, a year later.
I just thought that I'd throw in one other tragedy, as various massacres were not the only atrocities committed by the Americans. In addition to bombings, village burnings, wanton destruction, breaking up families, and cold blooded murders of over a million people, operation Ranch Hand, or "Agent Orange," allowed the spraying of 20 million gallons of poisonous herbicides to ruin the landscape and farms of North Vietnam. These caused deaths, birth defects, cancer, terrible rashes, and nervous problems. It is estimated that about 4,000 people were killed or maimed due to this terrible act of vengeance.
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| It was actually called Agent Orange not because it turned people's skin orange (although sometimes it did, as in this case), but because the majority of boxes of pesticide shipped out were labelled with orange marks. There was also Agent Pink, White, Purple, Green, and Blue. |
http://sites.psu.edu/carekovacs/2014/02/06/fortunate-sons-of-the-vietnam-war/
https://historicalouttakes.wordpress.com/2014/11/21/tragedies-of-the-vietnam-war-the-my-lai-massacre/
https://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/agent-orange
Thank you for writing this post bringing attention to the atrocities committed during the Vietnam War. As was pointed out, it was often extremely difficult to find the Viet Cong among the ordinary citizens and the countryside. This led to the wanton killing of civilians and the policy of assuming any dead Vietnamese were Viet Cong in order to bolster kill counts, as we learned in the Vietnam documentary. I think that the mounting frustration of the most technologically and militarily advanced nation in the world being unable to win this war combined with the chaos of war itself were the main causes of the horrific incidents such as this one.
ReplyDeleteI had no idea that herbicides could be used as weapons of war. Agents Orange, Pink, White, Purple, Green, and Blue (collectively called the Rainbow Herbicides) were inspired by the success the British had with it in Malaysia. The idea is that the herbicides will kill the agricultural economies of villages in developing countries, but the huge amounts of herbicide also affected people's health. According to Healthline, "Agent Orange has affected 3 million Vietnamese people, including at least 150,000 children." Unfortunately, there are still birth defects today from these pesticides.
ReplyDeleteSource: https://www.healthline.com/health-news/lingering-health-effects-of-agent-orange#1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_Herbicides#cite_note-Ornitz-1
Bennett, thank you for highlighting such a tragic event in history that is often covered up. I came across a documentary about Agent Orange a couple weeks ago, and was so shocked that it was utilized as a war strategy. Thinking about the issues in the United States going on at the time, including Rachel Carson's fight against DDT, and the rapid decline in eagle populations because of the pesticide, I think it is horrendous that the United States would jeopardize the health of the entire Vietnamese ecosystems and the health of innocent civilians. Up to 4 million people were exposed to the defoliant chemical, and the Vietnamese Red Cross has " estimate[d] that up to 1 million people are disabled or have health problems as a result of Agent Orange contamination", while the US government continues to challenge these numbers as being "unreliable". The chemical is so potent, it has the potential to deform genes, and cause abnormalities in the offspring of those exposed. The defoliant was originally used to wipe away the forests to make the Viet Cong easier to see, but as the world later realized, some areas were so badly damaged that habitat restoration was near impossible. Not only that, but many Americans were impacted by the Rainbow Herbicide initiatives, and there were huge legal consequences after the damage. "About 17.8 percent—3,100,000 hectares- of the total forested area of Vietnam was sprayed during the war, which disrupted the ecological equilibrium", destroyed biodiversity, and there were huge amounts of dioxin that was bioaccumulating and biomagnifying through the food chains.
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_Orange#Ecological_impact
Bennett, this was a very interesting post. I think what really struck me was the use of the Agent Orange by the US government. It is shocking to believe that the US would use such a horrible weapon against a country and its civilians. The effect of this was so profound that the issue is still prevalent today. As recently as 2002, the US government negotiated with Vietnam to research the health impacts of the operation. In 2005, the EPA started to work with the Vietnam government to remedy the affected areas of Vietnam. This cooperation shows progress on part of the US government, but it shows how these atrocities still affect regions of Vietnam today.
ReplyDeletehttps://books.google.com/books?id=1iCHpk2fZksC&pg=PA310#v=onepage&q&f=false
Until this post, I had never known specifics about some of the atrocities that took place during the Vietnam War. I was pretty horrified by what I read about the American soldiers in Task Force Baker as well as Operation Ranch. Agent Orange is something that still affects Vietnam today. To this day, 43 years later after the war, effects of the herbicide are still seen through birth defects of children. If you would like to read more about the effects still seen today, read the article attached. https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/agent-orange-vietnam-war-us-damir-sagolj-a7664491.html#gallery These effects are still seen today because some of the areas where Agent Orange was first sprayed are still contaminated because they have not yet been cleaned up, or the process has only just begun.
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