As a warfighter I've never cared how the enemy died just that they weren't going to injure or kill my Marines.
I have said that many times before, about any of my troops and those fellow services and allies. In combat arms units' the mission was/is to kill the enemy and destroy his equipment. Break his will to continue the fight. Nothing new there …
Gary and Oddball +1 for your comments as well …
It's quite possible that one of Hanoi's objectives in the 1968 Tet Offensive was elimination of the Viet Cong as an effective force that could threaten the total domination of South Vietnam after the war.
Yes I and others have said similar. For every hard core Communists in the VC there was a Nationalist who just wanted the "invaders" out of their country.
During Tet the North pushed the VC forward in many locations. They did not want to have to deal with Southern Nationalists after the war. By the end of Tet much of the VC were dead and gone.
Even during the 1972 Year of the Rat Offensive, about all the VC could effectively field was around 3 Rgts. Mostly in what was known as the Cham Coast Region. E.g. At the Battle of An Loc in '72 the VC only had a very small number of troops involved.
The Phoenix and Chieu Hoi Programs like many things during the Vietnam War may not have been considered by some that well thought out, effective, etc., etc. History is full of things like this. But as always hindsight is 20/20. The decisions made at the time may have made sense then, etc. Again the missions of the US to gain their objectives, etc., included killing the enemy which was both the VC and NVA.
It may have been no worse than what the PAVN/NLF were doing though on a possibly larger scale [there are no reliable figures for these murders and other crimes, though they certainly occurred and on a large scale.]
Yes there is no doubt of that. The war for all involved was very "messy" at times.
E.g. In the early days of the war. The VC tied two US female missionaries up in a hut. And set it on fire. Burning both to death. The US SF unit got there too late.
During the Battle of Hue, the VC execute a dozen or so Catholic Nuns.
War Crimes, etc., happened … period…
It still stands out as one of the worst aspects of an already shameful chapter in US intervention.
You could also say the same for many incidents like I just sited when talking about the VC or even NVA.
I.e." It still stands out, e.g. the burning to death of US missionaries and executing Catholic Nuns as some of the worst aspects of an already shameful numbers of chapters of the VC and NVA".
People in glass houses should not throw stones, as the saying goes.
Skarper, my friend, to I and many here. You appear to play the role of an "apologist" for the VC and NVA. Some here, like me, realize that an insurgency later turned to a more conventional war proved to be very, very, "messy".
Sadly unlike in a war game or movie you can't pick out the "bad guys" from the "good guys". E.g. by the color of cowboy hat they wear. It's a reality especially in an insurgency. Like we saw/see in Iraq, A'stan, etc.
bases up the rifle teams.
