In the first months of 1969, the US 9th Division launched Operation Speedy Express against suspected VC strongholds in the Mekong Delta. Using over 3,000 airstrikes in the region, the unit then reported a body count ratio of 134:1. These metrics were completely exaggerated.
Despite claims of 11,000 VC fatalities, only 750 weapons were captured to show for it. McNamara’s fixation with body count statistics had inspired many units to inflate their numbers, either by exaggerating reports or killing civilians. Such was the case in Speedy Express.
At least 5,000 civilians were killed by the division in a six month period, amounting to what Nick Turse describes as a “My Lai a month”. Those wearing “black pajamas” were automatically assumed to be VC and gunned down. Huey door gunners machine-gunned random figures on the ground like that one guy in *Full Metal Jacket*. Pilots disgorged napalm indiscriminately. Artillery levelled villages to the ground.
Iron_Cavalry on
The “Free Fire Zones” were directly modeled off Imperial Japan’s genocidal Three Alls Policy in North China. Anyone caught in these areas was automatically assumed to be VC. Entire villages were forcibly deported to “clear the water” and forced to live in squalor. By just 1968, 300,000 Vietnamese civilians had been killed or injured in these areas.
And naturally, these policies were rife with atrocities. Scenes like those in *Platoon* were a daily occurrence all over Vietnam, be they US Marines in Quang Tri or Army soldiers in the Central Highlands. Command made a systemic effort to cover up these atrocities, like My Lai and My Khe.
Because of the scale of the war and the numerous journalists reporting on the war, things inevitably slipped through.
UltriLeginaXI on
“the legalization of corporate lobbying and its consequences….”
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In the first months of 1969, the US 9th Division launched Operation Speedy Express against suspected VC strongholds in the Mekong Delta. Using over 3,000 airstrikes in the region, the unit then reported a body count ratio of 134:1. These metrics were completely exaggerated.
Despite claims of 11,000 VC fatalities, only 750 weapons were captured to show for it. McNamara’s fixation with body count statistics had inspired many units to inflate their numbers, either by exaggerating reports or killing civilians. Such was the case in Speedy Express.
At least 5,000 civilians were killed by the division in a six month period, amounting to what Nick Turse describes as a “My Lai a month”. Those wearing “black pajamas” were automatically assumed to be VC and gunned down. Huey door gunners machine-gunned random figures on the ground like that one guy in *Full Metal Jacket*. Pilots disgorged napalm indiscriminately. Artillery levelled villages to the ground.
The “Free Fire Zones” were directly modeled off Imperial Japan’s genocidal Three Alls Policy in North China. Anyone caught in these areas was automatically assumed to be VC. Entire villages were forcibly deported to “clear the water” and forced to live in squalor. By just 1968, 300,000 Vietnamese civilians had been killed or injured in these areas.
And naturally, these policies were rife with atrocities. Scenes like those in *Platoon* were a daily occurrence all over Vietnam, be they US Marines in Quang Tri or Army soldiers in the Central Highlands. Command made a systemic effort to cover up these atrocities, like My Lai and My Khe.
Because of the scale of the war and the numerous journalists reporting on the war, things inevitably slipped through.
“the legalization of corporate lobbying and its consequences….”