The title Kill
Anything That Moves is
not merely an exaggeration, but the truth behind the military operations of the
United States in Vietnam. As a reader who knew the narrative from textbooks and
mainstream media, I did not expect that this was not only a war to stomp off communism
and communistic ideals in Asia, but it is a war of mistakes, losses, and gains.
Nick Turse tells accounts from throughout his book that describes how
unjust and senseless the war was. A war that was motivated by numbers,
propaganda, and US national interests. I thought the documentary Fog of War
was
appalling, but there are even more appalling stories in Turse’s book. Soldiers were ordered to kill anything that moves even if they have
a slight doubt if its Viet Cong’s men, assets, or subjects. It was a brutal and
traumatic experience for many of the soldiers who received this order from their
commander. Through the accounts of whistleblowers like Jamie Henry, a former
army medic, it painted a dark narrative that reframes military operations in Vietnam
as irrational and unjust. Massacres in My Lai are one of many mass killings
that involved the death of many civilians including women and children. “An
operation, not an aberration” was essentially the statement that came out of
the investigations. The cover-ups and downplaying of what happened in Vietnam were
defensive tactics to bury the lies, tragedies, and traumas that happened in the
jungles and villages of Vietnam. A war that was all about numbers, “body count,”
as Turse emphasized in his book: “Sometimes when units were short of “kills,”
prisoners or detainees were simply murdered (46).” The war considered civilian
deaths as “collateral damage” and an inevitable part of fighting off
revolutionaries in Vietnam (51).” From the harrowing accounts of survivors and
soldiers of the war, altogether they conveyed that irrational decisions and
assumptions motivated the operations of the war. Despite their accounts and
testimonies, federal investigation assures that the orders that were given during
the war were a result of the “growing violence” in the country. A narrative that
obviously counters the narrative of people who witnessed it.
RT America presented
images that accompanied Nick Turse’s exposé on the real accounts of the Vietnam
War. “It captures the reality of war – a reality that is shrouded in censorship
and propaganda.” Chris Hedges noted that we need to understand the tragedies in
Vietnam War in order to understand our wars in the Middle East:
It was interesting that after Turse
published his first article leading to the publication of the book, the files
on Vietnam War were sealed immediately and you have to file a Freedom of Information
Request to access those files. I wonder if the United States is doing this because
of the bad PR or simply as a precautionary measure to bury in secrecy the
reality of the war? Either way, this speaks volumes on the possible truths that
are embedded in those unlabeled sealed files. Our wars in the Middle East and
current tension in Iran offers that there is a narrative that alters the actual
truth. In the age of techno war, Hedges and Turse put the responsibility on us as
citizens to advocate and know the truth about the reality of our military
operations and war efforts overseas.
Citations:
Nick Turse. Kill Anything that Moves: The Real
American War in Vietnam. 2013. Introduction:
An Operation, Not an Aberration; Chapter 2: A System of Suffering; Chapter 7: Where
Have All the War Crimes Gone?; Epilogue: Wandering Ghosts.
RT
America. “On Contact: The Hidden Tragedy of the Vietnam War with Nick Turse.” YouTube.
2 January 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vr70CISwy_k
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