OMNI VIETNAM
My blog: War
Department and Peace Department
Newsletters:
Index:
See: Imperialism, Militarism,
Pentagon, Recruiting, Suicides,
Whistleblowing, and more.
Nos. 1 and 2 at end
Contents $3 Sept. 25,
2012
President Obama’s Memorial Day 2012 Call to Expunge the
Vietnam Syndrome
Dick: US Empire, Pres. Obama’s Campaign to Rewrite VNW
History, and Chris Burden’s The Other Vietnam Memorial
Topmiller, Buddhist Resistance
Topmiller, Ke Sanh
Combat and Consequences
Topmiller, Mistreatment of Vets
Contents #4
THE WAR
French Defeat at Dien Bien Phu
Palazzo, VfP: Landmines
Turse, Kill Anything
That Moves, Interview by Moyers and Co.
Turse, Rev. by Jonathan Schell
VfP, Several Reports
THE PROTEST
War Protest: Catonsville 9,
Berrigans
Here is the link to all OMNI newsletters:
THE WAR
·
·
February 20, 2010
The French Connection
Vietnam lessons
the U.S. might have learned at Dien Bien Phu
Article By TOM NAGORSKI
·
·
Email
·
Print
![[BK_Cover1]](file:///C:/DOCUME~1/DICKBE~1/LOCALS~1/Temp/msohtml1/01/clip_image001.jpg)
Agence
France-Presse/Getty Images
French paratroopers
landing at Dien Bien Phu in November 1953.
In November 1953, France was in its eighth year of war for control
over Indochina . Things were going
poorly—Vietnamese guerrillas, or Vietminh, held the upper hand—and at a
strategy session in Saigon the French
commander, Gen. Henri Navarre, outlined his latest plan. "I'm thinking of
occupying the basin
of Dien Bien Phu Laos France Vietnam , near the Laos Navarre
The politicians were
onboard—but the officers balked. The military men were "unanimous in
objection," one senior officer noted. Building a base in a mountain
valley, they told Gen. Navarre Dien Bien Phu
would drain manpower from more important theaters—all for questionable military
gain. Nevertheless, Gen. Navarre Dien
Bien Phu was overrun by the Vietminh. Two years later Gen. Navarre
The annals of warfare
are of course studded with questionable military decisions and after-battle
lies, but for sheer hubris and incompetence it is hard to match what happened
before and during the 56-day battle for Dien Bien Phu .
Ted Morgan's "Valley of Death " is an authoritative account of those
days—but it's also a history of the early U.S.
involvement in Indochina . "The words Dien Bien Phu ," President Dwight Eisenhower told a
conference of newspaper publishers in April 1954, "are no longer just a
funny-sounding name to be dismissed from the breakfast conversation because we
don't know where it is." Indeed, by then Dien Bien Phu was proving a
disaster for the French—one that held warning signs for the U.S.
Nearly every French
assumption would be punctured that spring. None proved more disastrous than
Gen. Navarre Dien Bien Phu . It was a mind-bending feat, and it gave
the Vietminh high ground above the French base. In a memorable analysis, Ho Chi
Minh turned a helmet upside down, pointed to the bottom and said: "That's
where the French are." Fingering the helmet's rim, he added, "that's
where we are. They will never get out."
Ho was right—and his
forces held other advantages. China
Enlarge Image
Victorious Vietminh
guerrillas raise their flag over the French command bunker in May 1954. The
French suffered more than 2,000 dead or presumed dead; more than 10,000 were
taken prisoner.
In the meantime, French
blunders multiplied. France 's
commissioner general for Indochina was "better known for his champagne
dinners in Saigon than his military
knowledge." As soldiers died waiting for fresh supplies of food and
medicine, parachute teams were delayed because they lacked training
certificates. All the while, horrors accumulated on the battlefield. Wounded
men languished in overcrowded wards; trenches filled with corpses; monsoon
rains flooded the French camp. As conditions deteriorated, evacuation became
nearly impossible. Mr. Morgan draws a stirring portrait of the French medic
Paul Grauwin, who worked in soaked-through, maggot-infested tents handling
"an unending procession of blinded eyes, broken jaws, chests blown open
and fractured limbs." Certainly courage was not lacking at Dien Bien Phu .
For years, Indochina had
been a geopolitical sideshow for the U.S. Washington U.S. North Vietnam
Of course the early
friendship frayed as anticommunism gripped 1950s Washington U.S. France U.S. Indochina without at least a remote
prospect of victory would be dangerously futile and self-destructive."
Among future commanders in chief, only Richard Nixon stands unabashedly for
intervention.
Valley of Death
By Ted Morgan
Random House, 722 pages, $35
Random House, 722 pages, $35
![[BK_Cover4]](file:///C:/DOCUME~1/DICKBE~1/LOCALS~1/Temp/msohtml1/01/clip_image004.jpg)
Still, as the French
plight worsened, American diplomats searched for ways to help. Secretary of
State John Foster Dulles pressed Congress and the British for a muscular
response, but Dulles found few takers. "No more Koreas ,
with the U.S. furnishing 90%
of the manpower," vowed Senate Majority Leader William Knowland, a Republican
from California Dien Bien Phu to muck,
diplomacy bogged down in its own way. No reinforcements would be forthcoming.
In the end, the Vietminh laid siege to the French positions, swarming the
valley and capturing thousands of prisoners. For France Vietnam U.S. —though
no one knew it then—it meant the seeds had been sown for another Indochina war.
"Valley of Death Dien Bien Phu is mentioned. On the diplomatic front,
though one marvels at Mr. Morgan's ability to bring the reader into the
negotiating rooms, after a while one finds oneself eager to leave.
Much has been made of
Dien Bien Phu's lessons—lessons that the U.S.
perhaps should have heeded in Vietnam Valley
of Death Paris
as well as Dien Bien Phu ."
—Mr.
Nagorski, a senior producer at ABC News, is the author of "Miracles on the
Water: The Heroic Survivors of a World War II U-Boat Attack."
Reports Via Veterans for
Peace
Landmines still exacting a heavy toll on Vietnamese
civilians Wed Sep 19, 2012. Posted by: "Chuck Palazzo" VfP
37 years on, unexploded bombs continue to ruin lives in the
former wartime frontline regions of Vietnam .
Chuck Palazzo
Agent Orange Action Group
http://aoag.org/
Hoa Binh Chapter, Veterans For Peace http://vfp-vn.ning.com/
Mon Mar 4, 2013 1:09 pm (PST) . Posted by:
* We struggle every day to believe in a life that was almost
taken away from
us. We know that even though we have lost, though parts of our bodies may be
missing, though we might not be able to see or feel, we are important men
and women with important lessons to teach.
* In Pictures: Ron Kovic Today
* Nick Turse Describes the Real Vietnam War
Ron Kovic, TruthDig
Jan 19, 2013 | There is nothing in the lives of human beings more brutal and
terrifying than war, and nothing more important than for those of us who
have experienced it to share its awful truth.
As the 45th anniversary of my being shot and paralyzed in the Vietnam War
approaches, I cannot help but reflect upon those years and the many lessons
I have learned. Nearly half a century has passed since I left my house in
Massapequa , N.Y.
extraordinary journey that led me into a disastrous war that changed my life
and others of my generation profoundly and forever.
Full story...
http://evergreenedigest.org/reflections-vietnam-war-things-warrior-knows
Related:
* In Pictures: Ron Kovic Today, Zuade Kaufman, TruthDig
> http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/
> 39061213_in_pictures_ronnbspkovicnbsptoday/#sthash.kVpGLQv2.dpuf
> Jan 18, 2006 | Paralyzed from the chest down by Vietnam War wounds, and
> confined to a wheelchair for almost 40 years, Ron Kovic stands as a symbol of
> the brutality of war. He also exemplifies a man¹s ability to transform such
> tragedy into a lifelong pursuit of peace‹for himself and his country.
* Nick Turse Describes the Real Vietnam War, Bill Moyers, Moyers & company
http://billmoyers.com>
> http://evergreenedigest.org/nick-turse-describes-real-vietnam-war
> * ³American culture has never fully come to grips with Vietnam,² Turse tells
> Bill, referring to ³hidden and forbidden histories that just haven¹t been
> fully engaged.²
> * Excerpt: Kill Anything That Moves ~ Nick Turse
> * Have we really learned the lessons of Vietnam?
us. We know that even though we have lost, though parts of our bodies may be
missing, though we might not be able to see or feel, we are important men
and women with important lessons to teach.
* In Pictures: Ron Kovic Today
* Nick Turse Describes the Real Vietnam War
Ron Kovic, TruthDig
Jan 19, 2013 | There is nothing in the lives of human beings more brutal and
terrifying than war, and nothing more important than for those of us who
have experienced it to share its awful truth.
As the 45th anniversary of my being shot and paralyzed in the Vietnam War
approaches, I cannot help but reflect upon those years and the many lessons
I have learned. Nearly half a century has passed since I left my house in
extraordinary journey that led me into a disastrous war that changed my life
and others of my generation profoundly and forever.
Full story...
http://evergreenedigest.org/reflections-vietnam-war-things-warrior-knows
Related:
* In Pictures: Ron Kovic Today, Zuade Kaufman, TruthDig
> http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/
> 39061213_in_pictures_ronnbspkovicnbsptoday/#sthash.kVpGLQv2.dpuf
> Jan 18, 2006 | Paralyzed from the chest down by Vietnam War wounds, and
> confined to a wheelchair for almost 40 years, Ron Kovic stands as a symbol of
> the brutality of war. He also exemplifies a man¹s ability to transform such
> tragedy into a lifelong pursuit of peace‹for himself and his country.
* Nick Turse Describes the Real Vietnam War, Bill Moyers, Moyers & company
http://billmoyers.com>
> http://evergreenedigest.org/nick-turse-describes-real-vietnam-war
> * ³American culture has never fully come to grips with Vietnam,² Turse tells
> Bill, referring to ³hidden and forbidden histories that just haven¹t been
> fully engaged.²
> * Excerpt: Kill Anything That Moves ~ Nick Turse
> * Have we really learned the lessons of Vietnam?
SYSTEMATIC WAR CRIMES
NICK TURSE, KILL
ANYTHING THAT MOVES: INTERVIEW BY BILL MOYERS FEB. 2013
Based on classified documents and
first-person interviews, a startling and sure to be controversial history of
the American war on Vietnamese civilians.
Devastating and definitive, Kill Anything That Moves finally brings us face-to-face with the truth of a war that hauntsAmerica
Devastating and definitive, Kill Anything That Moves finally brings us face-to-face with the truth of a war that haunts
Nick Turse talks to Bill Moyers about his
book Kill Anything that Moves: The Real American War in
Vietnam and about the ghosts of people and issues
not properly put to rest in the years following the Vietnam war. In Vietnam,
says Turse, a person who dies outside his or her home dies “a bad death,” and
it’s the responsibility of the deceased’s relatives to make peace with the
person’s “wandering ghost.” The multi-decade war with Vietnam , Turse says, is America ’s wandering ghost, a conflict with which
America
Troops in
the field regularly carved their unit’s initials or numbers into
corpses, adorned bodies with their unit’s patch, or left a “death card”—
generally either an ace of spades or a custom- printed business card claiming
credit for the kill. Company A, 1st Battalion, 6th Infantry of the 198th Light
Infantry Brigade, for example, left their victims with a customized ace of
spades sporting the unit’s formal designation, its nickname (“Gunfighters”), a
skull and crossbones, and the phrase “dealers of death.”
This
weekend on Moyers & Company, journalist Nick Turse joins
Bill to describe his unprecedented efforts to compile a complete and compelling
account of the Vietnam War’s horror as experienced by all sides,
including innocent civilians who were sucked into its violent vortex. Turse,
who devoted 12 years to tracking down the true story of Vietnam
”American culture has never
fully come to grips with Vietnam
(For more, see: Preview: Who’s Widening America’s Digital Divide? |
Moyers & Company | BillMoyers.com)
Troops in
the field regularly carved their unit’s initials or numbers into
corpses, adorned bodies with their unit’s patch, or left a “death card”—
generally either an ace of spades or a custom- printed business card claiming
credit for the kill. Company A, 1st Battalion, 6th Infantry of the 198th Light
Infantry Brigade, for example, left their victims with a customized ace of
spades sporting the unit’s formal designation, its nickname (“Gunfighters”), a
skull and crossbones, and the phrase “dealers of death.”
14
notes#death card#vietnam#vietnam war#war crimes#atrocity#kill anything
that moves#nick turse#civilian
suffering
Photo
courtesy of NARA
Buy the book:
Also available as an ebook:
Also available as an ebook:
Americans
in Vietnam never seemed to run out of ways to burn things down, whether it be
flame tanks, flame boats, napalm canisters dropped from planes, helicopters
armed with white phosphorus rockets, or simply ground troops with zippo
cigarette lighters. The means were seemingly endless.
1.
Moyers & Company | WETA
www.weta.org/tv/programsatoz/program/82075
Also: journalist Nick Turse ("Kill Anything That
Moves:
The Real American War in Vietnam
2.
Watch
Bill Moyers w/ Nick Turse on his book about new docs ...
inagist.com/all/300616684052553729/
@GregMitch Feb 10, 2013 14:46:17 GMT Follow
@GregMitch 2 retweets ... Moyers &Company | BillMoyers.com ... Civilians killed
systematically in The Vietnam War : NPR http://t.co/do3lbed6 10 days 3
hours ago ... 2013/01/28 ...
www.truthdig.com · @GregMitch : Nick Turse's "Kill Anything that
Moves"
should destroy ...
3.
Book
Club » BillMoyers.com - Moyers & Company
billmoyers.com/category/book-club/
February 8, 2013 ... by Nick Turse. Read the introduction
from Nick Turse's book, Kill Anything That
Moves:
The Real American .... Moyers & Company Books of 2012 ....In fact, those making $5
or $10 million probably don't
feel like they are ...
"How Did the Gates of Hell Open in Vietnam?"
By Jonathan Schell, TomDispatch.com, posted January 17
Review of Nick Turse's new book Anything That Moves
By Jonathan Schell, TomDispatch.com, posted January 17
Review of Nick Turse's new book Anything That Moves
THE PROTEST
In This Section
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WIN News
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WRL News
Home » Publications » WIN
Magazine » WIN Winter 2012 » The Catonsville
Nine
The
Catonsville Nine: A Story of Faith and Resistance in the Vietnam
Review:
“The Burning of Paper Instead of Children” By Rosalie Riegle, Win Magazine
The Catonsville Nine:
A Story of Faith and Resistance in theVietnam
Era
byShawn Francis
Peters
Oxford University
416pp, $34.95
Even as a kid, Shawn Peters was fascinated by the story of the Catonsville Nine, the first group of resisters to burn draft files during the Vietnam War. Growing up inCatonsville and schooled by
conservative nuns who denounced the group, he learned how they awaited arrest
for their action and used their trial to put the war itself on the stand. He
reveled in their audacity, their creativity, and their courage as they faced
trial, appeals, and imprisonment. Years and much detailed research later, he
has given us an intriguing story, replete with lessons for resisters of today.
What’s best about this book is the fact that it’s about all of the Nine, not just about the Berrigan brothers who received, and still receive, the lion’s share (cliché intended) of print and visual attention. For lions they were — big, craggy then-Father Phil, with his commanding personality and stalwart insistence that something could be done to make the war powers listen; Jesuit Father Dan, with his ebullient personality, poetic giftedness, and a charisma that continues to this day, even when he can no longer jump onto a stage or disappear into a puppet as he did when he was “on the lam” after sentencing for the draft board action. Phil Berrigan left the formal priesthood and went on to found Jonah House. There, with his wife Liz McAlister, he parented three children and the Plowshares antinuclear movement. Even in retirement, Fr. Dan still shepherds the peace movement. His play, The Trial of the Catonsville Nine, contains his line from the trial, “Our apologies, good friends, for the fracture of good order, the burning of paper instead of children.”
While these two are rightly remembered, Peters gives us clear pictures of each of the participants and successfully situates them in the political context of the times as he painstakingly details their lives and actions in the months surrounding the trial. We meet the gentle yet determined artist Tom Lewis, the unassuming John Hogan, and the mercurial Brother David Darst, tragically killed in a car accident before reporting for prison. Darst had publicly explained his rationale to WIN: “Something [had to] be done to stop the storm, to shake up this system of ours so that it has the chance to radically rearrange its values.”
TENACITY AND NEGLECT
We hear of the tenacity of George Mische as he recruited others to the movement. And how Tom and Marjorie Melville and John Hogan used the trial to publicizeU.S. imperialism
in Guatemala
Like the Melvilles and John Hogan, Moylan saw the imperialistic connections, in her case between the expensive war, the poor inUganda
Like Phil and Dan Berrigan, Moylan also decided not to submit to imprisonment. She had become increasingly involved as a feminist since returning and wanted to show the world that women could also take this additional risk. Further, she resolved to seek support only from women, in solidarity with other women activists, not necessarily nonviolent. In her decision, she distanced herself from the Catholic Church and from theCatonsville
group.
To avoid detection, she also dyed her beautiful red hair a murky black. Eluding a not-very-vigilant FBI, she lived hither and yon and sometimes awkwardly with her sisters in resistance. Finally in 1979, she turned herself in. After serving her time in Alderson Federal Prison, she went back to her nursing, but became increasingly reclusive and disturbed, finally dying in 1995, “‘poor, alone, and forgotten,’ according to Rosemary Reuther.” Her neglected story points out the sexism ofU.S.
The Catonsville Nine:A Story of Faith and Resistance in the
by
416pp, $34.95
Even as a kid, Shawn Peters was fascinated by the story of the Catonsville Nine, the first group of resisters to burn draft files during the Vietnam War. Growing up in
What’s best about this book is the fact that it’s about all of the Nine, not just about the Berrigan brothers who received, and still receive, the lion’s share (cliché intended) of print and visual attention. For lions they were — big, craggy then-Father Phil, with his commanding personality and stalwart insistence that something could be done to make the war powers listen; Jesuit Father Dan, with his ebullient personality, poetic giftedness, and a charisma that continues to this day, even when he can no longer jump onto a stage or disappear into a puppet as he did when he was “on the lam” after sentencing for the draft board action. Phil Berrigan left the formal priesthood and went on to found Jonah House. There, with his wife Liz McAlister, he parented three children and the Plowshares antinuclear movement. Even in retirement, Fr. Dan still shepherds the peace movement. His play, The Trial of the Catonsville Nine, contains his line from the trial, “Our apologies, good friends, for the fracture of good order, the burning of paper instead of children.”
While these two are rightly remembered, Peters gives us clear pictures of each of the participants and successfully situates them in the political context of the times as he painstakingly details their lives and actions in the months surrounding the trial. We meet the gentle yet determined artist Tom Lewis, the unassuming John Hogan, and the mercurial Brother David Darst, tragically killed in a car accident before reporting for prison. Darst had publicly explained his rationale to WIN: “Something [had to] be done to stop the storm, to shake up this system of ours so that it has the chance to radically rearrange its values.”
TENACITY AND NEGLECT
We hear of the tenacity of George Mische as he recruited others to the movement. And how Tom and Marjorie Melville and John Hogan used the trial to publicize
Like the Melvilles and John Hogan, Moylan saw the imperialistic connections, in her case between the expensive war, the poor in
Like Phil and Dan Berrigan, Moylan also decided not to submit to imprisonment. She had become increasingly involved as a feminist since returning and wanted to show the world that women could also take this additional risk. Further, she resolved to seek support only from women, in solidarity with other women activists, not necessarily nonviolent. In her decision, she distanced herself from the Catholic Church and from the
To avoid detection, she also dyed her beautiful red hair a murky black. Eluding a not-very-vigilant FBI, she lived hither and yon and sometimes awkwardly with her sisters in resistance. Finally in 1979, she turned herself in. After serving her time in Alderson Federal Prison, she went back to her nursing, but became increasingly reclusive and disturbed, finally dying in 1995, “‘poor, alone, and forgotten,’ according to Rosemary Reuther.” Her neglected story points out the sexism of
 |
|
Catonsville Nine at the police station,
minutes after the action - Jean Walsh photo |
What of the lessons for activists from the
Catonsville Nine and from this book in particular? What contrasts can we see
between resistance then and resistance now? First the commonalities: A committed,
skillful, and coordinated support community is just as important now as it was
when the Catonsville Nine Defense Committee was writing press releases and
Willa Bickham and Brendan Walsh of Viva House Catholic Worker were feeding
hundreds of supporters every evening. The support group existed hand-to-mouth
but was able to raise the money to publish several nationwide ads urging people
to “come to Agnew Country,” proving that checkbook activism works. Support
communities enthusiastically planned and attended rallies and vigils and trial-
related protests in Maryland
MUZZLED
These tactics still work in publicizing resistance trials, but defendants today are usually muzzled by judges forbidding defendants from using the prosecutor’s pre-trial list of forbidden terms—terms such as “first strike,” “Geneva Convention,” even the word “children.” In theCatonsville
trial, the defendants were relatively more free and were fairly successful in
discussing their motives and in putting the war itself on trial.
Thirdly, resistance breeds resistance. If people hear about it. People new to activism, with their cell phones and instant access to email and the internet may find it hard to understand how communicating only by phone and post worked. But it did. The late Sixties were a time when thousands of young people were on the move around the country, grouping and regrouping in amorphous configurations. The trial of the Catonsville Nine and the recruiting done by the group took advantage of this movement and served as an impetus to similar actions. It is estimated that upwards of 100 draft board raids followed on the Nine, culminating in the largeCamden
What is strikingly different about the Catonsville Nine and later resistance work is the lack of mainstream media attention. Civil disobedience today just doesn’t make news unless it’s violent. The media seems bored with trespass, petulant about property destruction, prosaic about prison terms. The rise of social media and alternative internet news sites means that news of resistance actions reaches mainly like-minded people, with correspondingly few avenues to increase their numbers. What non-violent actions can speak to the public asCatonsville did? I wish I knew.
Rosalie Riegle is an oral historian and retired professor of English. A resident ofEvanston , Illinois
MUZZLED
These tactics still work in publicizing resistance trials, but defendants today are usually muzzled by judges forbidding defendants from using the prosecutor’s pre-trial list of forbidden terms—terms such as “first strike,” “Geneva Convention,” even the word “children.” In the
Thirdly, resistance breeds resistance. If people hear about it. People new to activism, with their cell phones and instant access to email and the internet may find it hard to understand how communicating only by phone and post worked. But it did. The late Sixties were a time when thousands of young people were on the move around the country, grouping and regrouping in amorphous configurations. The trial of the Catonsville Nine and the recruiting done by the group took advantage of this movement and served as an impetus to similar actions. It is estimated that upwards of 100 draft board raids followed on the Nine, culminating in the large
What is strikingly different about the Catonsville Nine and later resistance work is the lack of mainstream media attention. Civil disobedience today just doesn’t make news unless it’s violent. The media seems bored with trespass, petulant about property destruction, prosaic about prison terms. The rise of social media and alternative internet news sites means that news of resistance actions reaches mainly like-minded people, with correspondingly few avenues to increase their numbers. What non-violent actions can speak to the public as
Rosalie Riegle is an oral historian and retired professor of English. A resident of
Contents of #1 July
24, 2011
Books
Jane Fonda, Peacemaker
Cluster Bombs, Special Section (small sample of sources)
Civilians Killed (small sample)
Casualties in Wars
Contents of #2
Chemical War Crimes:
Agent Orange Action Group
Nick Turse, War Crimes, Kill Everything that Moves
Tirman, Civilians Killed
Films
Returning Vets Spat Upon?
END VIETNAM
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