The sergeant, who didn’t speak Vietnamese, had arrived in the village, stood up in a jeep and said through a bullhorn: ‘Come on out everybody, we got rice and candy and toothbrushes to give you! ...’
There was silence.
‘Now listen, either you gooks come on out, or we’re going to come right in there and get you!’
The people of Tuylon finally came out, and stood in line to receive packets of Uncle Ben’s Miracle Rice, Hershey bars, party balloons and several thousand toothbrushes. Three portable, battery-operated, yellow flush lavatories were held back for the arrival of the colonel.
And when the colonel arrived that evening, the district chief was summoned, and the yellow flush lavatories were unveiled. The colonel cleared his throat and produced a hand-written speech.
‘Mr District Chief and all you nice people,’ he said, ‘what these gifts represent is more than the sum of their parts. They carry the spirit of America. Ladies and gentlemen, there’s no place on earth like America. It’s the land where miracles happen. It’s a guiding light for me, and for you. In America, you see, we count ourselves as real lucky having the greatest democracy the world has ever known, and we want you nice people to share in our good fortune.’
Of course, the villagers had no idea what the colonel was talking about. When the Marines clapped, they clapped. When the colonel waved, the children waved. As he departed, the colonel shook the sergeant’s hand and said : ‘You’ve got plenty of hearts and minds here. Carry on, Sergeant.’
‘Yessir.’
In Vietnam, I witnessed many spectacles like that. John Pilger, address Socialism, Chicago, 2009, ‘Power, Illusion & America’s Last Taboo’; viz also website
And as I ponder the madness of Vietnam and search within myself for ways to understand and respond in compassion, my mind goes constantly to the people of that peninsula. I speak not now of the soldiers of each side, not of military government in Saigon, but simply of the people who have been under the curse of war for almost three continuous decades now. I think of them too because it is clear to me that there will be no meaningful solution until some attempt is made to know these people and hear their broken cries. Now let me tell you the truth about it. They must see Americans as strange liberators. Martin Luther King, 'Beyond Vietnam' 4th April 1967
Oh the government and the press generally won’t tell us these things. But God told me to tell you this morning. The truth must be told. The only change came from America as we increased our troop commitments in support of governments which were singularly corrupt and acting without popular support. And all the while the people read our leaflets and received regular promises of peace and democracy and land reform. Now they languish under our bombs, and consider us not their fellow Vietnamese, the real enemy. They move sadly and apathetically as we herd them off the land of their fathers into concentration camps where meat or social needs are rarely met. They know they must move or be destroyed by our bombs. So they go primarily – women and children and the aged. They watch as we poison their water. As we kill a million acres of their crops. They must weep as the bulldozers roar through their areas preparing to destroy the precious trees. They wander into the towns and see thousands of the children homeless, without clothes, running in packs on the streets like animals. They see their children degraded by our soldiers as they beg for food. They see their selling their sisters to the soldiers. Soliciting for their mothers. We have destroyed their two most precious institutions – the family and the village. We have destroyed their land and their crops. We have cooperated in the crushing of the nation’s only non-revolutionary political force – the United Buddhist Church. This is a role our nation has taken. The role of those who make peaceful revolutions impossible by refusing to give up the privileges and the pleasure that comes from the immense profits of oversees investment. ibid.
We are submitting them to in Vietnam is not simply the brutalizing process that goes on in any war where armies face each other and seek to destroy. We are adding cynicism to the process of death, for they must know after a short period there that none of the things we claim to be fighting for are really involved. Before long they must know that their government has sent them into a struggle among Vietnamese, and the more sophisticated surely realize that we are on the side of the wealthy, and the secure, while we create a hell for the poor. Surely this madness must cease. We must stop now. ibid.
The world now demands the maturity of America that we may not be able to achieve. It demands that we admit and we have been wrong from the beginning of our adventures in Vietnam that we have been detrimental to the lives of the Vietnamese people. The situation is one in which we must be ready to turn softly from our present ways. The New Testament says, Repent. It is time for America to repent now. For the Kingdom of God is at hand. ibid.
As we counsel young men about military service we must clarify to them their nation’s role in Vietnam. And challenge them with the alternative of conscientious objections. And I say this morning that it is my hope that every young man in this country who finds this war objectionable, abominable and unjust will file as a conscientious objector. ibid.
A true revolution of values will lay hand on the world order and say of war, ‘This way of settling differences is not just’. This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation’s homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death. ibid.
And don’t let anybody make you think that God chose America as his divine messianic force to be some policeman of the whole world. God has a way of standing before the nations with judgment, and it seems as if I can hear God saying to America, You’re too arrogant. If you don’t change your ways, I will rise up and break the backbone of your power. And I’ll place it into the hands of a nation that don’t even know my name. Martin Luther King
It is a tragic mix-up when the United States spends $500,000 for every enemy soldier killed, and only $53 annually on the victims of poverty. Martin Luther King
The greatest purveyor of violence in the world today – my own government. Martin Luther King, cited King in the Wilderness, Sky Atlantic 2018
We do have common problems and common concerns. And above all, as Muhammad Ali has just said, we are all victims of the same system of oppression. And even though we may have different religious beliefs, this does not at all bring about a difference in terms of our concerns. Martin Luther King
I don’t think there’s any doubt that JFK was pulling out of Vietnam when he was killed. And I think because the most fundamental tenet of his policy was no combat troops – and we know Johnson put in combat troops – I feel it’s safe to say the assassination led directly to the escalation of the war. John M Newman, author JFK & Vietnam
Renewed hostile actions against United States’ ships on the high seas in the Gulf of Tonkin have today required me to order the military forces of the United States to take action in reply. Lyndon Baines Johnson
We are not about to send American boys nine or ten thousand miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves. Lyndon Baines Johnson, speech 21st October 1964
There will be some nervous nellies. And some who will become frustrated and bothered and break ranks under the strain. And some who turn on the leaders and on their country and on our own fighting men. Lyndon Baines Johnson
Vietnam: We are making progress. We are pleased with the results we are getting. Lyndon Baines Johnson
Now America wins the wars she undertakes. Make no mistake about it. And we have declared war on tyranny and aggression. If this little nation goes down the drain and can’t maintain her independence ask yourself what’s going to happen to all the other little nations. Lyndon Baines Johnson
Covert militaries against North Vietnam ... and bombing border villages. Oliver Stone’s Untold History of the United States VII: Johnson, Nixon and Vietnam: Reversal of Fortune, Showtime 2012
It would take years for the American people to discover the false origins of the Vietnam War. In August of 1964 Johnson and McNamara used a fabricated incident in North Vietnam’s Bay of Tonkin. ibid.
Following the election Johnson began a steady process of escalation ... Napalm, cluster bombs and white phosphorus which burns from the skin straight through to the bone. ibid.
No appreciation of the suffering of the Vietnamese. ibid.
1963: US backs assassination of South Vietnamese President Diem. Michael Moore, Bowling for Columbine, 2002
How steep the price in every war. It is the risk of death which sets apart the world of these men, who are our soldiers. Vietnam news report
As American involvement in Vietnam grew, reporters and camera crews were sent into the field to produce the stories and images that television needed every day. Mark Daniels, Enemy Image, 2005
Citizen soldiers replace generals as the face of war. ibid.
And for journalists travelling with the troops, soldiers became characters, and the daily trials of war became a drama. ibid.
If the reporter’s obligation is to bring us all the truths of war, the first truth is tearing of flesh. ibid.
Johnson orchestrated his own media campaign of patriotism and optimism on the nation’s television screens. His message – victory is in sight. ibid.
In all 7,500,000 tons of bombs fell on Vietnam, three times the total bomb tonnage that had fallen in World War II. ibid.
I feel that the policy of the administration of the United States is indefensible. Robert Vaughn, interview BBC
They’ve got to draw in their horns and stop their aggression, or we’re going to bomb them back into the Stone Age. Curtis E LeMay, US Air Force
Television brought the brutality of war into the comfort of the living room. Vietnam was lost in the living rooms of America – not the battlefields of Vietnam. Marshall McLuhan, cited Montreal Gazette 16th May 1975
To win in Vietnam, we will have to exterminate a nation. Benjamin Spock