i'm reading this book now Tiger Force.
Quite shocking stuff. I wonder why the military never filed charges.
In December 2002, Michael Sallah, a reporter at the Toledo Blade newspaper, obtained unreleased, confidential records of U.S. Army commander Henry Tufts. One file in these records referred to a previously unpublished war crimes investigation known as the Coy Allegation. To investigate this further, Sallah obtained access to a large collection of documents produced by the investigation held at the National Archives in College Park, MD.[6]
Sallah and fellow Toledo Blade reporter Mitch Weiss found that between 1971 and 1975 the Army's Criminal Investigation Command had investigated the Tiger Force unit for alleged war crimes committed between May and November 1967.[7] The documents included sworn statements from many Tiger Force veterans, which detailed war crimes allegedly committed by Tiger Force members during the Song Ve Valley and Operation Wheeler military campaigns. The statements, from both individuals who allegedly participated in the war crimes and those that did not, described war crimes such as the following:
* the routine torture and execution of prisoners[8]
* the routine practice of intentionally killing unarmed Vietnamese villagers including men, women, children, and elderly people[9]
* the routine practice of cutting off and collecting the ears of victims[10]
* the practice of wearing necklaces composed of human ears[11]
* the practice of cutting off and collecting the scalps of victims[12]
* an incident where a young mother was drugged, raped, and then executed[13]
* an incident where a soldier killed a baby and cut off his or her head after the baby's mother was killed[14]
The investigators concluded that many of the war crimes indeed took place.[15] Despite this, the Army decided not to pursue any prosecutions.[16]
Quite shocking stuff. I wonder why the military never filed charges.
In December 2002, Michael Sallah, a reporter at the Toledo Blade newspaper, obtained unreleased, confidential records of U.S. Army commander Henry Tufts. One file in these records referred to a previously unpublished war crimes investigation known as the Coy Allegation. To investigate this further, Sallah obtained access to a large collection of documents produced by the investigation held at the National Archives in College Park, MD.[6]
Sallah and fellow Toledo Blade reporter Mitch Weiss found that between 1971 and 1975 the Army's Criminal Investigation Command had investigated the Tiger Force unit for alleged war crimes committed between May and November 1967.[7] The documents included sworn statements from many Tiger Force veterans, which detailed war crimes allegedly committed by Tiger Force members during the Song Ve Valley and Operation Wheeler military campaigns. The statements, from both individuals who allegedly participated in the war crimes and those that did not, described war crimes such as the following:
* the routine torture and execution of prisoners[8]
* the routine practice of intentionally killing unarmed Vietnamese villagers including men, women, children, and elderly people[9]
* the routine practice of cutting off and collecting the ears of victims[10]
* the practice of wearing necklaces composed of human ears[11]
* the practice of cutting off and collecting the scalps of victims[12]
* an incident where a young mother was drugged, raped, and then executed[13]
* an incident where a soldier killed a baby and cut off his or her head after the baby's mother was killed[14]
The investigators concluded that many of the war crimes indeed took place.[15] Despite this, the Army decided not to pursue any prosecutions.[16]