If none you have ever talked to a veitnam vet find one. They did what they had to do just to make it home. NFL using babies to blow our vets up. So they killed a village big fucking deal. What do any of you expect when you see women and children alike being used to kill our troops. I have no quilt or pleasure of what happened there. Imagine having to live with yourself knowing you did that shit. Now you all can neg away

People are going to judge these soldiers because they have no clue what happened over there . My father is a Vietnam veteran . Until recently he never wanted to talk about what happened there but he told me that children had home made bombs in food cans like chili ,also in cigarrette boxes and selling them to American soldiers. Hands and arms sometime faces were blown off. Some of the soldiers had no choice. They never knew who was "friendly" or the Enemy.Anybody can copy and paste shit off of the Internet but nobody including myself will never understand what happened there. So judge simply on ignorance or lack of information is a simple route.

Shit happens, but the women and children didn't fuckin deserve that.

yeah, it is a shit thing, but everyone is always too quick to blame the soldiers & it is never their fault whatever anyone says. Rightly or wrongly, we put these people there & they have to literally fight for their lives & most of us have no clue what that feels like...then they get the crap when the governments get scrutinized... I think these atrocities are the fault of the system & until we change that, they will carry on & there will be a whole lot more of this kind of shit coming out from Afghanistan, North Africa, Syria, highlighting our governments involvement in this type of barbarism & we should defend the soldiers who allow us to type away in our warm houses, with our coca cola & our fluffy slippers, whilst fighting the system that creates it

I'll get you in a fucking hot wet hole crawling with asians and you will rot here until you find the pretended communists. I don't care you are racist, I don't care you hate the tropical jungle. I send you to war which is not yours but to protect my interests. Uncle Sam.

Yeah, with that, I wonder why they went crazy...

Most people think that My Lai was an exception, when in fact it was the rule. During the investigation it was discovered that there had been another massacre at My Khe - only a few miles away from My Lai. Considering this accidental "discovery" - and the clear instructions on American soldiers to kill as many "VC" as possible, there are likely many other undiscovered massacres.

Katsuichi Honda of Asahi Shimbun described an attack by a helicopter gunship:

"They seemed to fire whimsically and in passing even though they were not beig shot at from the ground nor could they identify the people as NLF. They did it impulsively for fun, using the farmers as targets as if in a hunting mood. They are hunting Asians. ... This whimsical firing would explain the reason why the surgical wards in every hospital in the towns of the Mekong Delta were full of wounded."

Nor should Operation Phoenix be forgotten - the CIA led assassination programme in which 40,000 "suspected" Communists were murdered from its inception in August 1968 to mid 1971. Although it is likely that the bounty system ($11,000 for a live VC ad 1/2 for a dead one) had something to do with the high number killed.

How all of this was to turn the Vietnamese people against the Communists I do not know. In all, however, the imperial mission (an extension of the failed French reconquest of "their" colony) cost the lives of some 2 1/2 to 3m Vietnamese (roughly 1.4m civilians - although this is hard to verify) and 56,000 Americans.

Truly though, the amount of ordnance thrown at the Vietnamese to prevent them from realising self-determination is staggering. Altogether under Johnson and Nixon 7m tonies of bombs had been dropped on Indochina (Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia), three times the amount dropped by the allies on ALL enemy countries during WW2 - and 83m litres of agent orange, which has a lasting legacy too of its own. You can go and see the results in Vietnamese orphanages for yourself.

And given that all of this happened because America didn't want the Communists to win the free and fair elections which had been scheduled for 1956. How anti-democratic is that?

gooks from the north strapped explosives to kids, and gave kids guns and promised them toys if they would shoot soldiers. all kinds of shit. couldn't trust anyone. not even kids. this is what can happen when you push soldiers too far psychologically. vietnam should be sanctioned and forced to pay for all PTSD therapy for those soldiers. next time let those fuckers defend themselves from the murderous north. since you are dragging out the family photo albums here, lets see some pics of the north and how they treated children (even their OWN) and how they treated prisoners.

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And America dare call countries that oppose them terrorists.

Americans are hated by a lot of countries all over the world. I wonder why?

It's no wonder shit like 9-11 happened. I'd be willing to bet that was not the first time that's happened. And probably not the last either

I dont care what people say, The US lost that war.

"War is brutal. War is hell. War, never changes."

I remember hearing from a vet that they were told to shoot anything that wasn't moving because it could be VCs and shoot anything that was moving because it could be VCs. He was a helicopter gunman

This is the unfortunate and horrific outcome of a less-than-sound Counter Insurgency strategy and a devious and total campaign of insurgency by the North Vietnamese practising a Moaist style of 'fish in water'/ 'hide in plain sight' insurgency.
By this I mean, the problems with this do not lie with one man or body. Initially, it of course lies at the feet of the troops on the ground who took the shots and from there traces itself back to those responsible for U.S Army strategy and structure during the Vietnam war era and to the government and on the other side, to those who took it upon themselves to blend in with civilians and those who intimidated them not to assist U.S and allied forces. For example, the U.S Army was not set up for a tropical counter insurgency, but to fight an armoured and airborne war from individual fire bases (possibly free form government control) in a massive nuclear wasteland war with the USSR over the charred remains of Europe. Other issues arise in that these may have not been soldiers who volunteered but drafted people unused to such instances. Whilst it is understandable the complete horrors and reality of warfare may have caused a desire for revenge or upset at native populations within them it cannot justify the shootings of innocents. One or two mistakes under the stress and duress of combat or its environment in understandable. The clearing of an entire village is not. (Not to say I know everything that occurred on that day so there for I must only speak in general terms enhanced by speculation). Since these troops represented the legitimate army on the ground (over insurgents) they have a responsibility, even at danger to themselves to not just open fire. Afghanistan could be over in weeks if that was how COIN operations were done, but believe it or not, the more people shot and hurt, the worse they tend to get. So it takes a lot of work to know who is the enemy and build the correct relations with the locals to know who is the enemy and who is not ( sometimes this is too difficult to achieve and even trying takes about a decade) This goes back to what I said that the blame follows a series of people and bodies with different actions attributed to different people. The shooting is something for the troops on the ground to deal with, the orders for the officers and higher ups (Intelligence etc.), the strategy for top brass, the draft for the politicians etc. and of course, the blame that lies with those on the other side who through a deliberate policy of trying to look like ordinary civilians just to ambush soldiers (and to make soldiers target civilians so they can sell the story to the world when it goes wrong) endanger the life of innocents. This is the harsh reality of counter insurgency the world over. It can be incredible frustration for troops, because unlike an actual war, where the enemy is clear and the objectives relatively simple, a counter insurgency is a political kind of war and if ( like the U.S in this period) you take an overtly military approach, if you have the wrong size, structure and strategy for forces and if you have a population, against you both in the conflict and at home, then your victory or chance of successfully completing your aims is going to hard and you will pull out once those votes start slipping away and you end up with a lot of resentful troops feeling stabbed in the back and an internationally embargoes nation. That is why enemies will do all they can as insurgents to get a reaction from a global community ( the judges) the local community ( their support and resource pool) and the communities at home ( the military and politicians support pool), because they want you to make the error and be pulled out (since they simply cannoy face overwhelming fire from the front, they must get you pulled out from behind).
With regards to why conflict happened, it was not to save or help anyone per say, it happened because the U.S changed from a disruptive insurgency into North Vietnam to prevent Communism capitalising on a peasant revolution against former colonial masters, to defending the spread of that communism into South Vietnam forming a giant link of communist sympathetic or governed nations all over South Asia each one falling prey to it (domino theory). The reason for mass bombing were that simply, the overall mission was faltering, the problem identified predominately was that troops would be reluctant to move from the helicopter landing zones, the fire support they needed had difficultly utilising the mobility the U.S are fantastic in and they were facing a hidden enemy, underground in dense foliage. The solution would be to cover a retreat and hinder an advance with bombing and forest clearing methods like Agent Orange and to remove the great cover the insurgents were afforded by the natural environment. (That, and that airpower is often seen the either the miracle solution or emergency back up for counter insurgency).

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Don't want fucked up shit to happen to people? Don't go to war. If, however, we as a nation decide to go to war, it should be made absolutely clear that soldiers from both sides will commit some fucked up acts for the duration of the conflict, and that no one has the right to judge them from the comfort of their couch.

Old news. Perps prosecuted and punished...what's topical about this?

One last note.Anyone that runs their mouth about a soldier and has never served should be kicked so hard that they wear their ass for a HAT!!!