US warcrimes in Vietnam-New info

[Andy H]

Read an article in the Daily Mail today whilst in Mac's, that a local US newspaper had uncovered rather gruesome evidence of atrocitys etc commited by "Tiger Force".

This Tiger Force was an elite 45 man team based from 101st Airborne personnel, who's prime mission was deep penertration & observation.

However though many noble deads were done by this unit through it's existence, it seems to have had a mad period when all sense of decency eluded it's members. During this period it commited Rape, Scalpings, Buggery of Children, and in one particular instance the beheading of an infant.

I forget the name of the US paper which ran this story (Since I had to leave the paper in Mac's), can anyone throw any light on this or better still the US paper that ran the story-I which it interviewed some Tiger members who admitted the crimes they commited, but the US Goverment decided to take no action.

Andy H

[Psycho Mike]

Here is the original series- not a U.S. media - The Toledo Blade:

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dl ... TIGERFORCE

more:

http://www.pittsburghfirst.com/pg/03297/233804.stm

Neither can the horrors of war explain away the systematic slaughter of unknown numbers of unarmed Vietnamese killed because there might be an enemy or two among them. Or cutting off the ears of dead Vietnamese villagers and wearing them as necklaces like some macabre badge of honor.

These and other terrifying atrocities tell the story of at least 18 members of Tiger Force, a 45-man platoon of American soldiers, whose war crimes are only now coming to light, 36 years later, in the four-part series "Buried Secrets, Brutal Truths" by The Blade of Toledo, Ohio, sister newspaper of the Post-Gazette.

Predictably, there are readers, including some veterans, who wonder what purpose is served by revisiting an unpopular war that ended three decades ago. America, after all, has moved past Vietnam. Shouldn't all this have been dealt with back then, they may ask.

Yes, it most definitely should have.

But as The Blade's extensive eight-month investigation reveals, not only did the U.S. Army never prosecute any members of Tiger Force for war crimes, it kept the atrocities from the American public.

http://www.pittsburghfirst.com/pg/03297/233804.stm
more:

http://www.azstarnet.com/star/mon/31020 ... Force.html
EXCERPT:

A review of thousands of classified Army documents, National Archive records, and radio logs reveals a fighting unit that carried out the longest series of atrocities in the Vietnam War and commanders who looked the other way:

* The platoon, a small, highly trained unit of 45 paratroopers created to spy on enemy forces, violently lost control between May and November 1967.

* For seven months, Tiger Force soldiers moved across the central highlands, killing scores of unarmed civilians - in some cases torturing and mutilating them - in a spate of violence never revealed to the American public.

* They dropped grenades into underground bunkers where women and children were hiding and shot unarmed civilians, in some cases as they begged for their lives.

* They frequently tortured and shot prisoners, severing ears and scalps for souvenirs.

For 4 1/2 years beginning in 1971, the Army investigated the platoon, finding numerous eyewitnesses and substantiating war crimes. But in the end, no one was prosecuted, and the case was buried in the archives for three decades.

To this day, no one knows how many

[SerbTiger]

This sound like somebody has been watching too much "Platoon" one night and decided to write a story.


[Note: I am not saying that the events did or did not happen just making an observation to how similar some of the events depicted are to Platoon]

[Psycho Mike]

Oh the story is true alright.

For me the story started in 1966, when a member of that elite group came to visit my dad, show him slides, and try to talk him into going.

He said it was ok if the kids watched to.

He must have been out of his mind. After the third slide my mom cut on the lights, forbade him to go any further and made it clear to my dad he wasn't going. I remembered the name. Tiger Force, knew nothing of the true stroy, other than the three slides. So I have a show coming out on Viet Nam and Tiger Force was to be one of the characters. Now that I know more of the story, I think I understand better than I did as a child. When North Viet Nam released pictures of Tiger Force partying no one believed it was true. I knew better. I think I thought the whole war was being fought that way, I know better about that too.

[Lobscouse]

Quote [ The platoon, a small, highly trained unit of 45 paratroopers, created to spy on enemy forces.] Unquote.

So they were highly trained. To be silent? To be invisible, perhaps?

This does not sound to me like a good way to spy on any enemy. Were they spying on Viet Cong? On Viet Minh regulars? The Special Forces A Teams would have been more succesful, but 45 men crashing around the Central Highlands must have drawn a lot of attention to themselves.

We once had a former 101st veteran of the Vietnam War posting on this forum, by the nickname of Galahad. If you are out there, looking in, good Sir knight, then please give us your slant on this story.

[Andy H]

Thanks Psycho Mike for the response and links.

Andy H