Human rights violations and war crime atrocities committed by;
American forces in Vietnam 1954 to 1975 (Part 3)
Data and format compiled by Mike Smith
April 2007. Updated April 2008.
"Ears for Beers"
Meet the old war, same as the new war;
Vietnam to Iraq; America's Criminal Foreign Policies.
Patriotism is believing that your country is the
best
simply because you were born there.
April 3, 2006 -- One of the most powerful documentaries
ever made about war, “Winter Soldier” was released 34 years ago, but it has
rarely been seen in the USA. It is about to be released on DVD where it can
be discovered by new generations who don't know the ugly truth about the
nature of war. This is a documentary which should be required viewing for
anyone interested in joining the military, or voting for president. This
film hits you like an emotional steamroller. Whatever you thought you knew
about Vietnam, or war in general, or basic military training, forget it. If
you haven't fought on the front lines in a fierce brutal war like World War
II, Korea, Vietnam or the current Iraq war, this film will shatter your
illusions about war. If all you know about war is what you see in the
movies, this film will come as a shock.
Filmed during the Winter Soldier Investigation in Detroit, Mich., on January
31, February 1 and 2, 1971, “Winter Soldier” is a stark retelling of the
horrors that soldiers witnessed during the long, bloody Vietnam war.
Haunting black and white images of young men, most in their early 20s,
telling nightmarish stories of atrocities look sadly from the screen across
the long years, forcing us to admit that nothing has really changed. The
name Winter Soldier was taken from the writings of Thomas Paine about the
soldiers who endured the cold of Valley Forge during the Revolutionary War.
Paine made a distinction between these Winter Soldiers and the “summer
soldier and the sunshine patriot” who would shrink from their duty under
harsh circumstances.
The format of the Winter Soldier investigation was simply to allow soldiers
with combat experience to tell what they did and what they saw while
fighting in Vietnam. These statements were made before an audience made up
of the public and journalists. These statements were made on the record for
all the world to see, but it was largely ignored in this country. The film
not only records these statements, but other discussions among veterans.
Photographs, some taken by the participants themselves, illustrate some of
the points being made by the testimony. In all, more than 100 people gave
statements at the Winter Soldier investigation. What is striking about this
testimony is that many of those in the film talk about atrocities they
committed themselves, not just atrocities they saw other people commit.
One man said he had personally witnessed the massacre of 291 villagers,
including women and children, killed when U.S. forces opened fire on a
village. Several men said that it was standard operating procedure (SOP) to
set fire to Vietnamese houses. One soldier estimated that troops in his unit
burned down 50 percent of the villages they passed through, another
estimated the percentage of villages destroyed in this way at 90 percent.
Several soldiers also testified that it was SOP to list all civilians killed
by U.S. forces as enemy combatants, whether they actually were or not.
Vietnam was a war of body counts, but several soldiers testified the body
counts were a joke. High body counts were sometimes awarded with beer or
time off from active duty.
One soldier testified about an execution-style slaying of a female prisoner,
whose body was then gutted and skinned. One prisoner was tortured by being
disemboweled. Prisoners were thrown out of flying helicopters in order to
scare other prisoners into talking. Several men talked about removing the
ears from dead prisoners and sometimes cutting their heads off. Ears often
were taken as trophies to prove body counts. Some turned this into an “ears
for beers” game. Another soldier told of an instance where villagers were
shot while they were burying their dead. Little distinction was made between
civilians and enemy soldiers. Several soldiers said that they were taught to
regard all Vietnamese as “gooks.” As such, the natives were considered
inhuman as a matter of course. This made it easier for soldiers to kill
them.
One of the people giving testimony at the Winter Soldier investigation was
Scott Camil, formerly with the First Marine Division in Vietnam. The camera
spends more time on Camil's face than anyone else in the documentary. The
articulate Camil is one of the more interesting participants. Strongly
pro-war when he came to Detroit to participate in the Winter Soldier
investigation, he quickly changed his tune and came to testify about
atrocities he had seen and had participated in. In his opening statement, he
said, “My testimony involves burning of villages with civilians in them, the
cutting off of ears, cutting off of heads, torturing of prisoners, calling
in of artillery on villages for games, corpsmen killing wounded prisoners,
napalm dropped on villages, women being raped, women and children being
massacred ...”
Originally so pro-war he was ready to shoot anti-war protesters, Camil later
became an anti-war protester himself. After seeing some of his friends
killed in an early skirmish with the Viet Cong, Camil said he quickly
decided that he was going to adopt a shoot-first-and-ask-questions-later
policy in an attempt to stay alive. He took no chances when there was any
question if a Vietnamese was friendly or hostile. John Kerry, who ran for
the U.S. presidency during 2004, is also seen briefly in the film speaking
to one of the Winter Soldier participants.
There is a good package of extras on the DVD, including an image gallery of
pro and anti-war protests. There is also a modern day interview with the
original Winter Soldier filmmakers. There is also a fascinating feature
about Scott Camil called “Seasoned Veteran: Journey of a Winter Soldier,”
filmed in 2002. This mini-documentary details how he was shot by a DEA agent
and how he later continued his anti-war activities. These activities
included a run-in between Vietnam Veterans Against the War and police in
Gainesville, Florida during an anti-war protest. Camil said with some pride
that the police were having an easy time beating the stuffing out of college
students, but got more than they could handle when they ran up against the
battle-hardened Vietnam veterans. The DVD also includes the Winter Soldier
testimony of the Americal Division and the First Marine Division. Some of
this material in these two features was also used in the main feature and is
a bit redundant. Also included in the extras is a song by Graham Nash called
“Oh Camil (The Winter Soldier)” and downloadable DVD-ROM Acrobat files
called “The Winter Soldier Files.”
The DVD is in a full-screen format, converted from the original 16mm film
format. The film is mostly black and white interspersed with some color
stills. Some of the extras include color motion footage, some of which
appears to have been shot with video cameras. The rest is likely color film
footage from the 1970s. Sound on the film is two-channel. Some of the stills
are in black and white. There are German and French subtitles and English
closed-captions on the main film, but not on the extras. There is a blues
song on the soundtrack at the beginning and end of the film, as well as in
the DVD menu. The DVD will be released on May 30, 2006, but it can be
pre-ordered now from Amazon.com. This film rates an A.
Some of the stills on the DVD show pro-war protesters in the streets outside
the Winter Soldier investigation. The Winter Soldiers were on the inside,
the summer soldiers on the outside, in the cold Detroit winter. The two
halves of this national wound have never joined and it has never healed.
There are those, including many veterans who still believe that Vietnam was
a worthy cause and that the protesters, including the Vietnam Veterans
Against the War, sabotaged the U.S. military and caused the country to lose
the war. This, in turn, made the country's sacrifice pointless and the
murderous rampage in Vietnam totally unjustified. The other half of the
USA's wound are veterans who believe the war was always pointless and that
it was destroying Vietnam, along with the cream of America's youth. These
two halves fought once again in 2004, when John Kerry, a Winter Soldier,
fought George Bush, a summer soldier who did not fight in Vietnam, but
instead went AWOL to run for the Presidency. He never served his full time
in the National Guard. Due to his family's wealth & status he was never
punished.
This time, the summer soldiers won. Now the summer soldiers, who always
ignored the hard lessons of Vietnam, have stupidly stumbled into a war in
Iraq that is very similar to Vietnam. It is no surprise this latest war has
spawned a similar organization called Iraq Veterans Against the War. These
veterans, who are sometimes joined by the old Vietnam Veterans in their
anti-war marches, tell of Vietnam-like atrocities committed in Iraq. Once
again the government is scapegoating a few soldiers, just as Lieutenant
William Calley was a scapegoat in Vietnam. Meet the new war, same as the old
war.
Click here for the Winter Soldier film web page. Click here for the
transcript of the Winter Soldier investigation testimony from the
Congressional Record. Click here for links to places to buy or rent this
movie in video and/or DVD format, or to buy the soundtrack, posters, books,
even used videos, games, electronics and lots of other stuff. I suggest you
shop at least two of these places before buying anything. Prices seem to
vary continuously. For more information on this film, click on this link to
The Internet Movie Database. Type in the name of the movie in the search box
and press enter. You will be able to find background information on the
film, the actors, and links to much more information.
Copyright © 2006 Robert Roten. All rights reserved.
Reproduced from the copyright holder.
Kennedy
&
The
Click here for USA
- Vietnam War "CIA."
Part 4
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