Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam

Vietnam © Tran Bao Hoa

I first learned of this book when I heard an interview with its author tonight on NPR while driving home from work. I was both deeply disturbed and deeply grateful for Nick Turse, its incredibly courageous author. In the past, I have stood in witness to the shared horrors of American veterans at Winter Soldier events - hearing the stories of men and women who served in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan - which I could barely make it through, just to witness,  because it was so horrific, so excrutiating... to simply just listen to what had happened. But I needed to be there, I needed to bear witness, to support these veterans, to absorb the truth of war and what human beings are capable of doing to one another when pushed to the edge. What comes from embracing such unbearable and tragic and preventable suffering is that it becomes so clear that there is another way. We can learn new stories to believe and tell one another and live by. Stories that are rooted in true peace and caring, healing and transformation, truth and wisdom. Another world is possible. Humankind can evolve to be both humane and kind. It is my belief that an undeniably necessary part of learning to travel a very different human path on this beautiful Earth is to first clearly embrace where we have been and where we are now. Open to seeing without illusions and lies and glorifications what is in truth the profound and unnecessary suffering that war brings. Only then may we learn to never again call war peace. Namaste... Molly

Two resources:

'Anything That Moves': Civilians And The Vietnam War

The U.S. government has maintained that atrocities like this were isolated incidents in the conflict. Nick Turse says otherwise. In his new book, Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam, Turse argues that the intentional killing of civilians was quite common in a war that claimed 2 million civilian lives, with 5.3 million civilians wounded and 11 million refugees. (More: http://www.npr.org/2013/01/28/169076259/anything-that-moves-civilians-and-the-vietnam-war.)

  

‘Kill Anything that Moves: The Real American War 

in Vietnam’ By Nick Turse

With his urgent but highly readable style, Turse takes us through this landscape of failed policies, government mendacity and Vietnamese anguish, a familiar topography for those steeped in the many histories — the best ones by journalists — of this 1964-75 debacle. But Turse is up to something different and even more provocative: He delves into the secret history of U.S.-led atrocities. He has brought to his book an impressive trove of new research — archives explored and eyewitnesses interviewed in the United States and Vietnam. With superb narrative skill, he spotlights a troubling question: Why, with all the evidence collected by the military at the time of the war, were atrocities not prosecuted? (More: http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-01-25/opinions/36546552_1_war-crimes-vietnam-war-atrocities.)

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"One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, 

but by making the darkness conscious." - Carl Jung