Dehumanizing Vietnamese

“The drill instructors never called the Vietnamese, ‘Vietnamese.’ They called them dinks, gooks, slopes, slants. rice-eaters, everything that would take away their humanity…. That they were less than human was clearly the message.”

-Army veteran Wayne Smith

Dehumanization in action: The Mere Gook Rule

The “Mere Gook Rule”, known in the military as the “MGR” “ ..held that all Vietnamese – northern and southern, adults and children, armed enemy and innocent civilian – were little more than animals, who could be killed or abused at will”.

– Nick Turse

The MGR meant that any Vietnamese could be a target and when killed, could be included in the body count:

“I talked to battalion, and as far as they’re concerned, if he’s dead and Vietnamese, he’s a VC”.

– a Marine officer to enlisted soldier Philip Caputo

“when we would pass through villages where [the Americans] had been, we would find only bodies–in the trees, on the ground, and women with cloth stuffed in their mouths. The people were gone, only wounded and the dead. You see, when the Americans came through they killed everyone, even children, because they thought they were Viet Cong.”

– Mrs. Huynh Phuong Anh

“So a few women and children get killed… Teach ’em a damned good lesson. They are all VC or at least helping them… You can’t convert them, only kill them.

– U.S. officer in Vietnam

Sources:
– Martha Hess, And Then the Americans Came: Voices from Vietnam
– Nick Turse, Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam