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U.S. Policy
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“This is the Mighty B-52”
“Now you have experienced the terrible rain of death and destruction its bombs have caused. These planes come swiftly, strongly speaking as the voice of the government of Vietnam proclaiming its determination to eliminate the VC threat to peace. Your area will be struck again and again, but you will not know when or where. The planes fly too high to be heard or seen. They will rain death upon you again without warning. Leave this place to save your lives. Use this leaflet or the GVN National Safe Conduct pass and rally to the nearest government outpost. The Republic of Vietnam soldiers and the people will happily welcome you”
Harassment & Interdiction Fire
Unlike in a Free Fire Zone, where the military was identifying and firing on targets, harassment and interdiction fire — called H&I — mandated that artillery be fired at regular intervals into the countryside without any specific target specified, solely to randomly harass and interrupt any ‘enemy’ activity that might be going on.. Two U.S. State Department officials complained to a CBS news correspondent that H&I fire was ‘inhuman’ and ‘criminal’ and that it was ‘killing and injuring Vietnamese who had nothing to do with the war other than being caught in it.’ They pointed out that ‘most shelling took place at night and it made the peasants crazy with fear.’”
– quoted in Nick Turse, Kill Anything that Moves
“The American way of war also inflicted a huge toll on village life in South Vietnam. To limit its own casualties and cope with unfamiliar and often inhospitable terrain, the United States unleashed extraordinary firepower on the country it was trying to save. Areas of suspected enemy strength were bombed and shelled and burned with napalm, often with little consideration of its impact on civilians. Defoliants were used to deny the enemy food and cover, with horrific short- and long-term consequences for Vietnamese.”
-George C. Herring, emeritus professor of history at the University of Kentucky
Sources:
– George C. Herring, How Not to “Win Hearts and Minds,” New York Times
– Nick Turse, Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam
– psywarrior.com