Justifying the VN War
fe...@mscd.edu
rmcg...@igc.org wrote:
>
> Justifying the Vietnam War
>
> In an earlier message one poster (in alt.war.vietnam) rued that
> the Phoenix Program did not start earlier. Trying to change anyone's
> mind now about the Vietnam War is a Sisyphean-like labor but a couple
> of items might be worth mentioning -- with effect or not.
>
> From the below we see that the Phoenix program administrator
> credited the program with up to 35,000 assassinations:
>
> The Phoenix Program and the PRU's.
>
> Vietnam, 65-75 The (CIAs) PRU's concentrated most of their efforts on
> eradicating Viet Cong cadres in the rural areas. PRU's consistently killed
> more communists than they captured. PRU national director, William Redel
> said at the end of 68 that the PRU's have been responsible "for
> approximately seven thousand Vietcong killed per year for the past four
> or five years." The author estimates that the PRU's captured or killed
> 700 to 1,500 communists during most months from 67 to 72. phoenix.
> M. Moyar. (1997). Phoenix and the Birds of Prey 170-3, 206
>
> Other information below shows the total number of people killed
> during the war. A war that was portrayed to us in different time
> frames variously as a war against Soviet Communism, Chinese hegemony,
> fighting the International Communist Conspiracy, a civil war, etc.
>
> I wonder what degree of casualties are acceptable to the war
> backers -- is there any limit? Why were we fighting in Vietnam?
> Did we achieve that (those) goals?
>
> Ralph McGehee
> http://come.to/CIABASE
In defense of the Empire = nothing is too much or extreme! However as to the
Phoenix Program starting sooner = I wonder. As I have stated before, Roger
Paget claims he use to Work for the International Voluntary Services in
Vietnam. He claims one of his duties was to chop of the heads of targeted
people and to blame it on the communists! If so, the Phoenix program did
start much earilier. Interestingly enough Don Luce was with the IVS and
Paget claimed to have known him well. I talked to Don Luce on this and he
claims he knows nothing of Roger Paget. Of course, I tried the wrong
approach and told him what Paget had said before I asked him about Paget = so
who knows. Wrote to Frances Fitzgerald on the subject, but I don't think she
was an expert in this area. She is more on the subject that the US used
their Military Power in a random brutal way and killed a lot of innocent
people, than as to what dirty deeds the US may have carried out. Course I
did ask a lot of people who knew Paget at the School and they said he was
believeable = And we all know where that has gotten us recently!
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