My Lai = Phoenix Program

[Jan Klimkowski]

Keith - I have never had the privilege of meeting you. However, I have a strong sense of you as a man from your posts here, and I have great respect for you.

I also have genuine respect for soldiers who overcome their demons and fight with honour and valour.

I once made a film with some British Falklands War veterans. One of the men I interviewed, a young paratroop regiment soldier during the war itself, had killed an Argentine commando with a bayonet, at night, with strobe flares exploding. He still remembered the life and death tussle with his combatant - "the smell of his breath, the look in his eyes".

The momentary relief when the fight was over, his opponent dead. And then the struggle for survival continued.

This British soldier was severely injured a few hours later, losing one of his legs in a mortar attack, as dawn broke on the morning of the Argentine surrender. He was left for dead by paramedics trying to save other wounded. But survived.

More than a decade later, this British veteran returned to the Falklands, and walked - painfully - up the mountain of death and mutilation with Argentine veterans. Their's was a soldier's bond.

On to My Lai.

Keith - I agree that the men in the documentary clips are "broken". By what they have done. However, the orders they acted under are clear and undisputed.

Paul David Meadlo recalled the briefing his company received from Captain Medina the afternoon before the assault. Medina told the men, Meadlo testified, that all the My Lai villagers were "Viet Cong or Viet Cong sympathizers, and we were supposed to kill everything there �women, children, livestock." Three defense witnesses corroborated that.

Staff Sergeant Dennis R. Vasquez, who was a witness at both trials last week, gave some of the most damaging testimony against the officers so far. Vasquez was an artillery air observer flying in Lieut. Colonel Barker's helicopter that morning. He reported landing inside the village, where Barker and Medina conferred. According to Vasquez, Barker told Medina that "everything was going fine, going smooth, going to plan." The day before, Vasquez recalled, there had been a meeting of officers in which Colonel Henderson urged his brigade officers to "go in there aggressively, close with the enemy and wipe them out for good."

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/articl...43,00.html

Where did such orders come from?

My judgement is that Douglas Valentine and Robert Parry in the articles above make a very good case that the Phoenix Program was not limited to special forces operations, and that those running the operation would utilize other resources.

Phoenix was about Terrorizing the Enemy. Demonstrating to the Enemy that there were no rules, that the families of suspected VC could be assassinated, not just VC fighters and organizers.

Phoenix contained many deep black shrinks and psyops experts, people able to identify officers such as Calley who could be given extreme orders and - because in part of the psychological state they were in - carry them out.

The truth about My Lai would probably never have become known were another soldier from Charlie Company, Rod Ridenhour, not to have written to most of Congress. My Lai was initially hailed as a successful operation:

The first reports claimed that "128 Viet Cong and 22 civilians" were killed in the village during a "fierce fire fight". General William C. Westmoreland, MACV commander, congratulated the unit on the "outstanding job". As related at the time by the Army's Stars and Stripes magazine, "U.S. infantrymen had killed 128 Communists in a bloody day-long battle."

Initial investigations of the My Lai operation were undertaken by the 11th Light Infantry Brigade's commanding officer, Colonel Henderson, under orders from the Americal Division's executive officer, Brigadier General George H. Young. Henderson interviewed several soldiers involved in the incident, then issued a written report in late April claiming that some 20 civilians were inadvertently killed during the operation. The army at this time was still describing the events at My Lai as a military victory that had resulted in the deaths of 128 enemy combatants.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Lai

And then there's Colin Powell's role in the cover-up, as detailed by Parry above.

The Phoenix MO was Terror. To demonstrate to the Enemy, through actions, that their families, their women and children were not off limits, and would be killed if the Enemy continued to fight.

The men of Charlie Company, and many of their officers, were in the right psychological state to be given and to obey Phoenix orders. Once again:

Meadlo testified, that all the My Lai villagers were "Viet Cong or Viet Cong sympathizers, and we were supposed to kill everything there �women, children, livestock." Three defense witnesses corroborated that.

Keith - I may be wrong. And you may be correct.

However, the argument articulated in this post is not a slur on soldiers who fought bravely and with honour. It is attempt to place My Lai in a context other than that of "a few rotten eggs". For me, that context is the Phoenix Program.

All the men in the documentary clips were "broken". Broken by what they had done under orders. Even Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson looked broken by what he had seen, and what he had felt compelled to do.

And yet Hugh Thompson behaved with great courage and moral clarity during My Lai. For an American soldier to order his men to turn their weapons on fellow American troops is unimaginable. To see that clearly in the heat of combat is extraordinary. To act so clearly and correctly in an arena where obedience to orders is mandatory is almost beyond belief.

Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson should be revered in military textbooks and manuals. Of course, he isn't.

Keith - written with great respect.
Jan