Vietnam-Era Study Comments On The Effects of Bombing Villages
I’m reading a study by the RAND corporation that was done during the Vietnam War, entitled “Viet Cong Motivation and Morale 1964.” I found the following to be particularly interesting, and perhaps relevant to the Bush administration’s current adventures in the Middle East.
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This isn’t the only part of the study that reads as somewhat foreboding given our massive PR nightmares in Iraq. America is great at giving local populations the perception that we are “in bed with the devil.” The report specifically talks about the South Vietnamese “local security forces” who roamed villages basically harassing the local women and badgering the men. I couldn’t help but think of recent article in the Washington Post talking about “local protection forces” being armed by the American military in Iraq. At any rate, Iraqi policemen are using US issued weapons to carry out vendetta killings, and the majority Shiite government has been accused of looking the other way while government security forces exterminate Sunni populations.
The Vietnam study can be downloaded in full from the RAND website.
Michael
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