Process Paper: Brutality in Vietnam
There were so many different aspects of the Vietnam war that I could’ve arranged a poster for but none really suited me till’ a partner in my group decided to do it on the “Inadequate training of American troops causing brutality in Vietnam.” It was a topic I really didn’t know much about so it quickly grabbed my attention. I knew there was a lot of brutality as seen in the video during class, but I really didn’t come to understand the cause and the effects it had. It disturbed me to think that so many people died and were injured due to something such as the inadequacy in the training of our troops. I agreed to do this project to educate myself in this matter and also be able to educate others.
There were no primary sources that I could look up that had anything to do with inadequate training of American troops. I did however; find many things on American Troop brutality in the Vietnam War. For seven months in the time period the war, a unit known as the “tiger force” committed a series of brutal war crimes. I found a lot of information about this on the internet. Another account of brutality due to inadequate training was the My Lai Massacre. There were many web sites on this subject also.
Everyone in my group agreed that I would draw the poster. We wanted the poster to clearly show what we researched. With that in mind, I drew an American Soldier whose face showed his anger, aggression and agitation. Behind him is the aftermath of his wrath. His brutality resulted in the horrific scene of murdered unarmed men, women, and children lying in pools of their blood. The poster is to show the degree and intensity of the situation. I wanted the poster to look realistic, to accomplish this I used a “comic book” drawing style.
In relations to the theme, the scene that the poster depicts is a direct result of inadequate training. Brutality and Death is the out come of the atrocities these American troops were encouraged to commit. This poster vividly portrays this statement. It captures the essence of the theme.
Research
- Inadequate training of the American troops resulted in brutality in Vietnam. This includes the killing of noncombatants, women, and children. Women were raped, bodies mutilated, and as many as hundred unarmed citizens were killed. The most horrifying event that I found which portrayed acts of brutality and wrongful conduct of an American troop is known as the My Lai Massacre. It was here that many villagers were rounded up into a ditch and were shot by a machine gun. More examples of brutal methods used in Vietnam include pouring water into a prisoner’s throat till he/she drowned. Men had gotten their nipples, genitals, and other body parts shocked with hand cranked telephone wires. The American combat leaders would tell their soldiers “if it is Vietnamese and it is dead, then it is VC” and “shoot anything that moves”. Doctrines of Atrocities like these directly resulted in the killings of many noncombatants. Though these Atrocities were illegal in the laws of war these tactics were strongly encouraged and often went unpunished. These doctrines surely prove to be inadequate and highly unethical. The cause was said to be of agitations that the troops faced with their circumstances and the deaths of their fellow soldiers. The effects were brutal.
Annotated Bibliography
http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0419,turse,53383,1.html
Nicholas Turse, the author of this internet article is a doctoral candidate at the Center for the History and Ethics of Public Health at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and a regular contributor to the Nation Institute's. This article was very important to my paper because it gave me the most information of all sources and it specified the different methods of brutality used in Vietnam.
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2000/121700b.html
I found this source very useful in that it gave me someone’s account during the My Lai massacre and American’s brutal tactics.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/vietnam/trenches/my_lai.html
This article, I found to be very important to my research because it was mainly about the My Lai massacre. I’d come to know what happened to the officials involved in the series of war crimes.
http://free.freespeech.org/americanstateterrorism/vietnamgenocide/Mylai.html
I had found this article most important to my research because it gave me an inside look on the strong opinion of other individuals.
Inadequate Training of American Troops causes Brutality in Vietnam
By Mario Chheng
April 28, 2005
Period 3 | 
