This operation was a horrendous, blunt effort to crush Viet Cong support where it was plausible in central Vietnam. Such operations were a common occurrence. The American military used inexact violence as is frequently the case in such military operations. Their behaviour must be in some part the product of the mission outlined as a) a ‘search and destroy’, b) the personal insecurity and psychological duress of military forces, and c) an anticipated lack of recrimination during such military operations. Under the cover of war, civilians are often the victims of the human pathology for unrestricted violence. The power relations are must have been so unbalanced that individuals in that environment changed their behaviour: The soldiers behaved according to the roles/functions they were entrusted with. What is remains shocking is that Western forces behaved in this manner where the virtues of inalienable rights for Vietnamese did not apply. Such notions of justice are ignored for the means-objectives of war. a) Deference to authority, b) insecurity, and c) zero culpability appear to be the causes. There are other incidents where predominantly defenseless civilians are victimized: Iraq War civilian victims…Somalia Operation 1993…
