Speaking of ‘digging’, some of these Vampires Against War have been around so long I’d be surprised if they even see themselves in the mirror any more!If you go be sure to take some garlic...
A lot of the Winter Soldier testimony is made up, you know. I think a lot of vets were sick of the war. They received no acclaim for serving, but suddenly got stature from both being "disturbed and traumatized" by the war. Suddenly they got their 15 minutes of fame by laying bare their souls about war crimes.
I have frequently heard people claiming to be Marine Vets talk about the awful times they had in "the Nam". They usually claim to be Marines, and go at length about the atrocities they were engaged in. I usually ask them what unit they served in, and they will make up some number that is not in the Marine Corps. They won't know what bases they operated out of. So only believe about 1% of what you hear.
A typical example of an individual who is slinging BS big time is this guy Bangert from the Winter Soldier Investigation. Here's a summary of what he told the Winter Soldier "Investigation":
Joe Bangert enlists in 1968, and serves in VMO-6, an aviation unit that flies very small observation planes. Banger does not state his MOS (Military Occupational Specialty), but almost all the enlisted men in these units were maintenance types - fix airplanes, attach bombs, fix radios, etc. They usually did not fly, and they saw very little combat.
Bangert says he sees a truck load of Marines murder a bunch of children on his first day with two officers present. Then he sees bodies "crucified" on perimeter wire, apparently cut up with knives and hung on the wire. Then he has a friend who is CIA who takes him somewhere, murders a woman with twenty shots, then cuts open her vagina, takes out her organs and skins her. The perpetrator was a former military officer, and two other field grade officers knew about it.
Then Bangert works with the pacification program in Vietnam, and travels extensively through Quang Tri Province. He sees approximately twenty deformed infants under the age of one.
Bangert sees journalists, specifically women journalists who were readily welcomed into the unit. There was always this whitewashing thing. Well, sometimes these people would go right past the bodies and come into our base to get a story. They were kept away from the enlisted men, away from the people who were involved. The typical thing was to take them down to the Officers Club, get them soused.
Elsewhere in his testimony, Bangert claims to be a door gunner with two helo units.
Anybody who believes these tall tales is awfully gullible. Bangert worked for a light observation squadron - very little combat. The men worked like coolies, often 16 hours a day 7 days a week, servicing planes, refueling, rearming, preparing, cleaning, maintaining. Usually they did not fly. They did not get to wander off on secret CIA missions. They did not participate in the CAP program - these were separate small units who lived permanently in villages, protecting the villages from the VC. They did not get to wander around Quang Tri looking at deformed kids. He states on his first day he sees a bunch of kids murdered on Route 1 -- this the main thoroughfare through the area, not some remote area. Can you imagine the press coverage? He says the press saw the crucified bodies, but were wooed with booze and did not report on this. Come on, get real.
So how much is the rest fabricated? Some no doubt is true. When a story is limited, it is more credible. But a lot of it is people telling tales, pathological liars and just plain liars. Bangert leads a rich fantasy life suitable for Stephen King.
As the song says, "lie lie lie, lie lie lie lie, lie lie lie, lie lie lie..."
Info on Bangert's cozy relations with the North Vietnamese communists can be found here.