Vrishchik, Year 1. No.6

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VRISHCHII<

Letter. from a ' GI in Vietnam

These letters are a selection of many others sent by an Amerlcan~ GI to his parents. Names of persons, places, and military units have been , changed or removed to conceal the identity of the GI,

June 9, 1969 My orders were delayed. I'm leaving today. 218 of us are loadtng onto the buses that take us to the airport where a plane awaits us, then on to Vietnam.

One soldier stops at the bus door and refuses to get in.

Six sergeants grab him and he goes limp. They h0ld him off the ground and handcuff him. The rest of us are watching through the window; some with silent cheers, others not so silent.

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The old路timers laughed and sneered at that.

I hadn't slept for twe~ty.four hours but they put me to work as a night KP the moment we arrived. While in the mess hall I overheard two MPs talking with one of the cooks. They were laughing about a Vietnamese civilian who had been run down by an army truck. .. Yeh," one of the MPs smirked. "That gook was splattered all over the road."

He wants to go home to his momma," someone

shouts. "Break his head in," another yells. .. Send the bastard to jail if that'S what he wants." .. Why?" I protested, silently; .. Because he's got more guts than the rest of us. You hypocrites. You only bate him because he's doing something you wish you had the guts to do."

They throw him onto tbe bus. It's too dark to see his face or his eyes. More comments on the way to the airport. .. I hope he tries to escape so tbey can shoot bim." .. Hey, I never thought of that." .. Hey, may be he'H commit suicide". U Huh. " Tbe boy was thrown onto the plane amidst jeers and catcalls. '

June 12 We landed some twenty miles from Saigon. in the glaring heat sweat pouring down our faces, we were ushered under a huge canopy. All of us new troops were in one section and the troops leaving Vietnam were in a iCparate section. I looked at those old timers as though I was gaping at hardened criminals through iron bars. They glanced casually at us through their cool sun glasses.

Then the loudspeaker blared. "If we should be auacked you will go to the large bunker directly to your rear.U

June 15 Found out today I'm to be an ambulance driver.

The places I've seen so far have the military bases located in the Vietnamese cities or on the outskirts. They usually have outposts scattered through the city and Yillage lIreas. The Vietnamese houses are walled off from the compounds by buge barbwire fences with trip flares fastened to them. When the VC attack a compound they use the Vietnamese houses for cover. The GIs barricade themselves in their extremely well fortified bunkers and the firefight takes place, with the Vietnamese civilians caught in the middle. It's utterly impossible for a GI, especially a scared GI in the dark, to make any differentiation between a VC and a civilian. This is one of the ressons the civilian casualty rate is so high. The boys here tell me another reason is because Charley will murder them for various reasons.

June 18 While standing in the sick call line I listened to the conversation of two fellows in front of me.

"We was out four days," one said. "On the way hack we scen a dead gook lying On the side of the road.

Murphy stopped tbe truck beside him. He unfastened tho gasoline drum from the jeep and poured gas all over the bastard. Tben be took a match and lit bim up like a torch.

Then, dig it man, he took and lit his cigarette and just watched the gook burn . He was cool, JUan." " Dig it," his partner agreed.

June 21 11-30 a. III. One of the doctors "as working with a very pretty Vietname~e girl about sixteen years old. He couldn't figure out what waS wrong with her. Shc ~imply wouldn't react. He 'would pinch her and she wouldb't llincb. He would lift up her arm and it would fall limply Her eyes wouldn't focus and her sp"ech was almost unintelli'gible. However,the docto'r finally concluded that she was suffering from a frustrated love sickness. Sbe had fallen in love with tho son of an American contractor and tbe boy had just recenUy told her to get lost.

S-30 p. m. We rush over to the landing field to pick . up a Vietnamese soldier wounded in tbe field. The chopper has landed before we get there. The ,oldier's foot is half blown off, just dangling, and he has a huge bandage around his head because tbe top of his skull has been blown off too, We put him in the ambulance. r get in with the patient. Thayer goes up front to drive. Instead of starting the ambulance Thayer starts telling me about sometbing we'd been discussing during our lunch break, I said, "Thayer. For hell sakes get going. Can't you see this i. an emergency ?"

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.. No gook's ever an emergency," he said, irritably.

The helicopter medic had told us to be real careful because too much of a jar on this boy's skull could kill him. When we got to the hospital r took hold of tbe stretcher on the inside and told Thayer to be real careful and not let his end drop as we came out. He seemed irritated at me and as we ~ame out of the amb,Hance h. dropped bis end and I kn"w then that all the casualties were't caused on the battlefield. .. You god damn .onof-a- bitch." I said.

The patient died that night. One will never know bitt it', nol comforting to think hi' death may have resulted from dropping the stretcher. A poor medic i5 like a poor cop. He can alienate thme around him. That', some of our trouble in Vietnam. We can't win this war if the people hate our guts.

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June 28 8-30 a. m. I'm silting on the sofa observing the patients in the psycbiatric ward. There's a cute little Vietnamese girl about ten years old who's been here about three months, they tell me. She Iried to steal a GI's h~1 and he shot her in the head. The or was never punished.

He said he thought she was a VC. The little girl hasn't spoken a word since the Shooting.

There's nothing physically wrong with her vocal system because sbe talks in her sleep. She walk' about in a stupor refusing to associate or communicate with anyone. , While watching this gi,1 I recalled an argument r hid with my sergeant during training back home., He wai telling me that once I got out-<lf training tb~ army was~'t so bad. "Yeah," I said aagrilY. ' "Then I can go \0 Vietnam and kill babies." .. Who in hell ever told you a thing like that ?" h. )elled at me and stomped out, shouting over his sboulder, "Things like that don't happen over there. H He'd never been to .Vietnam him5elf.

July 26 I believe I've been here long enough now to make a few observations about the Pacification Program you read so "luch about in the States. I presume this program is int~nded to reach tbese recalcitrant and malcontented Vietnamese who somehow bave not recognized the benevelent motives behind U. S. policy in their countl·y.

Our Goycrnment faces ,a somew)lat dual ~,nd cQnti'~dict9ry P!oblem in pacification. One day it IS necessary to napalm a Vietnamese 'vilh'ge to liberate' it from VC infiltrators. f{ie ;;ext day we begin to pacify the burned a~d ~~bittered sur,viv,ors. They must surely wonder , if ,ve are liberating , thein"to death. ' ' Bu( liberate tbem we will . And those ~re t~o ignorant to realize they .must be liberated, , 'must be paCified, so they'll not interfere with the liberation , of their more enlightencd brethr~n whose enthusiasTl) for liberation has been greatly enhanced by ·their pa(ticipativn in tbe profits of the economic boom the United States has ' - ' brought to their hapless land.

On each compound in Vietnam it is army policy to hire a certain number of Vietnamese-civilialls,' the number depending upon the size and activity of the particular co:npound. ' There are.a number of goals intended bereitimulation of the economy, 'Iessening 'tbe burden of work ; on the GJ, Teducing tbe number of GIs needed for non,;...I·combat duty" and, of course, training the Vietnamese to "replace tbe GI. For example. tbere isn't much need for a quartermaster laundry because one Mo:nmysohn will do all Ihe taundry plus the bousehold chores of a GI for 10 dollars Ii month. She l"ually does tbis for about six dJ's and earI1.-6Q dollars a 01Ontl1. " ', If,tbi. wa& to be a permanent relationshi!>. t.n~. But ",beque'lion shqulflbe a~,~~d :..:Wbat bappens when the ·'A!Ilericans"'l.ellve' ?:" ,. .... ."

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tllDught ,tilat was the reason the Vietnamese men were

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hired,' to wash toe ambulances Hnd provide them with et:nployment. But one day I was talking to Pfc, Taylor and he informed me different. " We were supposed to be training them to become ambulance drivers so Ihey can replace guys like you and me," Taylor said. " How long has this been going on ?.. I as\ced. " Well, they were ber. when I got here eight months ago,'~

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Taylor replied ...

.. Well, why the hell are nol we tr~ining them?" I askej. " Sergent ,Black does not give a s~it bout training those goddam go.oks, "Taylor said." I don't blame hi.n.

You could not teach them wo~thless bastards anything ,I

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It seems that the proportion or the South Vietnamese now dependent upon our military activities here, in one way or another, is quite enormous. It seems that every third or fourth house ill the villages ne~r the compounds is filled with prostitutes who solicit the GI's business.

I recently read a statement by an old bearded Vietnamese gentleman who was reproving a GI for throwing candy to some Vietnamese children. .. You make beggars of our children, prostitut.. .of our women, and murderers of our men," he lamented.

I used to get two or three of the Vietnamese Poppysohns who were always hanging around the compound to wash my ambulance. There were several ambulances and eight or nine Vietnamese would spend two or three hours washing the!1;l at a very slow pace. The rest of the day they would hang around the wash patio sleeping and talking with the MommY$ohns, who were listlessly but steadily cleaning our clothes and polishing our boots. I

September 8 anyway. Some goddam general back in tbe Pentagon was told we supposed to do this so he tells some colonel who don't give a shit and he tells the captain who don't give a shit because he is too busy building bunkers and looking out for his men. So be tells the first sergeant to hire some goddam gooks so it'll go on the reports that he is doing his job." .. Good God, ,.

I said. "Is this on Ihe level 7"

"It goddam well is," Taylor said.

S9 these guys report erery morning '\t 8 a. m. anli if they are ten minutes late they are fireJ but once they get here they know tbeir duty assignments. They're to go to the wzsh-patio and sleep until tbey're to leave atJour, p. m.

TI.is is a good examp,e to illustrate why the South .

Vietnames~. army has not been able to replace the American army yet. At tbis rate tbey never will .

The people in Vietnam are not pacified. They are merely tired and 路apathetic. It is unheard of for a GI to become friendly with a Vietnamese. There is no mutual undorstanding. The military deliberately keeps us apart.

We'll never win tbis way. .

Contrary to popular opinion I find that happy ( psychologically healthy) men do not make good soldiers.

The best soldier is a frustrated and hateful individual and if he is not that way at induction the army proceeds to make him so. The very dichotomy that is established between the officer and the enlisted man could hardly be improved upon as a method to instill jealousy and hatred between the two .

To be a good soldier one must sublimate his aggression in a form of behavior tbat the army will tolerate.

Unfortunately, the army seems to tolerate all too well various expressions of race prejudice, tribal bigotry, and

biased opinions of other cultures and ideologies. The typical army indoctrination course could make some effort to root out these preconceived half:truths and untruths, but, unfortunately, tbe army seems so obsessed with teaching anti-Communism in these courses that they reinforce these provincial bigotries ra~er than eradicate them. One only has to listen attentively to an average barracks conversation to realize that. the ordinary recruit equates in his mind" stinking gooks, lews, foreigners acd Communists."

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October 27 Yesterday I interviewed a patient who was sent here from a nearby medical dispensary. He had atlempted luicide b)' s'wallowinll forty pilli. twenty Danon -and twenty Librium.

This boy is a passive - dependent person with nluch l'ent-up aggrenion which builts up Qver an extellded peridd ¢ time~nd \11 eventually projected inward. expreS$in1l itself then in self "- destructive behavior. At the dispensary his . job was driviq 'the dump truck to the dump yard. He explained to me why Vietnam has the cleanest dump yards in the world.

Usually. four or five other GIs accompanied him with his load of llarbage and trash. to belp him load and unloa:1.

He says the Vietnamese peasants swarm about the dump grounds •. like carrions slilldowin'g'a diseased carcass. Tbey hover there to snatcb things. like a cardboard box, which they UOle to build their shacks. or an elastic .band. which they will use to make a ,resilient webbing for an article of

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clothing. He told me that many of the Gis were maliciously cruel to these impoverished native garbage scavengers. They often deliberately tear the cardboard boxes to shreds or break up any potentially useful item, before throwing it off the truck. 'He told of one instance when his "buddies" induced some gooks to eat lye, telling them it was number one (very good), then laugbed hilariously about this prank all the way back to camp.

I! seems to me that the GIs who have been out in the field are the most vicious in their treatment of the natives.

One of my patients has told me of brutalities be participated in that rival any apache raids one can see on American television. He stated tbat in some of the search and destroy mission be took part in they often wiped out entire villages, killing all the men, raping all the women, and leaving all the children behind bitter and helpless with their memories. He said they could do this without any justification or provocation and often did. He stated their worst atrocities usually occurred after some one in the unit had been hit by a sniper, had his legs blown off by a booby trap, or some such thing had occurred. Often times, the burden of a heavy field pack and the searing tropical sun was enough provocation to set them on a vengeful cource,

He related one instance when his unit, out on patrol,

came upon a lone Victnamese family. One of the girls in the family about seventeen, was unusually pretty. Some of the blood-thinty members' of the squad began sbooting her in the legs while the rest of the familt watched helplessly, terrified that they would be next.

Last week I was invited on an outing at an officer's sumptuous residence. It was a lovely and enjoyable afternoon but I could not help thinking, as we strolle<1 about the lush grounds, tbat these members of the American elite in Vietnam were as oblivious io the terrible realities of this war as the Americans half way around the world.

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Ily COl1rt~,y :

THE P;tOG;tESSIVE The Prollres.ivo IDC., 408 We.t GorhalD St. ÂĽadison, WilCon.in 53703. U. S. A.

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Read. No. PS189/69

VRISHCIDK ------------------------------- ---April 10, 1970.

Number : 6. Year

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Editors: Gulam Sheikh Bhupen Khakbar

Certam words are to be repeated, until they are heard by all. We live in a world of relative safety and stick to the routine of work and pastime gradually blunting our sensibilities. We perform life as a ritual with its usual tamashas of culture and civilisation, when beyond the door, on the outskirts of the town or across geographical frontiers, atrocities are performed on thousands of human beings for whom culture and civilisation have become meaningless abstractions.

These letters of an American GI tells the bitterest story ever told. It mocks

Address 4 Residency Bungalow University office compound Baroda 2, Gujarat. India.

at the fake capsules of humanity presented to us by the glamorous propaganda of the Big Nations. That inspite of mass demonstrations of the young and appeals of the intelligentsia all over the world, the mass murders in the villages of Vietnam continue.

Perhaps It's high time for the young nations to rise, and challenge the supremacy of great powers, at whatever cost. ¡Vrishchik expresses gratitude to The Progressive Inc., Madison, Wisconsin, U. S. A. for the reprint of these letters from THE PROGR,ESSIVE, Jan. 70.

Drawina 1Q thii number by Jcram Patel

The space donations in this number 1. Bharat Lindner Pvt. Ltd., Baroda.

2. Dynamo Dilectrics, Baroda.

3. Jyoti Ltd., Baroda.

4. Mercury Paints, Bombay.

S. Chika Ltd., Bombay.

Published by Gulilin Sheikh from 4, Resjdency Bungalow, Baroda aDd Printed by A. N. Joaalebr (Manaaer), 3-A ASiociates. Khari BaD. Baroda.