Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter
March 18, 2018
Hello All – For the past month, CFOW has focused our antiwar agitation on the crimes being committed in Yemen and the possibility that US policy in support of this war would change if the Congress passed the Sanders-Lee Resolution. This Resolution is expected to be voted on by the Senate next week. If passed by Congress, it would invoke the War Powers Act, passed after the Vietnam War, which requires that Congress authorize sustained military action like that carried out in Yemen.
The war in Yemen has not been authorized by Congress, and there is general agreement that the war in Yemen is not covered by the "authorization to use military force" passed by Congress soon after 9/11. There is no legal basis for the US support of the Saudi war in Yemen. Therefore, PLEASE give Gillibrand (202-224-4451) and Schumer (202-224-6542) a call; ask them to support the Sanders-Lee Resolution on the War Powers Act.
There were several new developments this week. The most important is that two Senators have introduced a competing Resolution that would not invoke the War Powers Act, but would instead demand that the Secretary of State submit a certification to Congress that Saudi Arabia is trying to bring the war to an end, and that it is undertaking "appropriate measure to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Yemen." Needless to say, you could drive a truck through this loophole, and those with memories about a similar "certification" process during the wars in Central America in the 1980s will point out that this is what happened back then. This is not a "compromise" Resolution, but a trick to continue supporting the war. For more on this and an update on the reasons to oppose the war, read this essay from The Nation by Mark Weisbrot, "A Bogus 'Compromise' Senate Bill Would Prolong Atrocities in Yemen."
The Pentagon is also pushing back. Secretary of Defense "Mad Dog" Mattis sent a letter to the Senators, calling on them to defeat the Yemen/War Powers Challenge. In the letter, Mattis conceded that there was no legal authorization for US support of the Saudi war, but said that Congress should "not impose restrictions" on the Pentagon. It is the plain illegality of the US role in Yemen that has attracted the support of some conservative Republicans to the Sanders-Lee Resolution. And the Pentagon's General Counsel sent a letter to the Senate's McConnell and Schumer saying that Congress did not have the right to tell the President what to do when it came to refueling Saudi Arabian bombers over Yemen.
Also illuminating this week was the testimony of the head of US Central Command, the military division overseeing the US in Yemen, in which he told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the Pentagon has no way of knowing what the Saudis do with the bombs and intelligence after receiving these and other things from the USA. [Link] and [Link]. This head-in-the-sand assertion comes as a new report states that the United States again leads the world in arms sales, with its sales to Saudi Arabia shifting from big-ticket bombers under President Obama to bombs and ammunition under President Trump.
The Student Uprising
Wednesday's student walk-out, in Hastings and in some 3,000 other schools around the country, was very successful. Focused on ending gun violence, especially in schools, both the middle school and the high school in Hastings walked out, supposedly for 17 minutes (one for each of the students killed in Parkland, Florida), but actually much longer. About 30 parents/adults supported the activity, which the students turned into a chanting rally, rather than walking along the fire-drill route. You can see a short video from Susan Rutman here. Democracy Now! had a good program Thursday morning with news from many walkouts. And more news here from Common Dreams. For an illuminating essay on gun-nation USA, read "Bang for the Buck," by Adam Hochschild [Link].
On Saturday, March 24th, there will be demonstrations in Washington, DC, NYC, and many other cities. Project SHARE in Hastings is organizing buses for high school students and parents. They are trying to raise $20,000 for this project. You can make a contribution via GoFundMe here. The Facebook page for the NYC demo is here and their GoFundMe page here. For those not wanting to/unable to travel, there will also be a vigil/protest in Hastings demanding an end to gun violence at home and abroad. Please join us at noon at the VFW Plaza (Warburton and Spring St.).
News Notes
Friday was the 50th anniversary of the terrible massacre in Vietnam in the cluster of villages called My Lai. In 1989 UK television broadcast an excellent documentary film about the massacre called "Four Hours in My Lai." (It was later broadcast on PBS Frontline.) (There are also several essays about My Lai and the Vietnam War linked below under "Our History.")
Ten years ago Rebecca Solnit wrote an essay, which since then has become famous, called "Men Explain Things to Me." It takes off from her very funny encounter with a man who was determined to correct her views about a recent book that, it turned out, she herself had written. But then her essay turned serious, developing the concept of "man-splaining." Solnit discussed this and much more on Democracy Now! last week. See the interview here and Part 2 here. Thoughtful and thought-provoking.
The possibility that the Coast Guard would allow up to 43 anchorages for oil barges on the Hudson generated lots of opposition more than a year ago. Now the Coast Guard has released a 77-page report that takes the anchorages off the table – for now. So if/when the price of oil rises enough to make Albany a busy oil port, we should expect the oil and maritime industries' proposal to become active again. But for now, it's good news.
Accusations of Russian "meddling" are losing touch with factual analysis. Because of the complexity of some cases and the frequent reliance on "anonymous sources," the takeaway for most television viewers, I suspect, is simply Bad Russians. A few weeks ago there were claims about Russian "bots," which allegedly meddled with the 2016 election by posting false messages on Facebook. Some congressional people compared this to Pearl Harbor. Here is an interesting analysis that suggests the election-meddling framework is a misunderstanding of what was a petty Facebook marketing scheme. And last week, British and many US commentators were up in arms about the poisoning of two Russian émigrés. This has contributed to a significant Red Scare now gaining traction in Britain and the USA. Important, therefore, are two recent assessments of the evidence around the poisoning case - here and here – that raise significant questions about the allegations of Russian responsibility.
This week the 2018 opened at NYC's Cinema Village," Check out the link for a plethora of interesting-looking films. Favorite film critic Louis Proyect reviews some of them here.
Things to Do/Coming Attractions
Ongoing – CFOW holds a vigil/rally each Saturday at the VFW Plaza in Hastings (Warburton and Spring) from 12 to 1 p.m. Everyone invited; please join us!
Ongoing – CFOW stalwart Elisa Zazzera manages Hastings' "Community Supported Agriculture" (CSA). The CSA partners with an upstate farm to provide fresh vegetables each Wednesday. Highly recommended. To learn more about this, and/or to sign up for the next growing season, go here.
Monday, March 19th – To mark the 15th anniversary of the US attack on Iraq, and to protest the ongoing war, the War Resisters League and many other organizations will hold a demonstration in NYC, starting at 11:30 a.m. at the NY Public Library steps, and then heading off for a march to the military recruiting station at Times Square. For more information, go here.
Thursday, March 22nd – Two years ago, Gov. Cuomo promised to issue a report on the safety implications of the high-pressure Spectra gas pipeline that runs very close to Indian Point. But nothing yet. SAPE and many other allies will make a presentation/hold a press conference to demand some action from the Governor. It will be at the Cortlandt town hall (1 Heady St.), starting at 5:30 p.m. For more information, go to www.SAPE2016.org.
Sunday, April 8th – The CFOW monthly meeting will be held at the Dobbs Ferry Historical Society, 12 Elm St. in Dobbs, from 7 to 9 p.m. At these meetings we review what we've done over the past month and make plans for the next month. Everyone is welcome at these meetings.
Saturday, April 14th - "Know Drones" (Nick Mottern), Code Pink, WESPAC, and several other organizations will hold a "Rally & March for Peace & Economic Justice" in Greenwich, CT from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. (More information coming soon.)
CFOW Nuts & Bolts
Please consider getting involved with Concerned Families of Westchester. We meet for a protest/rally each Saturday in Hastings, from 12 to 1 p.m., at the VFW Plaza (Warburton and Spring St.) Our leaflet and posters for our rallies are usually about war or climate change, but issues such as racial justice or Trump's tax cut legislation are often targeted, depending on current events. We meet on the first Sunday of each month, from 7 to 9 p.m., at the Dobbs Ferry Historical Society. Our weekly newsletter is archived at https://cfow.blogspot.com/; and news of interest and coming events is posted on our CFOW Facebook page. If you would like to make a financial contribution to our work, please send your check to CFOW, PO Box 364, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY 10706. Thanks!
This Newsletter
Articles linked in the CFOW newsletter are intended to illuminate some of the main action-issues about which we are concerned. Coming mostly from the "dissenting media," they provide an alternative to the perspectives of the mainstream media. In addition to the excellent "Featured Essays," I encourage you to look at some illuminating essays on North Korea, Syria, and the Iraq War ("War & Peace"); the climate-chaos disaster underway in Africa; several excellent articles about the sadistic cruelty embedded in US immigration policy, some memories about Rachel Corrie on the 15th anniversary of her murder in Israel; and several essays on the Vietnam War ( "Our History"),
Rewards!
Stalwart readers who have patiently read all the dense political prose down to here are entitled to a rest stop. First up is a slightly belated tribute to St. Patrick's Day from music/funnyman and CFOW favorite Roy Zimmerman. Next up, and helping the editor through the composition of this newsletter, we have lots of music from Billie Holiday, accompanied by Teddy Wilson, Lester Young, and other greats.
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
FEATURED ESSAYS
The Pentagon Wants You to Go Shopping While the Experts Go to War
By William J. Astore, Tom Dispatch [March 15, 2018]
---- Overseas, the United States is engaged in real wars in which bombs are dropped, missiles are launched, and people (generally not Americans) are killed, wounded, uprooted, and displaced. Yet, here at home, there's nothing real about those wars. Here, it's phony war all the way. In the last 17 years of "forever war," this nation hasn't for one second been mobilized. Taxes are being cut instead of raised. Wartime rationing is a faint memory from the World War II era. No one is being required to sacrifice a thing. Now, ask yourself a simple question: What sort of war requires no sacrifice? What sort of war requires that almost no one in the country waging it takes the slightest notice of it? … how can a nation's military be engaged in warfare at a near-global level—blitzing people across vast swaths of the globe—when its citizens are sitting on their collective duffs, demobilized and mentally disarmed? Such a schizoid state of mind can exist only when it's in the interest of those in power. Appeals to "patriotism" (especially to revering "our" troops) and an overwhelming atmosphere of secrecy to preserve American "safety" and "security" have been remarkably effective in controlling and stifling interest in the country's wars and their costs, long before such an interest might morph into dissent or opposition. [Read More]
The Assassination of Human Rights Activist Marielle Franco Was a Huge Loss for Brazil — and the World
By Shaun King, The Intercept [March 16, 2018]
---- On Wednesday, in the middle of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, a massively important civil rights leader was shot and killed in a brutal drive-by assassination. Her name was Marielle Franco. Like me, Marielle was just 38 years old. We don't yet know who murdered Marielle and her driver, Anderson Pedro Gomes, though early indications are that the police might have been involved. … In the United States, nearly 1,200 people were killed by police officers in 2017. …But did you know that Brazil may actually lead the entire world in police brutality? Despite having 120 million fewer citizens than the U.S., Brazil had a staggering 4,224 people die at the hands of police in 2016. That number represents a 26 percent surge over the previous year. … And no place has felt the brunt of the violence more than the state of Rio de Janeiro, where police murdered at least 1124 people in 2017 — a 22 percent jump over the last year. On top of all this, there is a military intervention in Rio right now. You want to talk about militarized police? The armed forces have literally taken over the security apparatus of the state. Marielle Franco, a brilliant leader with a huge heart, was at the center of the movement against police violence in Brazil. [Read More]
The Factory in the Family: The radical vision of Wages for Housework.
By Sarah Jaffe, The Nation [March 14, 2018]
[FB – This is a review of the new book, Wages for Housework: The New York Committee 1972–1977: History, Theory, Documents. Interesting and important, imo; check it out.]
---- Wages for Housework helps to recover a movement that had modest origins but spread around the world within several years. From the gathering in Padua, Italy, that launched the international campaign in 1972 to the spin-off groups like the New York Committee, the women of Wages for Housework made arguments and demands that were well ahead of their time, helping to fill in the gaps overlooked by the mostly male left and the mostly liberal mainstream feminist movement, both of which have long excluded the home and the processes of social reproduction from their activism and thinking. … To demand wages was to acknowledge that housework—i.e., the unwaged labor done by women in the home—was work. But it was also a demand, as Federici and others repeatedly stressed, to end the essentialized notions of gender that underlay why women did housework in the first place, and thus amounted to nothing less than a way to subvert capitalism itself. By refusing this work, the Wages for Housework activists argued, women could help see to "the destruction of every class relation, with the end of bosses, with the end of the workers, of the home and of the factory and thus the end of male workers too." [Read More]
How to Organize to Win
By Marshall Ganz, The Nation [March 16, 2018]
---- Trump is unique in the depth of his moral and empirical nihilism, sociopathic focus on personal domination, and dangerously erratic narcissism. But he and his wrecking crew are more effect than cause. For many, his election was the moment they realized the United States was in trouble. For others who have known trouble all their lives, it was less of a surprise than a sudden and very direct threat. This can, however, become a moment of unique opportunity to renew the promise of America. Can we turn our own reaction to the rawness of this moment into the chance to build the moral, organizational, and strategic capacity to strengthen our democracy? … Organizing people is not only about solving immediate problems, like making sure your candidate gets the most votes or putting up a stop sign. It is about doing this and, at the same time, developing the leadership, organization, and power to take on structural challenges in the long run. It is not about fixing bugs in the system, like a safety net. It is about transforming the cultural, economic, and political features of the system. [Read More]
WAR & PEACE
South Korean Report on Summit Discredits US Elites' Assumption
March 17, 2018]
---- US political and security elites have long accepted the idea that Washington has only two choices: either acceptance of a nuclear-armed North Korea or "maximum pressure" at the risk of war. But as the South Koreans have now been able to confirm, that view is dead wrong. Kim Jong UN is still committed to the original vision of a deal with the Americans for denuclearization that his father had tried to realize before this death in 2011. The real question is whether the Trump administration and the broader US political system are capable of taking advantage of that opportunity. [Read More]
Think the War in Syria Is Winding Down? Think Again.
By Charles Glass, The Nation [March 15, 2018]
---- The defeat of the rebels in Aleppo, Syria's commercial center, in December 2016, along with the Assad regime's subsequent territorial gains and the impending elimination of the Islamic State's territorial base in Syria and Iraq, implied a denouement. Yet the war is flying along on its second wind: Turkey is attacking the Syrian Kurds; the United States has promised to establish a 30,000-strong Border Security Force of Kurdish warriors and Arab tribes in the northeast to "contain Iran"; Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is raising the stakes, declaring, "We will act if necessary not just against Iran's proxies but against Iran itself"; and some voices in the West demand not reform and reconstruction, but renewed war. … Syria's fate, like Lebanon's following the Israeli invasion of 1982, has fallen into the hands of foreigners. Russians, Iranians, Americans, and Turks, and to a lesser extent Saudis and Qataris, are determining the course of events there. In Sochi, Astana, and Geneva, Syrian supporters and some opponents of the government argue about their future—but Russia and the United States make the significant decisions. Syria is little more than a host to conflicts between Turks and Kurds, the United States and Iran, Israel and Hezbollah, and the big one: the United States and Russia. [Read More]
The Iraq Death Toll 15 Years After the US Invasion
---- March 19 marks 15 years since the U.S.-U.K invasion of Iraq in 2003, and the American people have no idea of the enormity of the calamity the invasion unleashed. The US military has refused to keep a tally of Iraqi deaths. General Tommy Franks, the man in charge of the initial invasion, bluntly told reporters, "We don't do body counts." One survey found that most Americans thought Iraqi deaths were in the tens of thousands. But our calculations, using the best information available, show a catastrophic estimate of 2.4 million Iraqi deaths since the 2003 invasion. The number of Iraqi casualties is not just a historical dispute, because the killing is still going on today. Since several major cities in Iraq and Syria fell to Islamic State in 2014, the U.S. has led the heaviest bombing campaign since the American War in Vietnam, dropping 105,000 bombs and missiles and reducing most of Mosul and other contested Iraqi and Syrian cities to rubble. … As we begin the 16th year of the Iraq war, the American public must come to terms with the scale of the violence and chaos we have unleashed in Iraq. Only then may we find the political will to bring this horrific cycle of violence to an end, to replace war with diplomacy and hostility with friendship, as we have begun to do with Iran and as the people of North and South Korea are trying to do to avoid meeting a similar fate to that of Iraq. [Read More] For more on this subject, William D. Hartung, "Iraq: Weighing the costs of war," The Hill [March 13, 2018] [Link].
GLOBAL WARMING/CLIMATE CHAOS
Hotter, Drier, Hungrier: How Global Warming Punishes the World's Poorest
---- These barren plains of sand and stone have always known lean times: times when the rivers run dry and the cows wither day by day, until their bones are scattered under the acacia trees. But the lean times have always been followed by normal times, when it rains enough to rebuild herds, repay debts, give milk to the children and eat meat a few times each week. Times are changing, though. Northern Kenya — like its arid neighbors in the Horn of Africa, where Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson paid a visit last week, including a stop in Nairobi — has become measurably drier and hotter, and scientists are finding the fingerprints of global warming. According to recent research, the region has dried faster in the 20th century than at any time over the last 2,000 years. Four severe droughts have walloped the area in the last two decades, a rapid succession that has pushed millions of the world's poorest to the edge of survival. Amid this new normal, a people long hounded by poverty and strife has found itself on the frontline of a new crisis: climate change. More than 650,000 children under age 5 across vast stretches of Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia are severely malnourished. The risk of famine stalks people in all three countries; at least 12 million people rely on food aid, according to the United Nations. [Read More]
CIVIL LIBERTIES/"THE GLOBAL WAR ON TERROR"
Why Gina Haspel, the Queen of Torture, Was Able to Rise to the Top of the CIA
By Lisa Hajjar, The Nation [March 16, 2018]
---- Haspel's ascension illuminates what happens when there is no accountability, no truth, and no justice for torture. Because of the power and influence of the United States, this lack of accountability, truth, and justice undermines the power of international law and the strength of the anti-torture norm globally. Moreover, letting officials of past administrations get away with torture does nothing to deter the possibility of a future administration attempting to do it again. For these reasons, all possible pressure must be brought to bear on Congress to vote down Haspel's nomination. This won't right the wrongs of the past, but it would be an important political victory against Trump and the torture enthusiasts who live among us. [Read More]
Also useful/disgusting on the rehab of state torture – Jan Schwarz, "Washington Breaks Out the "Just Following Orders" Nazi Defense for CIA Director-Designate Gina Haspel," The Intercept [March 15, 2018] [Link]; and from Democracy Now! (Video)"Haspel Should Be Answering for Her Torture Crimes" [March 15, 2018], with Jeremy Scahill, Lee Fang, and John Kiriakou [Link].
THE STATE OF THE UNION
Progressives Have the Right Plan to Win in November
By Robert L. Borosage, The Nation [March 15, 2018]
---- The DCCC and the party pros remain wedded to the old ways of doing business. They recruit candidates with deep pockets or the ability to raise big money and tend to seek out veterans and social conservatives for contested districts. Establishment Democrats also try to limit the financial drain of contested primaries by undermining candidates like Laura Moser in Texas who might win a primary, but by DCCC calculation, are less likely to prevail in the general election. This isn't going to cut it. The DCCC's track record for picking "winners" doesn't demand respect. As the attack on Moser showed, efforts to undermine insurgents are likely to backfire. Midterm elections are about passion and energy. Democrats need a sea change, and the resistance to Trump is lifting the tide. What the Lamb victory shows is that Democrats of all stripes are ready to come out in large numbers to take back the Congress and confront Trump. Unity is more likely if the DCCC gets out of the way and allows voters to decide who will carry their banner. [Read More]
Sadism in High Places – Immigration and ICE
For Trump, Cruelty Is the Point: The White House's immigration policies are designed to maximize suffering.
By Julianne Hing, The Nation [March 15, 2018]
---- For more than a year, the Trump administration has discussed adopting, as official policy, the practice of separating parents from their children. "I would do almost anything to deter the people from Central America getting on this very, very dangerous network that brings them up from Mexico," said John Kelly, then head of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), speaking on CNN in March 2017. There was perhaps even a hint of compassion in Kelly's remarks. But snatching a child away from her mother's arms in order to discourage others from attempting the same journey is undeniably cruel. And while this practice affects a small minority of the people subject to immigration enforcement—these are the freshest of newcomers and not yet among the estimated 11 million undocumented people already in the country—it is deeply representative of how the Trump administration treats immigrants and other marginalized populations. … Under Trump, the country has embarked on an enforcement policy that willfully causes suffering and that doesn't even factor into the decisions of desperate people trying to escape dangerous situations. Moreover, its stated reasons—to protect national security and the rule of law—are a ruse. Like so much else with this administration, the US immigration agenda is now being driven by a disdain for the most vulnerable communities among us. [Read More]
For more on this horror – Jill Richardson, "The Stunning New Cruelty of Immigration Enforcement," Otherwords [March 15, 2018] [Link]; Aviva Chomsky, "The Fight over the Criminalization of Immigrants," Tom Dispatch [March 13, 2018] [Link]; and Cinthya Santos Briones, et al., "It Has Been 210 Days Since Amanda Morales Last Saw the Sun" [about Sanctuary], The Nation [March 15, 2018] [Link].
ISRAEL/PALESTINE
Israeli bulldozer driver murders American peace activist [15th Anniversary – Rachel Corrie]
The Electronic Intifada [March 16, 2003]
---- On 16 March 2003 in Rafah, occupied Gaza, 23-year-old American peace activist Rachel Corrie from Olympia, Washington, was murdered by an Israeli bulldozer driver. Rachel was in Gaza opposing the bulldozing of a Palestinian home as a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement. Rachel and seven other ISM activists were in the Hi Es Salam area of Rafah, Gaza, trying to prevent the razing of Palestinian land and property. Present were two Israeli occupation army bulldozers and a tank. For a period of two hours, the activists played 'cat and mouse', attempting to prevent the illegal demolitions by physically blocking the passage of the two bulldozers. An e-mailed report from the Palestine Monitor stated: "Rachel Corey [sic], 23 years old from the state of Washington, was killed while she was trying to prevent Israeli army bulldozers from destroying a Palestinian home. Other foreigners who were with her said the driver of the bulldozer was aware that Rachel was there, and continued to destroy the house. Initially he dropped sand and other heavy debris on her, then the bulldozer pushed her to the ground where it proceeded to drive over her, fracturing both of her arms, legs and skull. She was transferred to hospital, where she later died. [Read More]
Trump's US Slams Schoolhouse Door on Palestinian Refugees
By Gordon Brown, former UK Prime Minister [March 12, 2018]
---- No international institution has done as much for children's schooling on the ground for as long as the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). And yet, no international organization has suffered an overnight funding cut as devastating as the one UNRWA now faces, after 70 years of serving the displaced and the desolate. Yet the United States has now decided to withhold more than half of its planned funding for UNRWA – $65 million of $125 million, which is already far less than the $364 million delivered last year. The move will deal a powerful blow to efforts to confront the education emergency the world currently faces. [Read More] For more on this - (Video) "UNRWA: Helping Palestinian children go to schools is a key contributor to regional development" [Link].
OUR HISTORY - 50 YEARS AGO – MASSACRE AT MY LAI
---- On March 17th, 1968, The New York Times ran a brief front page lede headed, "G.I.s' in Pincer Movement Kill 128 in Daylong Battle;" the action took place the previous day roughly eight miles from Quang Ngai City, a provincial capital in the northern coastal quadrant of South Vietnam. Heavy artillery and helicopter gunships had been "called in to pound the North Vietnamese soldiers." By three in the afternoon the battle had ceased, and "the remaining North Vietnamese had slipped out and fled." The American side lost only two killed and several wounded. The article, datelined Saigon, had no byline. Its source was an "American military command's communique," a virtual press release hurried into print and unfiltered by additional digging. … Having already established that Nixon denied the link between My Lai and "national policy," Jones does not engage the argument further. But the war veterans (including the present writer) were not suggesting that the policy of genocide was etched in a secret covenant buried in a Pentagon vault. We were saying, in effect, don't just look at the record body count attached to the slaughter at Pinkville, and imagine you have a true picture of American crimes in that war. Count the day to day toll of Vietnamese civilian deaths that resulted from premeditated frames like "mass population transfers" – the Strategic Hamlet program, or "chemical warfare" – the saturation of the countryside with phenoxy herbicides like Agent Orange, that were already prohibited by the conventions of war to which the U.S. was a signatory. [Read More]
A forgotten hero stopped the My Lai massacre 50 years ago today
By Jon Wiener, Los Angeles Times [Mar 16, 2018]
---- Everybody's heard of the My Lai massacre — March 16, 1968, 50 years ago today — but not many know about the man who stopped it: Hugh Thompson, an Army helicopter pilot. When he arrived, American soldiers had already killed 504 Vietnamese civilians (that's the Vietnamese count; the U.S. Army said 347). They were going to kill more, but they didn't — because of what Thompson did. I met Thompson in 2000 and interviewed him for my radio program on KPFK in Los Angeles. He told the story of what happened that day, when he and his two-man crew flew over My Lai, in support of troops who were looking for Viet Cong fighters. "We started noticing these large numbers of bodies everywhere," he told me, "people on the road dead, wounded. And just sitting there saying, 'God, how'd this happen? What's going on?' And we started thinking what might have happened, but you didn't want to accept that thought — because if you accepted it, that means your own fellow Americans, people you were there to protect, were doing something very evil." [Read More]
Also illuminating on the Vietnam War – Matthew Stevenson, "Why Vietnam Still Matters: Bernard Fall Dies on the Street Without Joy," [Link]; and James Hill, "In Vietnam, Turning a Camera on the War," March 15, 2018] [Link].
