Nuremberg and Vietnam: Who Is Guilty? - PT9
Nuremberg and Vietnam: Who Is Guilty? - PT9
PBS PRESENTS A SPECIAL REPORT: NUREMBERG AND VIETNAM. WHO IS GUILTY? - PT9 A mock trial comparing the standard for "laws of war" set by the outcome of the Nuremberg Trials to US military actions in Vietnam. Was the United States in violation of international laws of war? This section features John Kerry (later: US Senator, Presidential Candidate) speaking as a Vietnam veteran, detailing his experience & expressing his opinions on US operations during the war.
Nuremberg and Vietnam: Who Is Guilty? - PT9
Robert MacNeil in studio introducing panelist John Kerry.
Nuremberg and Vietnam: Who Is Guilty? - PT9
DO NOT USE: Photo of John Kerry
Nuremberg and Vietnam: Who Is Guilty? - PT9
Robert MacNeil in studio introducing John Kerry. First question for Kerry, "...how clearly were you made aware of the high command's policies & the treatment of civilians?" Kerry's response: "on the treatment of civilians we were really not made aware of a great deal, on the rules of engagement certainly this was a very clear cut well defined article in which we could read & in fact had to read & had to sign a piece a paper stating that we had read it & understood it." Kerry goes on to talk about "free fire zones", he explains his experience as gun boat commander in the Mekong Delta, his orders being to fire on huts, sink native boats & to "open fire whether we've been fired on or not" resulting in destroying everything in sight.
Nuremberg and Vietnam: Who Is Guilty? - PT9
Next question for John Kerry: "Do you have any personal experience of actually being directed to or encouraged to treat civilians in a way you though unreasonable, if not unlawful, unreasonable?" Kerry's response: "That alone was a way of treating them unreasonably..." he explains that if civilians were unfamiliar with US boats or military presence their first instinct might be to run, according to the rules of engagement the moment someone runs you could open fire. "Therefore you were really firing on people that you had no confirmation of VC or otherwise..."
Nuremberg and Vietnam: Who Is Guilty? - PT9
Next question for John Kerry: "Your experience in the rivers, in the deltas, as a gun boat commander was nonetheless limited geographically, how can you be sure that what you say has a general validity?" Kerry's response: Kerry first explains that his service wasn't limited geographically, he was in Cam Ranh Bay and on almost every river on the Delta, on the Cambodian border & worked with the 9th infantry troops & coastal patrols. He goes on to talk about indiscriminant firing of mortar into territory which they could not see.