"Kill Anything That Moves": The Real American War in Vietnam. (Jan. 17, 2013)

"Kill Anything That Moves": The Real American War in Vietnam. 
By Democracy Now 

We’re joined by Nick Turse, managing editor of TomDispatch.com and 
author of the new book, "Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American 
War in Vietnam." The title is taken from an order given to the U.S. 
forces who slaughtered more than 500 Vietnamese civilians in the 
notorious My Lai massacre of 1968. Drawing on interviews in Vietnam 
and a trove of previously unknown U.S. government documents — 
including internal military investigations of alleged war crimes in 
Vietnam — Turse argues that U.S. atrocities in Vietnam were not just 
isolated incidents, but "the inevitable outcome of deliberate 
policies, dictated at the highest levels of the military." 

January 16, 2013  -- AARON MATÉ: We are less than a week from 
President Obama’s second-term inauguration. Two of the leading figures 
nominated to head the foreign policy establishment have their 
political roots in the Vietnam War. Chuck Hagel, tapped by President 
Obama to be secretary of defense, is a former Army sergeant and, if 
confirmed, will become the first Vietnam War veteran to head the 
Pentagon. 

Obama’s nominee for secretary of state, John Kerry, became one of the 
most prominent veterans to oppose the Vietnam War after his return. 
Testifying before the Senate in 1971. Kerry discussed the atrocities 
unearthed in the Winter Soldier investigation, where over 150 veterans 
testified to war crimes committed in Southeast Asia. 

JOHN KERRY: They told the stories of times that they had personally 
raped, cut off the ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable 
telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, 
blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in a 
fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, 
poisoned food stocks and generally ravaged the countryside of South 
Vietnam in addition to the normal ravage of war and the normal and 
very particular ravaging which is done by the applied bombing power of 
this country. 

AARON MATÉ: That’s John Kerry testifying in 1971 after he returned 
from Vietnam. Although the Vietnam War is far behind them, Kerry and 
Hagel will now have to contend with the longest-running war in U.S. 
history, Afghanistan. President Obama has announced plans to speed up 
the transfer of formal military control to Afghan forces, but it’s 
unclear how the new timetable will change operations on the ground as 
tens of thousands of U.S. troops remain in Afghanistan until the 
withdrawal deadline of late 2014 and possibly even beyond. 

Speaking on Monday after meetings with President Obama, Afghan 
President Hamid Karzai said Afghanistan would be better off without 
foreign troops.... 
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