Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam (American Empire Project)

Reviews

cvu

Theirs is a story of a centuries-long resilience in the face of the foreign invader, be it Chinese, French or American. I believe that since the Vietnam conflict, a curtain of censorship fell on the reporting of America's wars. Unlike in Vietnam, where large numbers of the press had the autonomy and mobility to report the facts and present them to the American public, in whose name this war was fought. We also get to meet psychotic, blood thirsty infantrymen, narcissistic, cold-hearted officers, and corrupt, amoral military and government officials.

A true, functioning democracy demands an informed voting public and I think the press was allowed to perform its democratic mission during the Vietnam years. This book definitely expanded my concept of human's inhumanity to humans. A meticulously researched, well-narrated story but not for the faint of heart or the squeamish, even for those readers that know first-hand that war is hell. Not to mention my understanding of the savagery and brutality we can inflict onto the animals around us and the environment in general.

This book does a great job of providing us with that perspective. The cast of characters includes incredibly courageous and valiant service members, fearless journalists and valorous veterans. I wonder what we would think and do as a people if we were shown the realities of recent conflicts with the same unimpeded wide-angle perspective that was used during those years.

The main characters, though, are the South Vietnamese, in particular the poor, rural population. One truly courageous people, well-deserving of freedom, peace and prosperity. The long litany of war crimes is graphic and bloody, and after reading about a dozen harrowing incidents, I began to feel overwhelmed by the carnage and bloodshed, the gore and slaughter.

Today, an embedded journalist will only see what she's allowed to see by military PR.