Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Winning Hearts & Minds

Bill Moyers had a guest the other day who described the process by which the Taliban in Afghanistan recruited and indoctrinated young male villagers in remote regions.

I was reminded that, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Following is a piece written by Bill Negron, my former Company Commander in Vietnam who, during his first tour in Vietnam (1964-1965), was an advisor to the South Vietnamese Marines. He recalled the following incident which is chillingly similar to that attributed to the Taliban.

We were there not only to check the village defenses, but gather information. Even though the strategic hamlet program was effective, many villagers still lived on the family plots in the countryside. Our mission was to bring people into the hamlet and break the Viet-Cong infrastructure in these villages.

The next three days were spent visiting the villages and walking the land. Each night we set up the largest house in the village. The inhabitants were relegated to other houses or out buildings next to the main house. How were we to gain support of the people for the central government when its soldiers treated the villagers with such distain? We ate their rice and killed their chickens and pigs, all in the name of liberation.

On the third day, we entered a village on the side of a canal we had traversed earlier in the day. The main house in the village was still smoldering and the out-buildings were gutted by fire. A body lay in front of the house. An old woman, a young girl, and a child of about two were looking down on the corpse. The body was laying face up with a clean reddish purple hole in the middle of the forehead. His right hand had been severed just above the wrist. A Viet-Cong propaganda leaflet was pinned to his chest with a bamboo spike.

There were about forty people in the village consisting of old men and women, young women and small children. The old woman told the grim tale. He had been the village chief, elder, and her husband. The Viet-Cong had been using the village as a stop off point for the past three months. During these incursions they gathered the young men and lectured them on the evils of the central government. The old man had always cooperated. He had no love for the central government, but only wanted to be left alone. After the first visits no one joined the cause, but the Viet-Cong still took rice an an occasional pig or chicken. The old man thought it was not a high price to pay for being left alone.

That morning, they entered the village and, as usual, gathered everyone together. They were given a lecture by someone the residents hadn't seen before. After a heated discussion, the village chief was grabbed from behind, had his hands bound, and was made to kneel in front of the lecturer.


He was then stuck several times and told that the guerillas needed more volunteers and he was not cooperating. The old man disagreed and said so to the lecturer at which point the lecturer drew his weapon, demanded that all gathered look, and shot him in the forehead. The boys were then told that if they didn't join the movement, the same fate would await their parents.

They proceeded to burn his house, take his livestock and consumables, and left, herding the village boys ahead of them.

We arrived on the scene about a half hour later.

War is and has always been horrifically nasty business.

Top photo: Bill Negron, June 1968
Lower photo: Bill Negron, March 2009