War crimes in the Vietnam war

Résumé du document

The Vietnamese people call the Vietnam war the "American War" because it was preceded by a war against the French. The Vietnam War has had tremendous consequences for both the United States and Vietnam. Today, the consequences of the Vietnam war are particularly visible in Vietnam's undeveloped infrastructure, its thousands of victims of chemical warfare, and its hundreds of thousands of missing and wounded. Each war is distinctive from another, but some break records by their extreme features. The United States and its allies exploded 15 million tons of ammunitions from 1964 to 1972. This represents twice the amount that was employed in all of Europe and Asia during World War II. The number of wounded and dead greatly varies in a war, but in a nation of 18 million people in 1970, nearly 3 million Vietnamese were killed, and 4 million others injured, according to Vietnamese assessments. During the era of direct US participation (1961-72), over 55,000 American armymen and women died in the mission. It was the longest war the United States had ever fought, and according to some historians, the first one the US lost. Undertaking a study on war crimes in the Vietnam War, is not an easy task, and so far this issue is at the heart of passionate debates, particularly in the United States. Evoking the moral and legal aspects of war, namely the morality and legality of particular cruel acts that are perpetrated during wartime, causes even more discussions and controversies. Should the United States be accountable for their war crimes in the Vietnam War? Can there be law during wartime ?

Extraits

[...] Jan.-Feb Foundation for National Progress Org Jan Fact Sheet No.13, International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights. Ed. Office of the United Nations High Commisser for Human Rights. July 1991. United Nations, Geneva Nov “International Humanitarian Law and War Crimes” HWR World Report 2001: International Justice. Ed. Human Rights Watch May 2001. Human Right Watch Org., New York Jan International War Crimes May 2002 Jensen, Robert. Vietnam War Is A Study In US Crimes May 2000. Johnson, Kay. [...]

[...] Yet, the Vietnam War had more than a single particularity. We know it was also a war without fronts, with no clear combat zones, therefore making combat impossible. What “necessitates endless crimes against civilians and combatants alike,” Kolko added, the absence of conventional military fronts and areas of uncontested American control.”[49] We should point out here the disputable conception of the invisibility of war crimes. George Kolko suggests in one of his books that “there are never census takers in wars in which civilians become principal targets, ( . [...]

[...] It was therefore the responsibility of States to enact laws in order to investigate and punish those responsible for war crimes, including individuals who ordered them, by either bringing them to their own courts or by turning them over for trial in other countries. Finally, regarding the Fourth Geneva Convention that remains in force today, states must cooperate in prosecuting offenders in peacetime as well as in wartime to prevent grave breaches from reoccurring.[11] In relation to our topic, it may be wise, if not interesting, to mention also Law of Land Warfare” from the 1956 U.S. Army Official Manual,[12] as it referred to all of the foregoing provisions above as being obligatory for all members of the American army. Indeed, this U.S. [...]

[...] Brown, War and Aftermath in Vietnam, op. cit., p 201. [198] L.B. Shriver, History of War Crimes,” op. cit [199] “International Humanitarian Law and War Crimes,” HWR World Report 2001: International Justice, op. cit [200] Peter Maguire, “Vietnam War Erased the Line Between Soldiers and Civilians,” op. cit., A33. [201] Bernard Olderman, law for the US, another for others,” The Nation Feb. 1998: C1. [202] Robert Jensen, “Vietnam War Is A Study In US Crimes,” op. cit., . [...]

[...] However, in 1998 at a meeting in Rome, Washington has opposed the International Criminal Court act, although it had originally urged that this court be created. The U.S. changed its point of view, under heavy pressure from the Pentagon. Why has it done so? The official reason was that the U.S. would support the court only if America were exempt from its jurisdiction. This is what may present the problem for the U.S. government. Had the Rome treaty been created thirty years ago, it is imaginable that U.S. [...]