A Book Report: Silence Was A Weapon

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NAGO on far left. The Rescue of River City is excellent, but ends with a sad note. One of his warrior's, Bao, went into the hills to continue fighting the Communists after the end. Years later, the Communists told Bao's sister that if he and his men turned themselves in, then they would grant them amnesty. Unfortunately, he believed them, and when he came to Chau Doc to surrender, they immediately took him to the marketplace and promptly executed him. Drew Dix ends his book with the follow words.

"It was a humiliating way for a warrior to go and I often think of him

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A few weeks ago, while on the road, HH6 and I stopped to do some shopping at a local thrift shop (a favorite past time). Amongst the other items she found, HH6 found a couple of books for me. Most notable of these, thus far, is a book I read decades ago, in junior high or high school, on the Vietnam conflict.

“Silence Was A Weapon: The Vietnam War in the Villages,” by Stuart A. Herrington, is a study of the author’s experience as a young military intelligence Captain in the Phoenix Program. Because of the relevance of this book to the subject of this blog, I’m going to take the time to quote some excerpts, and interject my own commentary on why any specific excerpt is relevant, and how it ties into the resistance side of the spectrum, versus the counter-insurgent’s.

As COL. Herrington (as an interesting historical note, now retired Colonel Herrington’s audit of Abu Ghraib was one of the primary causes of the public exposure of the abuses that were occurring there. As will be seen below, his experiences and the abuses he witnessed in Vietnam led to a career-long disgust with torture and “enhanced interrogations.”) points out in the preface to his book, the views he expressed were “offered with the sincere hope that they will assist in clarifying why the well-intentioned efforts of our country to win the “hearts and minds” of the South Vietnamese people ended with the ignominious departure of our ambassador from the roof of his embassy in an evacuation helicopter.“

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