Untold War Crimes.

  Anyone that has done any research on the Vietnam War has some knowledge about war crimes. Some argue that it wasn't a large widespread occurrence but just a exclusive few. A very popular and well researched newspaper The Toledo Blade did a four day series of in depth articles about the war crimes of the "Tiger Force" unit of the army who were infamously know for carrying out the "longest" series of war crimes. But even the Toledo Blade argues an "exceptionalistic view" that the war crimes such as My Lai and the Tiger Force were isolated events. None of the Tiger Force were ever prosecuted or punished for their actions.

 Turse stated in his article "The Vietnam War Crimes You Never Heard Of" that body count was the goal of most troops during the war and the units with the highest were rewarded with various prizes. They were many stories of artocities such as the "mere gook rule" which said "If its dead and vietnamese, its VC". One member on the Tiger Force , Sergeant Roy E. Bumgarner, was rumored to have gathered civilians and taken them out to a secluded area and murdered them. He would set off a grenade and plant weapons on their bodies to make it look like they were enemy militia. Unlike some other troops accused Bumgarner was actually charged with premeditated murder but got off with a mere manslaughter charge, fine, and a demotion and later re-enlisted.
 
    The Tiger Force was only one of the many incidents though most were undocumented. Turse lists many formerly classified documents of crimes such as: a sergeant severing the ear of corpse to use as a hood ornament, a 13 year old child being raped, the murder of 2 small vietnamese children, the gun down of 3 innocent working civilians. Turse argues that though these types of war crimes weren't an everyday occurrence for these soldiers it wasn't as rare as people try to argue. Atrocities such as the My Lai massacre and the Tiger Force may be some of the most well know and publicized but they are just a few of many.