Hearts and Minds by Keith Gum

We crowded on top of sizzling-hot Patton tanks heading north of Dong Ha near Gio Linh. The tanks halted at fifty-yard intervals while we assembled for an assault across an open field to hamlets hidden under bamboo and trees. A Vietnamese appeared with a loudspeaker to warn them of our intent. Panic-stricken villagers dashed to the dusty highway, carrying babies, older siblings in tow. 90-mm guns opened fire at distant targets well beyond earshot of the ARVN speaker. Without warning, they had no path of escape. The daily barrage laid waste the entire plain as we moved west toward the mountains. The dead lay in the fields alongside their livestock.

"Truth is the first casualty of war.” Compassion is a close second. With the devil at our heels, sympathy for peasant families vanished (if it ever existed). We never compared ourselves to the Wehrmacht, but I fear there may be survivors in those villages today that disagree.

Marine Corps officers enforced iron-fisted discipline. They never tolerated deliberate acts of violence against civilians, even as airstrikes leveled villages. Shot or blown to bits? In the peasants’ eyes, did it matter? An operation is a coordinated effort. Were we any less responsible?