War Crime and Vietnam.

I never quite knew the back story to this particular distressing photograph.  The back story is worse.  this man is in fact a bona fide war criminal who broke military discipline and becomes subject to summary judgement.

In the same circumstances, as an officer on what is essentially an active battlefield, I too would have shot him then and there. Sorry snow flakes.

Question of guilt was never an issue here. 

Yet this photo, because it was so compelling, was used to demonize the South Vietnamese who were suddenly fighting for survival and did indeed win the battle of the Tet offensive.  That battle essentially eliminated the Vietcong and the North had to pick up the slack after this battle.  This led to the Cambodian offensive of the Americans to eliminate a buildup in what was a safe haven.

I want to say that had the USA come to its senses and then confronted the North Vietnamese at the DMZ for in fact using regulars to prosecute their war, they had the capacity to roll up North Vietnam.  That could have ended the war in favor of the USA and the Vietnamese.

In the end, they withdrew and the North Vietnamese did just that going the other direction..  .

Is pretending to surrender in a war just to lure your enemy into a trap a war crime?

Garrett Stock, Loved history since I learned I was a part of it.

Perfidy is indeed a war crime, which is why this:

Was and is legal.

During the ongoing Tet offensive, this picture was taken of a high ranking Southern Vietnam official executing a man in civilian clothing.

That man in civilian clothing was an NVA combatant, who had just executed and mangled an entire family of civilians, belonging to a high ranking official in the Southern Vietnamese Army.

This man executed civilians under the guise of being a civilian. This man, pretending not to be a threat to security, snuck past defensive lines to kill unarmed women and children.


 The city was still under attack and the man was guilty, so he was executed accordingly.

While not technically a surrender, it does fall under the use of using unofficial clothing to weave through combatants to get to non-combatants.

As you can see by the bullet going through this man’s head, Perfidy is unacceptable.