Confronting The Crime Of Silence: Evidence Of U.s. War Crimes In Indochina Ward Churchill, Natsu Saito With this two-volume collection, Ward Churchill and Natsu Saito have assembled material from three of the most powerful documents of the Vietnam era: Bertrand Russell's "International War Crimes Tribunal," the Vietnam Veterans Against the War's "Winter Soldier Investigation," and the congressional records of the "Dellums Committee Hearings on War Crimes in Vietnam," Fully annotated with extensive commentary by the editors, these documents blow away the "fog of war" surrounding US war crimes in Indochina. From "free fire zones" to defoliation campaigns, Jean-Paul Sartre to Green Berets, the testimonies they present paint a picture of wholesale criminality systematically orchestrated by US policy-makers and executed by its foot soldiers. We are offered a chilling view of the moral and legal issues surrounding US military engagement. Examining the evidence of war crimes in Indochina, the "International Tribunal" testimonies include Noam Chomsky, Bertrand Russell, Gabriel Kolko, Tariq Ali, Dave Dellinger and assorted historians, scientists and journalists. From the "Dellums Committee Hearings" and the "Winter Soldier Investigation," we hear from combat soldiers themselves as they recount the grisly realities of a genocidal war. By confronting the silence, Churchill and Saito do justice not only to the victims of our indefensible crimes, but to all of us as we bear our moral responsibility to end today's wars of aggression. Ward Churchill is chair of the Ethnic Studies department at the University of Colorado at Boulder, a winner of the Gustavus Myers Award for Literature on Human Rights and the author of more than 20 books. Natsu Saito is a professor of international law atGeorgia State University and a prolific writer and lecturer. |
