Scott Camil, one of the veterans featured in Winter Soldier
It's a 1972 film called Winter Soldier and it's a documentary about a testimonial event sponsored by the Vietnam Veterans Against the War. In February 1971, shortly after the My Lai massacre was made public, VVAW sponsored a public inquiry into war crimes committed by U.S. forces in Vietnam. The event, called the Winter Soldier Investigation, was held at a Howard Johnson hotel in Detroit and featured more than 120 combat veterans (most of them young men in their late teens and early 20s) describing atrocities they had witnessed and committed during their tours in Vietnam.
The film is captivating. It shows clearly that My Lai was in no way an isolated instance of atrocity but part of a pattern of war crimes committed by American soldiers and marines with the full knowledge of their acquiesent commanders. Listening to the veterans speak, one feels sorry for them having to live through what they did, and it seems that the things they did are natural consequences of men living under the daily stresses of war and have happened over and over again in war since Neolithic times.
I recommend that you all check it out. The film has a lot to say about Vietnam and war generally, and makes you think about what is going on in Iraq and Afghanistan now.
Namaste.
5 comments:
Hi there!
I am looking for a post I read a while ago and don't remember who blog was. I read a beautiful post about an American woman who was tracking in Tibet and came across a Buddhist monk.
The monk asked her what religion she was and she said she didn't follow any (atheist).
And the monk said: Ah! So you are a Buddhist...
And later she became an important female Buddhist in America.
Do you know this story or similar? Not sure if it is all correct.
I am really looking for it everywhere and cannot find it.
If you know please send me the link.
Many thanks
May you be happy, may you be well,
Angel (angelferrary@hotmail.com)
Thanks for the good tip on this film. We will definately check it out.
Peace and Joy!
~Amadeus
I am from india and would deeply appreciate if you could post your email id on your website. I am excited with the kind of analysis you have made on matters like karma, rebirth etc and would like to communicate with you..... i am from india and my email id is : bankerram@yahoo.com.......... pl send me a line in reply
namo buddha...... om mani padme hum
Very nice blog. This is off the topic of this post, but since I didn't see your email I thought I'd ask here if you'd like to review my upcoming book: Saltwater Buddha: a surfer's quest to find Zen on the sea. It comes out this May. More at www.jaimalyogis.com
I don't believe that I could endure it.
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