Editorial

2004-05-09

Tiger Force

By the time you read this, you may already have heard about the Tiger Force, an American military unit that operated in Vietnam. I have no idea what and how much you have heard about it, but I believe that in the interests of openness and transparency in government, this kind of information should be presented to the American people. We are the basis of democracy. We, not our leaders, bear the ultimate responsibility for what goes on in our name. It is essential that we know what goes on and that we shoulder the responsibility. To do less is to fail not only our country, but our children, some of whom ultimately get caught up in the lies, the killing, the torturing and the slaughter.

Yes, at this moment, the buck stops with George W. Bush, but even if he were man enough to shoulder that responsibility, the ultimate decision rests with us. We have control through the ballot box. We must exercise that control so as to get back at least the vision of what our country could be like, with liberty and justice for all.

The Tiger Force report by the Toledo (Ohio) Blade is too lengthy to report on this site. However, it can be accessed easily from the link provided below.

Following are a few quotes from Ron Royhab, the Executive Editor of the Blade:

This series reveals for the first time anywhere that members of a platoon of American soldiers from the 101st known as Tiger Force slaughtered an untold number of Vietnamese civilians over a seven-month period in 1967.

After a 4 1/2 -year Army investigation concluded that at least 18 Tiger Force soldiers committed war crimes, the matter was dropped by the Army. The official files were buried in the Army's archives since 1975, and to this day military officials continue to withhold them from the public.

Why would we write about war crimes committed by American soldiers during an unpopular war 36 years ago? Why would we spend eight months researching records, interviewing more than 100 people, and travel to two provinces in Vietnam, and to California, Arizona, Washington state, Indiana, Washington, and several cities in Ohio and Michigan for this story?

This was a serious topic of discussion among Blade editors and the newspaper's publisher and editor-in-chief, John Robinson Block. One reason is that the public has a right to know that American soldiers committed atrocities and that our government kept them from the public. We would have been party to a cover-up if we had knowledge of these war crimes and did not publish the story.

Wrongdoing on this grand a scale is always significant. It is important to know what happened and why it happened because that's how a democracy functions. The people need to know what is being done in their name and who is responsible

In this case, we still don't know who made the final decision not to prosecute. The Nixon White House received case updates of the Tiger Force investigation in 1972 and 1973 at the request of presidential counsel John Dean. Reports also went to Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger and Secretary of the Army Howard "Bo" Callaway.

The decision not to prosecute was made more than a year after Gerald Ford became president in August, 1974, but it is not known how far up in the Ford administration the decision went.

This country has a long and proud tradition of behaving honorably on foreign soil. It is because of that tradition, and because of the finest traditions of American journalism, that we are compelled to publish this report about American soldiers failing to live up to the proper standards, and our government's failure to hold them accountable.

Some of the stories over the four days will not be pleasant reading. But we think you should have the opportunity to read them all.

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=SRTIGERFORCE

I suggest that you also read the article entitled Tiger Force - The Scalping by Mike Davis in our Government Deception archive, 2004-05-06. Davis notes that during the Ford Administration, the Secretary of Defense was Donald Rumsfeld and the Chief of Staff was Richard Cheney.

BJF