Why did the American soldiers rape the Vietnamese during the war?

Question

Is the US responsible for human rights violations?

Does the US government owe Vietnam an apology?

http://lists.village.virginia.edu/sixties/HTML_docs/Texts/Scholarly/Stuldreher_Rape.html

Answer 1

This doesn't belong on the Vietnam Travel.  It is a bad thing that such things happen; but you should post this on a different question area.  Thanks

Answer 2

this is one of the ugly faces of war.

Answer 3

Americans drafted forced to fight, who were barely even men and most still living with their parents, sent to a foreign country. Now there's Viet Minh which is o.k. but now there's also Viet Cong. So now you're in south vietnam and you don't know who's Viet Cong and who's your ally. The trained, seasoned, and ready-for-anything French Legion could not even handle these guys and the US gov. was foolish enough to throw high school graduate conscripts to "resolve" a conflict. I'm sure there were boys out there who knew they could "get away with it" and had an evil heart and couldn't control themselves. When a person is surrounded by horror, it's very possible for that person to become a monster. The things that happened in Vietnam that u.s. troops did to innocent women and children are unbearable to me. It reminds me of WW2 when innocent Japanese families were  forced to kill eachother. Anyway I can't keep talking about this, I feel sick.

The government could been wiser to say that very young men and conscripts would extend the tragedy. They could have been smart enough to send an army of the best of their best. Nonetheless, the us military learned many invaluable lessons from their mistakes in vietnam

Answer 4

An unfortunate by product of war is crime. One of the worst crimes is rape. The United States does not owe the Vietnam an apology for the criminal conduct of some of its soldiers. There has never been a US policy of rape of foreign nationals. It is when there is a policy encouraging that behavior then the government has culpability.

However the US government does a better job following through with accusations of rape this time around.

Answer 5

because they had the power and were brats

Answer 6

They must have felt as though this is a way of exercising power over the Vietnamese people. To violate the women gave them a false sense of superiority and kind of says to the Vietnamese men "Hey. Look how we're treating your women." Unfortuantely, many people are oblivious to these kind of acts and think that US soldiers could do no such thing. That is absolute BS nad it happens all of the time. Even now in Iraq (and other places our troops are) women are being raped every single day - even gang raped by groups of soldiers. Just a year or so ago, a Brittish soldier who represented the United Nations in Africa to bring relief supplies to a village were convicted of raping 2 young girls. One even had a child and teh DNA proved everything. It's a tragedy. People need to wake up and see that not ALL soldiers are saints. An apology is definately in order.

Answer 7

Unlucky because most of true and useful documents about that war are in Vietnamese language. You can read some short sentences in the website below in the part "Struggle for national liberation".

But just think, what will you do if someone comes to your house and says: "you have to work for me, give me all things which you have, I will rule you in your house. IF you don't do, you will be killed"? And when you dad resists, that person kills your dad. It was history but we should learn for today.

You should ask Vietnamese who lived in the war and are living after the war in Vietnam. You will understand.

Answer 8

heck know we dont owe them a apology, Look what they did to our soldiers over there, booby traps, torture, prison camps, excutions, In some cases littles kids were packing grenades, as we trusted them. I shouldn't even comment on this bringing back bad memories, and no I didn't rape anyone.

Answer 9

Power corrupts... absolute power absolutely... The soldiers wha are meant to be 'saviors' have the option of using this power espscially when they know they would get away with it. Men (or women) are not born villains.... but if they know that they can get away despite being one, there is a good chance they would become one. Any government whose power has not gone to its head must apologise atleast when it sees an error it has made. That is responsible governing.

Answer 10

of course they owe an apology.. and its not only from Vietnam...

Answer 11

they sure do

Answer 12

because they were horny over in Nam with no women and they needed some action

Answer 13

yes , they need to do that, but ****, they ignor it, and don't want to remind it .

Answer 14

The us owes the world a apology really .Men do things in war that is unconscionable rape is one and the previous person was right men were horny and had no release so they raped women and children No excuse but its the truth .Its Probably happening in afgan and Iraq right now .We just dont hear about it . Ibelive any soilder that rapes in a foregin country should have to stand trial in that country and be punished by that countrys standards