138 I Village at War
Many others spoke of the foot patrols and ambushes, and still others
described a gas which from time to time filled the air around Eagle and
drifted into the village. This was C.S. tear gas, which the Army used for
riot control and other military purposes. A lOlst document describes the
gas, which has a nauseating effect when inhaled, as effective for "areas
where the enemy is intermingled with the civilian population. ' , 24 Accord-
ing to a peasant woman, "I can remember so many times when the gas
would come out from the American camp. And I can remember choking
and not being able to see because of the gas."
Bullets from Eagle's defenders frequently rained on the village. "The
Americans were always shooting up flares to illuminate the ground, and
they fired at nothing at all," remembered a tradesman. "You would think
that the American camp was always under attack. ' , Others concurred in
this, and suggested that it was a rare night indeed when the crackle of
small arms fire did not sound at Camp Eagle. Adding to the racket were
the tremendous, piercing concussions of artillery pieces, fired from Eagle
to support military operations in the province.2s
Several contended that sometimes there was a veritable frenzy offiring
around the camp. A former lOlst soldier called such episodes "mad min-
utes." He described them: 26
Our mad minutes. ..were at the perimeter fence. Every once in a while at
Camp Eagle, every two months or so, the order would just come down, .'Okay
guys go to it." You got a mad minute. And everybody picks up a weapon with
both hands, both feet, and they shoot. They don't care what they shoot at, just
as long as it's away from the base area. That's a lot of fun too. All those sickies.
A peasant recalled that on several occasions he observed a "wall of
fire" around the camp. The American explained this phenomenon: 27
On our perimeter we had. ..what's known as Fugas. ...It's flammable, and
they put it in barrels. What they do to it is they explode the barrel over an area
and this flamingjell-like substance lands on everything, ifit's people or animals
or whatever. And you can't get it off. It just bums, and you rub it and it sticks
on. You just spread it all around.
From the standpoint of the 101st commanders, Eagle's perimeter de-
fense was far from the most important American military activity in the
village. And from the standpoint of the people, it was far from the most
disruptive. Over the years, patrols of U .S. soldiers crisscrossed the vil-
lage, sometimes in combination with Vietnamese soldiers. The patrols
usually came every day, day and night, and often involved house-to-
house searches for suspects or weapons. Choppers sometimes ferried
men out to village ricefields, and American air strikes and artillery occa-
sionally supported ground operations.
There was also continued dislocation of village residents by the camp.
Sometime in 1969, Government officials, at the request of 101st comman-
ders, ordered several families living along the camp access road to move
Fighting the Eagle I 139
their houses back several yards from the road. They cited security re-
quirements, and promised restitution payments. The families complied
with the request, despite great reluctance to do so and some futile protests
to American and Government authorities.
The lOlst employed nearly every tactic in the book in My Thuy
Phuong, and there were some tactical aberrations. The recollections of
many people permit reconstruction of three illustrative incidents involv-
ing lOlst soldiers:
1. In early 1968, just after establishment of Camp Eagle, 20 or 30 choppers raced
to the village ricefields, hovered low over the swirling, rippling rice stalks and
unloaded their passengers, about 150 fully equipped U .S. soldiers. The troops
quickly proceeded to round up three or four peasants, who had no time to flee.
The Americans tied the peasants' hands behind their backs and looped ropes
around their necks and between them. When the Americans pushed or pulled
one among their prisoners, all the tied men suffered. The 101st soldiers led the
peasants to a small bridge over a canal, where five or six Americans forced
them to sit. The captors then took turns punching and kicking the captives, and
swore and spat at them. According to one of the peasants held that day, "They
were so insane and angry that we were certain they were going to kill us." One
American urinated on two of his captives. Later, after the beatings and humili-
ations had reduced the men to semiconsciousness, the Americans wandered
off, leaving their tied captives on the bridge.
2. Another day in 1968, so-called .'death on call" Cobra choppers and spotter
planes circled low over My Thuy Phuong.28 "We had never seen so many at
one time before," said a peasant. "There was a big operation, and lots of
gunfire." The Americans apparently felt threatened by something that day, for
they called in an air strike. Two or three bombs fell from a fighter plane on one
run over the village. "It was frightful," said a peasant woman. .'1 shook all
over, and was very afraid." The bombs landed in the ricefields, and damaged
the walls of an irrigation canal. A spark or shrapnel from the explosions
touched. off a fire in a nearby house, and the flames consumed three peasants.
Two of the victims were children.
3. One night sometime in 1969, a squad of U.S. soldiers patrolled the hamlet
closest to Camp Eagle. The soldiers were armeq with M-16automatic rifles,
pistols, knives, and grenades. They moved cautiously along a sandy, winding
footpath, lined on either side by vegetable plots and shade trees. They entered
a peasant house, a small wooden structure. One soldier remained in front and
another moved behind it to stand guard. The others entered the door and saw a
small family group huddled fearfully in front of them. There was an old man,
his wife, a 14-year-old boy, and two high school age daughters. In pidgin
Vietnamese, but mostly in English, one of the 101st soldiers ordered the Viet-
namese to stand. The soldiers searched the old man and the boy, and pushed
them to a corner, where an American stood over them with a threatening M-16.
Clearly the villagers were prisoners in their own home. Choking with emotion
as she spoke, the mother recalled what happened next: "They pushed us
around and attacked my daughters. They pushed them to the ground, and raped
them again and again."
Although many spoke of American patrols, bombing, and artillery
strikes as if they occurred daily, it is uncertain how often the air strikes ,
choppers, artillery strikes, and American patrols came to the village.
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