Book Review: Tiger Force, Sallah & Weiss

*****

Many, many years after Seymour Hersh shocked America with the revelations of what President Nixon described as the 'isolated incident' of My Lai [1], Tiger Force presents another example of the fascinating but by now sadly familiar tale of war crimes by US soldiers in Vietnam, revealing such actions to be far from singular occurrences.

Tiger Force in fact tells four distinct stories, interwoven. The major story is a narrative of the actions of The titular Tiger Force, in two particularly nasty episodes in '67, with heavy use of firsthand accounts, focussing on numerous individual soldiers. These range from those like Lt. Hawkins, Sgt. Doyle and Pvt. Ybarra, who appear to revel in the violence, to men such as Medics Causey and Bowman, and Pvt. Bruner, who attempt to stem (and report) a rising tide of wanton butchery. 

Pvt. Sam Ybarra, infamous for his human-ear necklaces.

A very minor counterpoint, in terms of the space given over to it, is the view from the victims and relatives, the Vietnamese whose 'hearts and minds' the US allegedly hoped to win over [2]. How anyone in the American chain of command imagined forced resettlement and indiscriminate killing would achieve this beggars belief. 

In addition to these two contemporary threads there are two later developments, the CID* investigation under Guy Apsey and, much later, the final breaking of the story in the media, by the authors of this book, in a series of newspaper features.

Jungle conditions were made worse by such delights as punji sticks. [3]

Tigers on patrol in the jungle.

Compared with the WWII and Napoleonic history I usually read, this 'Nam material is delivered in a more pulpy thriller type manner, exciting to read but less scholarly, and quite basic, occasionally veering into repetitiveness. The latter perhaps a result of a series of articles being turned into a book? That said, it's a compelling easy read. 

Tiger Force were an almost secret semi-guerilla unit, designed to fight the Viet Cong on their own turf and in their own way, using methods ordinary US line units wouldn't employ. Unfortunately, but very predictably, things quickly got out of hand. Or, and worse still, a culture of racist imperialist violence was actively fostered, not always overtly or in such stark terms, but sometimes hidden under such elastic euphemisms as 'free-fire zones'. 

Medic, Rion Causey.

Sgt. Barnett.

What's perhaps most puzzling to someone like me is that anybody's surprised that war encourages such things: the grunts and the peasants are always on the sharp end. The former, young men, many from the lower sections of society, often from poor or rough backgrounds, get to vent their unresolved adolescent anger upon the hapless civilian innocents, both soldiers and civilians being caught in the crossfire of huge vague ideological currents that are stoked and fanned by older men, miles away from dirt and death on the ground. It's an obvious recipe for hell on earth.

Still, as Thomas Hardy famously said, peace makes dull reading. The horrors of war keep the pages turning. Despite My Lai, this is a story that needs constant retelling, every time it happens. But the prolonged atrocities of Tiger Force were swept under the carpet. The depressing thing one can't help but conclude is that we learn precious little from our mistakes, and therefore seem doomed to keep repeating them.

Tiger Force troops in more amiable mood. [4]

Tiger Force is a fascinating product of investigative journalism, based on true and disturbing events.  Books like this, whilst also giving the reader something very engaging to read, also offer us a sobering challenge for the future. Not an out and classic. But certainly worth reading.

* Obviously not our UK CID (Criminal Investigation Department), but the US Army's Criminal Investigation Division!

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NOTES:

A shorter piece by Sallah on this topic can be read here.

[1] Read Hersh on this subject here.

[2] It was LBJ, president Johnson, who famously used the 'hearts and minds phrase'. There's also a 1975 documentary on Vietnam by that name, which is worth watching.

[3] This picture shows a member of a Tiger Force having a punji stick wound dressed in the field. Punji sticks are sharpened bamboo stakes which were often smeared with human faeces, designed to cause infections of the wounds they would cause if stepped upon.

[4] At the time Apsey started his investigations Tiger Force was a shadowy unit, with hardly any official trace to be found. That's no longer true. As well as the infamy of this sad story, it should also be remembered that the unit served with distinction in Vietnam. It wasn't all rampant butchery. Now there's a website devoted to the unit, past and present (visit it here). And yes, there is still a Tiger Force unit in existence as part of the 101st Airborne.

Film Review: Tigerland, 2000

In some very loose way, Tigerland follows the format of Full Metal Jacket, being split between a big first chunk in training, at the eponymous Tigerland training centre (a U.S. Army training facility at Fort Polk, Lousiana), and a second lesser chunk, in combat in Vietnam.

Colin Farrell, as Pvt. Roland Bozz. On a Bus...

... and with his buddy Paxton, hanging out in the latrines.

Full Metal Jacket just seems better on every level; better conceived, better executed, better acted and better directed. Just plain better. Given that Full Metal Jacket's already out there, I'm not quite sure why Joel Schumacher made this more insipid movie.

I don't remember any part of the film being as exciting as this image suggests.*

At the time of first writing this (ages ago now), I had only just watched it, very recently. And yet I could remember almost nothing about it. Other than it seemed to be a papiér-maché light edifice built of weakly acted thinly characterised clichés. I found it reasonably watchable - i.e. I got through it all - but totally unmoving and forgettable. 

Not recommended!

* Actually, I don't remember anything about this film, other than it seemed like a waste of my time.

Film Review: Hamburger Hill, 1987

May '69, the 101st Airborne, or 'Screaming Eagles', are ordered to take Hill 937, a heavily fortified North Vietnamese strongpoint. Repeated assaults ensue and, due to heavy U.S. losses, the battle acquires the nickname Hamburger Hill.

This portrayal of those events is, like most American 'Nam movies, told pretty much entirely from the U.S. perspective. The disparity of means at the disposal of the engaging forces is depicted accurately, in that the Americans, if they don't always outnumber, certainly outgun their adversaries, calling in artillery and air support their foe simply don't have.

Dylan McDermott as Sgt. Frantz.

In some ways this is just another typical 'Nam movie; just like the Asian cookery of the region, certain key ingredients are esssential: most of the actors are perhaps rather too good looking to be entirely plausible, there's the ubiquitous war-weary male combat banter, and the movie as a whole straddles that paradoxical divide between a homage to 'our brave boys', and a condemnation of the wasteful brutality of war.

The core of the film shares a common theme with many contemporary war films, and real combat (from what I've read), in which soldiers ultimately fight for themselves and the men close to them - stay alive, stay together - rather than for any ideology. The themes of bonding and loss under extreme conditions are certainly major components of this film.

Courtney Vance as 'Doc' Johnson (right). [1]

Other prominent and interesting sub-themes are: ongoing issues of racial tension, a growing awareness of the anti-war movement 'back home', and doubt in the soldiers minds over why the battle/war is being fought at all. Where Hamburger Hill differentiates itself most noticeably from some other similar genre pieces is in its tight focus on a small ensemble of soldiers - 3rd Squad, 1st Platoon - fighting one particular ten day battle.

Ultimately it's the characters and the actors portraying them that make or break a film like this. The film's central character, Sgt. Frantz (Dylan McDermott), is good in this respect, as is Sgt. Worcester (Steve Weber), his war-weary immediate superior. The cast of largely less than familiar faces acquit themselves well; underneath all the macho army banter lurk real human beings. Courtney Vance deserves special mention for his charismatic portrayal of medic 'Doc' Johnson. These guys are believable enough that one really does feel engaged in their story.

The ensemble cast.

A second viewing confirms that it's this ensemble quality, and the above average quality of the dialogue, that lift this film above the purely workmanlike. Yes, a lot of the macho banter sounds clichéd - and in many ways it is - but that's a part of the reality of the tribalism that develops amongst fiercely competing all male groups. But there's also some subtler stuff in there to. The other thing that struck me powerfully on second viewing is the insane sacrifices demanded of the 'grunts'.

An impressive CGI-free production, in which terrain and weather play notable roles, Hamburger Hill sits between the old school epics, in which the violence of war is suggested more than depicted, and the more recent trend towards splat-fests. Whilst there's a lot of mud and blood, it's only occasionally punctuated with a smattering - or should that be a splattering? - of more shockingly visceral moments.

Enjoying behind the lines comforts.

Less self-consciously aestheticised or (pseudo?) philosophical than The Thin Red Line, and completely eschewing the over-hyped psychedelic rock-opera stylings of Apocalypse Now, Hamburger Hill is correspondingly that much more realistic. Not an instant classic, but a powerful grower, and more than just good solid fare for the war movie junkie.

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NOTES:

[1] I sometimes wondered if the racial elements might have contributed to some of the ideas in Tropic Thunder.