War Crimes and Politics

There can be no possible doubt that the United States has violated in Indochina the laws of war laid down by the Hague and Geneva Conventions, the principles on which the Nuremberg and Tokyo war crimes trials were based, and several specific regulations in the U.S. Army Field Manual. Air and artillery bombardments of civilian populations and search-and-destroy ground missions were general policies established by the top military command with the support of Washington— where political leaders opted for such policies in preference to an occupation of Vietnam by ground troops, which would have required higher draft calls and more American casualties.

To claim that civilian and military leaders in Washington were unaware that the e...