Vietnam Revisited, Part Two

San Francisco; Taylor, Mich.

A response to Nick Turse's "A My Lai a Month" [Dec. 1; "Letters," Dec. 29]: The Mekong Delta is the most populous area of Vietnam. While serving as infantrymen with the Ninth Division, encountering civilians was a daily occurrence while "on the line" in the Delta. Treatment with respect, and at times kindness, was not uncommon. Our battalion, sometimes attached to Col. Ira Hunt's brigade, operated in Kien Hoa and Dinh Tuong provinces. The idea of "body count" was common throughout the US forces during the Vietnam War, but there was no heavy emphasis on this from our commanders. Most "contact" took place along rivers and heavily wooded areas, where Vietcong secreted their activity.

There was a dusk-to-dawn curfew in Vietnam. We often went on night river ambush patrols to engage enemy activity. It wasn't often we encountered night river traffic, which we would engage. It was believed that if one knew of such a curfew and lived where one would be killed by venturing out at night, one did not do so. The times we did intercept and engage sampans was very late at night, hardly the time one would be late from market. And even at that, there were times we held fire because of the obvious chance for civilian error.

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