If you thought you knew all there was to know about the
Vietnam War, you were wrong. For example: ever heard of the "Mere Gook
Rule," a code of conduct the US military came up with in order to make it
easier for soldiers to murder Vietnamese civilians without feeling too bad
about it? ("It's only a mere gook you're killing!")
Well, few people knew about this bit of history either until
author Nick Turse discovered it in secret US military archives, which he used
as the primary sources for his new(ish) book, Kill Everything That Moves: The
Real American War in Vietnam. The book is based on Turse's discovery of
theretofore secret internal military investigations of US-perpetrated
atrocities alongside extensive reporting in Vietnam and among American veterans,
and it reminds us that the most significant fact about the Vietnam War is its
most overlooked: massive and devastating Vietnamese civilian suffering.
