The National Committee for a Citizens Commission of Inquiry on U.S. War Crimes in Vietnam (CCI) was founded in New York by Ralph Schoenman in November 1969 to document American atrocities throughout Indochina. The formation of the organization was prompted by the disclosure of the My Lai Massacre on November 12, 1969 by Seymour Hersh, writing for the New York Times. The group was the first to bring to public attention the testimony of American Vietnam War veterans who had witnessed or participated in atrocities.
Contents
Origins
Schoenman had previously worked on the International War Crimes Tribunal founded by Bertrand Russell. Schoenman left CCI in the hands of two New Left anti-war activists, Tod Ensign and Jeremy Rifkin. They were joined in early 1970 by several Vietnam War veterans, including Robert Bowie Johnson, a West Point graduate and former infantry captain, and Michael Uhl, a retired 1st lieutenant in military intelligence.
Overview
CCI's first press conference was in Toronto, Canada, March 4, 1970. Ensign and Rifkin convened three more press conferences in the following two months: Springfield, Massachusetts (April 6, 1970); New York City, New York and Los Angeles, California (April 14); and Boston, Massachusetts (May 7, 1970). Uhl then traveled to Sweden and Australia to brief reporters that American Vietnam war veterans had first-hand evidence of atrocities they had either witnessed or committed themselves. CCI continued to mount press conferences in other cities, culminating in a three-day National Veterans Inquiry, held in Washington, D.C. on December 1, 2 and 3.
The testimony offered by veterans at these CCI events provided documentation that American atrocities in Vietnam were not uncommon. This evidence was a counterpoint to the U.S. Army command’s assertion that the My Lai Massacre was an exception. The Citizens Commission of Inquiry leaders asserted that atrocities committed by American soldiers were a result of military field policies like “search-and-destroy,” "free-fire zones" and “forced urbanization,” the saturation bombing of villages believed to be controlled by enemy forces.
Major Events When American Veterans or GIs Offered Testimony About War Crimes in Vietnam
Impact and Legacy
Telford Taylor, former chief U.S. prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials stated on the Dick Cavett Show that General William Westmoreland might be convicted as a war criminal if Nuremberg principles from World War II were applied to the Vietnam War. Taylor, himself a retired brigadier general in the Army Reserve, explained that the U.S. Army applied this standard of justice in the trial of Japanese General Tomoyuki Yamashita. Yamashita was convicted of war crimes and hanged for atrocities committed by his troops in the Philippines. Taylor attributed his opinion to the evidence of atrocities and war crimes offered by veterans and active-duty soldiers, who were testifying under the auspices of the Citizens Commission of Inquiry.
The Concerned Officers Movement was formed by five officers, all active duty, who met under the auspices of Citizens Commission of Inquiry as they prepared to ask the secretaries of the Army and Navy to convene courts of inquiry to determine whether American soldiers committed war crimes in Vietnam. Four of the officers were stationed at Fort Meade, Maryland: Capt. Robert J. Master and Capt. Grier Goodwin, both doctors; Capt. Edward G. Fox, a zoologist in the Army Medical Service Corps; First Lieutenant Louis Font, a West Point graduate. A fifth officer, Lieut. (jg.) Peter Dunkelberger, was a management systems analyst stationed at the Pentagon.
The Winter Soldier Investigation, which ran from January 31, 1971 to February 2, 1971, followed in the paths of both the Citizens Commission of Inquiry and the Russell Tribunal. This event was organized by Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and some of its leaders have credited CCI with establishing the credibility of veterans' voices of dissent. Internal divisions between the two groups led each to work independently of the other.
The Citizens Commission of Inquiry disbanded in December 1971.