RE: Session 3: The Winter Soldier Investigation, Testimony given in Detroit, Michigan, on January 31, 1971 and 2, 1971.
The following "testimony" was presented which is false and misleading. On November 16, 1969 the US Special Forces Camp at Bu Prang, Quang Duc, South Vietnam was attacked by artillery fire from Cambodia a few miles to the North. In response to this attack, in self-defense, the weapons firing on the camp were attacked by USAF F-100 aircraft. These aircraft were at all times under the control of a USAF Forward Air Controller (FAC) flying in the area and marking the location of the guns with smoke. There were no buildings within miles of these guns. The attack was not in response to the shoot down of the "observation plane"; it was in response to their artillery fire. I know, I was the pilot of that aircraft.
In addition, the "testimony" has been recently edited for some reason.
George Lattin
USAF Retired
glattin@prodigy.net
The Winter Soldier Investigation, Testimony given in Detroit, Michigan, on January 31, 1971 and 2, 1971.
"I want to conclude by briefly mentioning another very serious violation concerning conventional weapons, the results of which I personally witnessed and photographed in Cambodia. This was about 200 miles north of where the defoliation occurred. It was an attack upon a Cambodian anti-aircraft position in late November 1969 in which 25 Cambodian soldiers were killed by 500-lb. bombs by F-100 fighter planes. It is the post at Dak Dahm, which is right across from the Special Forces camp at Bu Prang. I don't know if you people know where that is, up in the central highlands. Now, the reason for the attack was that the Cambodians had defended their air space by shooting an American observation plane, shooting it down, that had been flying over them. In response, the United States Air Force attacked this position, killed these Cambodian soldiers and attacked a hospital. I'll show you the destroyed, well-marked hospital; and they also attacked an ambulance".
http://lists.village.virginia.edu/sixties/.../WS_10_Weapons.html"Now, I want to conclude by showing you--I just can't resist showing you--what happened to the Cambodians at Dak Dahm. That is a Soviet thirty-seven millimeter aircraft gun, which they have every right to have, and it had fired at an American plane. While we were there, we saw at least three aircraft openly violate, fly right over, right across Cambodia--American aircraft. The whole gun crew here was killed, of course.
(Next Slide) Here's a trench. About fifteen of them were dug out of this trench where they were taking cover. On the skyline there is Vietnam and the Special Forces camp at Bu Prang. We can see it. What made the Americans mad and was that they want to be able to fly over Cambodia to maintain good aerial reconnaissance and because the Cambodians had the gall to defend their air space, they decided to take out this post.
(Next Slide) There is the smashed up hospital. And it was well-marked. There were bomb craters about one hundred feet away from this. We picked up medicine, etc. The point about this hospital was it was at least a quarter of a mile from the gun positions. It was deliberately attacked. I'm ashamed to have to...it breaks my heart to have to say this about...what our government had done. Whether this is an aberrant phenomenon, I don't know...but I saw this with my own eyes. Here are the broken bottles.
(Next Slide) This is Art Westing down in one of these craters. This is a five hundred pound bomb crater. This is the one that knocked over the hospital. It was not aimed at the military installation at all".
http://lists.village.virginia.edu/sixties/.../WS_11_Weapons.html
