Vietnam war

[the_feral_eye]

Who said of Vietnam, words to the effect … “to save this country, we first have to destroy it”?

[hawthorne]

I have a choice for you, one of which I have yet to source.

First there is:

To win in Vietnam, we will have to exterminate a nation. Benjamin Spock* Dr Spock on Vietnam* ch 7

The other, said in regards to the strategic hamlet programme is something like

In order to defend the village it became necessary to destroy it.

It was said by a military officer on the ground, and so far I can’t find who it was.

Is it either of these you were after?

picmr

[hawthorne]

According to the Seattle Times

Tet [the New Year offensive by the North] produced a famous quote from a still-unnamed (and perhaps non-existent) U.S. officer: “We had to destroy the village in order to save it.”

picmr

[cornflakes]

The village was Ben Tre. This says there were 160,000 civilian casualties.

It’s been thirty-two years though. Want to visit it now?

[Ringo]

A related note from Under Fire at Ben Tre:

Peter Arnett of the Associated Press filed a story about Ben Tre in which he quoted an unnamed American army major as saying, “It became necessary to destroy the town in order to save it.” The quote was picked up by newspapers all over the United States. The quotation in Arnett’s story triggered such a widespread, vehement response in the United States that the Pentagon sent a team of military officers to Ben Tre to investigate. Rather than finding out more about what had happened, however, the authorities were interested in identifying the unnamed major quoted by Arnett. The team interviewed many of the advisory team’s military members. There were several army majors in Ben Tre, and all of them stoutly denied being the source of the quotation. Arnett refused to reveal the major’s identity. The investigating team returned to Saigon without having identified the culprit.

That site also gives an estimate of civilian casualties at Ben Tre of 2,500. The first link given by cornflakes does not, as it would appear from his/her summation, claim 160,000 civilian casualties at Ben Tre; rather it claims 165,000 such as a result of the Tet offensive.

Another article, Tet offensive: Attack stunned American public, from the Cincinnati Post mentions Arnett as the source.

[cornflakes]

My mistake, beatle. That’s what I get for posting on the way out the door…

FWIW, I’m a guy.