Poor John McCain Bombed Women and Children and "I Was Following Orders" Is Not a Legal Defense

Richter notes that

"McCain has repeatedly invoked his record in the Vietnam War during the campaign, but that the effect of bomber pilots like McCain and of the Rolling Thunder bombing campaign has not been sufficiently scrutinized.

An ardent opponent of the Vietnam conflict, Taylor spoke with me in the fall of 1966 when I was looking into producing a documentary on this controversy for CBS News, where I was their National Political Editor. While he did not mention any pilot's name, then U.S. Navy Lieut. Commander John McCain, who was captured a year later, would have been among the group Taylor wanted to prosecute. ...

Taylor's argument was that their actions were in violation of the Geneva conventions that specifically forbid indiscriminate bombing that could cause incidental loss of civilian life or damage to civilian objects. Adding to the Geneva code, he noted, was the decision at the Nuremberg trials after World War Two: military personnel cannot defend themselves against such a charge with a claim that they were simply following orders."

The charge that U.S. pilots also had bombed hospitals and other civilian targets, turned out to be correct and was confirmed by the New York Times' chief foreign correspondent, Harrison Salisbury.

"In late 1966 Salisbury described the widespread devastation of civilian neighborhoods around Hanoi by American bombs: 'Bomb damage ... extends over an area of probably a mile or so on both sides of the highway ... small villages and hamlets along the route [were] almost obliterated'.

"In one of his autobiographies McCain wrote that he was going to bomb a power station in 'a heavily populated part of Hanoi' when he was shot down. ...

This author was assistant conductor of the Ho Chi Minh founded Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra during many concerts between 1993 and 1999. Don't expect the Vietnam government to release any records of how many men, women and children were killed or maimed during the twenty-three bombing sorties of pilot John McCain. The Vietnamese have long put the generations of war behind them now and look to the future and the enjoyment of their lives after suffering for years under punishing economic sanctions by a vengeful U.S. government and its allies.

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