In the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, Israel is crucified daily in the press because of civilian casualties suffered in Gaza. Israel repeatedly warns civilians of an impending bomb strike and tries to minimize casualties with every incursion. There is not nor has there ever been an army who pre-warns their enemy that a strike is coming. Hamas routinely uses schools, hospitals and residences from which they fire rockets, and when these locations are marked for destruction by Israeli forces, the whole world criticizes them for the minimal collateral damage that is absolutely unavoidable.
But you never hear the press or any of the military talking about the horrendous amount of killing of non-combatants that went on in Vietnam.
Virtually the only time this type of incident was reported on was the My Lai murders, but that was only a small massacre in terms of the overall scope of what happened during the war.
Turse dives into secret files and Pentagon briefs and talks to soldiers who were there in the telling of his horrible tale. Civilians were routinely gunned down, tortured and murdered as an ongoing American policy. Entire villages were destroyed in the belief they may have been hiding the Viet Cong. Women, children, babies and the elderly were not immune to American guns.
This is a remarkable book and terrifying in its honesty. To truly understand the barbaric nature of war and what it brings down on a civilian population, you need to read this. Americans should be ashamed, but it's much easier to point fingers at a country like Israel--who have always and steadfastly tried to minimize civilian casualties--than take a look at itself.