Kill Anything That Moves

The Real American War in Vietnam

By: Nick Turse

Narrated by: Don Lee

Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins

Publisher's summary

Americans have long been taught that events such as the notorious My Lai massacre were "isolated incidents" in the Vietnam War, carried out by a few "bad apples." However, as award-winning journalist and historian Nick Turse demonstrates in this pioneering investigation, violence against Vietnamese civilians was not at all exceptional. Rather, it was pervasive and systematic, the predictable consequence of official orders to "kill anything that moves."

Drawing on a decade of research into secret Pentagon files and extensive interviews with American veterans and Vietnamese survivors, Turse reveals the policies and actions that resulted in millions of innocent civilians killed and wounded. He lays out in shocking detail the workings of a military machine that made crimes all but inevitable.

Kill Anything That Moves finally brings us face-to-face with the truth of a war that haunts America to this day.

©2013 Nick Turse. Recorded by arrangement with Metropolitan Books, an imprint of Henry Holt and Company, LLC. All rights reserved. (P)2013 HighBridge Company.

Critic reviews

"A powerful case.... With superb narrative skill, he spotlights a troubling question: Why, with all the evidence collected by the military at the time of the war, were atrocities not prosecuted?" ( Washington Post)

"A comprehensive picture, written with mastery and dignity, of what American forces actually were doing in Vietnam. A convincing, inescapable portrait of this war - a portrait that, as an American, you do not wish to see; that, having seen, you wish you could forget, but that you should not forget." ( The Nation)

"Nick Turse's explosive, groundbreaking reporting uncovers the horrifying truth." ( Vanity Fair)

Disgraceful but factual account of Vietnam

As a guy who grew up in the sixties and joined the Army in the seventies, I thought I understood our history in Vietnam. Lt. William Calley of My Lai wasn't just a news story, his mother was my school nurse. Also, I study history as my primary topic of reading. Yet with that mindset I was as blind to the war crimes our own men routinely committed.

While the book was eye opening, the narration was horrid. As I've said I grew up with Vietnam on the news every night and you learned how to pronounce names of places like Da Nang which the narrator massacred. At first I was impressed with the pronunciation of the litany of Vietnamese names in the book but after hearing repeated bad city names I began to wonder. However it was a very English word the narrator should be able to pronounce if he intends on narrating a book about warfare. The word noncombatants was never pronounced properly. It was pronounced as "non com bet ants" instead of "non con bat ants". Anyone with middle school English ought to know the root word of noncombatants is combat.

Pronunciation wasn't the only problem. The narrator read about the brutal acts in th his book like he was reading the classified section of a newspaper. There was no emotion or intonation imparted to the text. This book contains atrocities that revival nearly the worst I can imagine, in fact only Hilter sounds worse. However I got the impression the reader was "phoning it in".

The brutality caught in this book is second to none

I’ve seen almost every movie on America’s war on Vietnam and read a few books now. Nothing compares to the brutality caught in this book. The indiscriminate killing of innocent women, children, and elderly is only the beginning. Note: these are also the descriptions of Vietnam Vets themselves, in addition to Vietnamese civilians. A difficult read, but a must.

when someone asks why i'm anti war...

...this book is merely one of the many i'll show them.

cute little blooper halfway thru chapter 4 lol. decent narrator otherwise.

very difficult read but very important to face and accept, as well as understand actions like these are not constrained to only the Vietnam war. I'd like to say it's unbelievable but it really isn't. Just sad and beyond horrific and gut wrenching. Hard stuff to listen to but it's vital to know what is done to innocent people in the name of American empire.

Should be required reading

Reading or listening to this book should be a prerequisite for obtaining a high school degree.

A Must Read

This is a very important work regarding Vietnam. The detail and effort that he put into this book is appreciated. I can’t say that it’s a fun or happy read but please get this book.

A book that shakes you to your core

Essential, gripping listening for those interested in US military/Cold war history. It was difficult for me to listen for more then 20 minutes at a time because the revelations were so gruesome, the described US policy incomprehensibly cruel, and the US military's failure to bring wrongdoers to justice maddening. This is an unforgettable book.

American Einsatzgruppen.

I always think I have a picture of American imperial criminality but somehow it's worse.

Game-changer!

Difficult read at some points, as the author goes into detail when describing war crimes. However, it certainly held my attention, made my stomach turn and changed my perspective on the Vietnam Conflict. That's what a good book's supposed to do. Worth a read for sure!

Great book but distracting narration

The material covered in this book was very interesting, and the book itself seemed well written. The one drawback for me was the narrator's character voices. Overall, she did a great job narrating the book, but the eccentric voices she used were very distracting in my opinion.

essential read/listen

8 hours of american war crimes. Tough to get through but very important to understand.