Kill Anything That Moves

The Real American War in Vietnam

By: Nick Turse

Narrated by: Don Lee

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.

Deeply Disturbing but it's supposed to be

This book clearly lays out the policies that drove the US military efforts in Vietnam, and outlines some of the tragic results of those policies.

If it runs, we can kill it

Detailed narrative revealing the truth about the Vietnam War, and the actions of many American soldiers serving there. The sadness the pages provoke in the reader is matched only by the anger that such things were allowed to occur. Unfortunately, the American attitude of viewing the Vietnamese as subhuman and of little value has a long history, going back to slavery, native Americans, filipinos, and countless other peoples.

Turse does a terrific job of detailing many less well known examples of American atrocities, such as Speedy Express, a controversial military operation in the Mekong delta, to more well known incidents such as the My Lai massacre. The biggest take away from the book is that My Lai was not a rare, isolated incident...but rather a pattern of military operations.

What led to the American brutality and horrendous behavior? Besides the general devaluing of the Vietnamese, the military's promotion of "body count" of dead enemy combatants as a measure of success. This led to the regarding, or pretending, that any Vietnamese was Viet Cong, or part of the opposition. Mostly, this was not the case. Unknown number of Vietnamese were murdered, raped, abused, tortured, kidnapped, humiliated...in the most inhuman ways possible. Turse goes to some length of cataloging many of these episodes...invading villages, destroying homes, killing livestock, ruining farm lands, desecrating sacred places, and subjugating the natives.

The book was very informative, but a tough listen because as an American, it is appalling that these actions were taken by fellow countrymen. And while I am not a proponent of the military, or any war, it is particularly disgusting that such a war was conducted on completely false conditions (the ridiculous domino theory). The legacy of Vietnam, as shown in this book, is a despicable chapter that is a blight on the history of this country. The saddest fact of all is that, despite the commendable efforts of people like Nick Turse, the American government and military didn't stop with Vietnam, as atrocities are widespread today, in places from Iraq to Afghanistan. As well as the outright support of the genocide Israel is conducting against the Palestinians.

One minor note...some of the reader pronunciations (such as combatant) are awful. It's not AI, or Virtual Voice. It's just bad reading. Let's do better, huh?

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.

Worthwhile for those who interested in Vietnam War

A lot of info for fellow historical nerds.

Not sure I'd take this as the final word on Vietnam but I feel it's likely a valuable component of understanding Vietnam and worth listening to to give a different perspective from other voices and authors and memoirs on Vietnam.

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.

Great 👍🏾 book

I liked the detail, inside information, and the personal struggles of those who tried to expose the massacres. I liked the description of the people in the book and the capability of the firepower and ammunition at the time. a very good book indeed

Horrific

I didn’t think I could have the United States more than I did before reading about these atrocities. Important read.