War crimes during the Vietnam War

War crimes during the Vietnam War included rape, massacres of civilians, bombings of civilian targets, terrorism, torture, and murder of prisoners of war. These crimes were committed by soldiers on both sides of the Vietnam War.[1] Sometimes there was no military reason for these actions.[2]

In addition, soldiers on both sides committed common crimes like theft, arson, and the destruction of property.

South Vietnamese, Korean and American

South Vietnamese, Korean, and American soldiers committed war crimes during the Vietnam War.

In the 1968 My Lai Massacre, American soldiers murdered hundreds of Vietnamese civilians who had no weapons and were not fighting back.[3][4]

Phong Nhất–Phong Nhị massacres

South Korean soldiers massacred hundreds of unarmed Vietnamese civilians in Phong Nhat and Phong Nhi villages on February 12, 1968. Around 280 people were killed. The South Korean government never acknowledged its part in these massacres.[5]

North Vietnamese and Viet Cong

Notable Viet Cong war crimes include the massacre of over 3,000 unarmed civilians at Huế[6] and the killing of 252 civilians during the Đắk Sơn massacre.[7]

In 1975, around 155,000 refugees fleeing the North Vietnamese Spring Offensive were reported to have been killed or abducted on the road to Tuy Hòa.[8]

PAVN/Viet Cong troops killed 164,000 civilians in democide between 1954-75 in South Vietnam.[9] North Vietnam was known for its abusive treatment of American POWs, most notably in Hỏa Lò Prison (the Hanoi Hilton), where torture was done to extract confessions.[10]

Sources

  1. ↑ https://snl.no/My_Lai-massakren#:~:text=My%20Lai%2Dmassakren%20var%20en,kilometer%20fra%20provinshovedstaden%20Quang%20Ngai. SNL.no. Retrieved 2025-07-01
  2. ↑ Solis, Gary D. (2010). The Law of Armed Conflict: International Humanitarian Law in War. Cambridge University Press. pp. 301–303. ISBN 978-1-139-48711-5.
  3. ↑ "My Lai Massacre". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2025-09-25.
  4. ↑ https://snl.no/My_Lai-massakren#:~:text=My%20Lai%2Dmassakren%20var%20en,kilometer%20fra%20provinshovedstaden%20Quang%20Ngai. SNL.no. Retrieved 2025-07-01
  5. ↑ "Efforts continue to uncover the truth about the massacre by South Korean troops during the Indochina Wars". asia.fes.de. Retrieved 2025-06-30.
  6. ↑ Kiernan, Ben (2017). Viet Nam: A History from Earliest Times to the Present. Oxford University Press. p. 444. ISBN 978-0-19-062730-0.
  7. ↑ Pike, Douglas (1996). PAVN: People's Army of Vietnam. Presidio Press. ISBN 978-0-89141-243-4.
  8. ↑ Wiesner, Louis (1988). Victims and Survivors: Displaced Persons and Other War Victims in Viet-Nam, 1954–1975. Greenwood Press. pp. 318–319. ISBN 978-0-313-26306-4.
  9. ↑ Rummel, R. J. (1997), "Vietnam Democide", Freedom, Democracy, Peace; Power, Democide, and War, University of Hawaii System, archived from the original (GIF) on March 13, 2023
  10. ↑ Karnow 1997, p. 655.


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