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END VIETNAM WAR!

AND RALLY

SATURDAY, APRIL 15

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FRIDAY, APRIL 14, 1967

VOL. 28, NO. 15

U.S. pilot admits:
‘| was briefed to bomb

PROTEST
MARCH

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Bhing’ ASSEMBLES SOUTH END OF GRANVILLE

. GE AT NOON.
IC RALLY

: STARTS at : ey FRONT OF COURT HOUSE

HEA

Bitierc C. DOUGLAS, REV. ALAN DIXON and

- Tribune

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populated centres

“| was briefed to strike populated areas with CBU (Cluster Bomb Units), napalm and frag-
mentation bombs. The initial brief was given by Cdr. Benny Sevilla of Carrier Division Seven staff
headed by Rear Adm. De Pois at 18:00, 17 September, 1966 in the wardroom of the U.S.S.
Coral Sea.” This is a direct quote from a letter written by a captured American pilot in North

Vietnam.

Lieutenant Commander Char-
les N, Tanner, of the United
States Navy, formerly stationed
on the U.S.S. Coral Sea and cap-
tured in North Vietnam in Oc-
tober 1966, wrote a letter to the
commander of the prisoncamp in
which he is held, describing
briefings abroad the U,S,S, Coral
Sea and actual attacks on Viet-
namese villages. (Part of the
letter is reproduced below),

This week the Pentagon con-
firmed the charge made in this
letter and by six Quakers who
recently visited North Vietnam:
that U.S, planes are dropping
anti-personnel fragmentation
bombs on North Vietnam, The
Pentagon spokesman would, how-
ever, make no comment on the
charge that the bombs had been
used against civilians,

The bombs, called CBU for
cluster bomb units, are large
containers each holding hundreds
of small bombs the size of a fist
which, when they burst, spread
thousands of razor sharp pieces
of metal that penetrate the body.
Rabbi A. Feinberg, at his recent
meeting in Vancouver, described
the action of these pieces of metal
as they enter the body, turning
and twisting to .make horrible
wounds,

The letter by Tanner is pub-
lished in a recent issue of the
Vietnam Courier which just
reached Canada, The following
extracts from the letter tell their
own story:

“Most VF 154 pilots were pres-
ent for the 15-minute brief in-
cluding myself. Cdr. Sevilla said
we were to make repeated strikes
to the D,R.V. (Democratic Re-
public of Vietnam) in an effort
to demoralize the people there
so that they would apply pressure
to the government forcing them to
a compromise at the peace talks,

’ He said our tactics would be to
strike with our fragmentation
bombs encircling the villages
first. This will cause the people
many casualties and the rest will
seek shelter in the village, As
they reach shelter, drop napalm
which ' will drive them back into
the open. Drop CBU onthe people
as they run from their shelters,
This method would achieve total

* . annihilation,

«Cdr. Roger M, Boh, our com-
manding officer, told us to follow
Cdr. Sevilla’s instruction during
a brief at 16:00 on 17September,
1966, in our ready room at which
most pilots were present includ-
ing myself. He also told us
we needed to regain our tre-
mendous losses in men, equip-
ment and aircraft in the South,

*I did as briefed. We struck
at midnight to catch everyone_in
bed so none would escape, The
first attack was against Mui
Chao, a small village eight miles
southeast of Thanh Hoa town.
Two F4Bs dived on the village,
As I released my bombs the other
pilot was doing the same, laying

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a perfect circle of flaming death,
filled with flying steel, around the
village. We pulled off lowering
the nose for our napalm drops,
The napalm exploded, lighting
the village in a fierce gasoline
blaze.

“As we switched on our CBUs
and turned for the last attack I
was horrified to see the people
running from the village to es-
cape the flames, I continued as
ordered, however, dropping my
CBUs right over their heads,

“As we pulled off the target
the whole village was ablaze,
I couldn’t help but think of all

See BOMBING, pg. 12

The above photos, reproduced from the Vietnam Courier, show
(top) captured U.S. pilot Charles Tanner being interviewed by
correspondents from NDN, the Japanese TV news agency. Be-
low is a photostat of the last page of Tanner's letter quoted in

this story.

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