Graham Cornes on Vietnam, war crimes and the Brereton Inquiry into Afghanistan
An incident in Vietnam 50 years ago left Graham Cornes wracked with guilt, and he says soldiers accused of war crimes must be judged differently than civilians.
SA Weekend
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Inaugural Adelaide coach Graham Cornes has revealed he witnessed members of his platoon hatch a plan to kill an unarmed, elderly man who had inadvertently strayed into a free-fire zone in Vietnam. In a column for SA Weekend magazine, he uses the incident to explain why soldiers accused of breaking rules of engagement should not be judged by civilian laws. Here is his column:
‘Make sure you bury the ID card”. The words have stayed with me ever since, and will forever more. My platoon commander was a good man; an intelligent man, a full lieutenant and a graduate of the military academy at Duntroon. They selected only the best to lead infantry platoons in South Vietnam. The voice inside me screamed, “Noooo, you can’t do that.” But he was an officer, I was a private soldier, a minion in the system. You had no voice. I stayed silent.
It was late in the afternoon and our platoon was setting up its perimeter for a night harbour – inside an overgrown rubber plantation. We were operating just inside a free-fire zone, an area from which civilians were excluded and anyone encountered could be regarded as enemy. Unfortunately, there were no lines on the ground to mark the boundary. In the distance, across a clearing adjacent to the rubber plantation, was an old man and his water buffalo who had strayed into the free-fire zone. He clearly posed no threat but his presence excited our section commander, a career soldier who had progressed to the rank of corporal.
Somehow he convinced the platoon commander that the old man was indeed a threat and as he was technically inside the free-fire zone, we were within our rights to “dispatch” him. He hastily assembled a small squad and as he eagerly led them through the perimeter, the platoon commander gave that order: “Make sure you bury the ID card.” The absence of a weapon and the presence of an ID card would make it difficult to claim he was an enemy combatant. Now, this story did have a happy ending because the old man, perhaps sensing the danger, slipped away out of the free-fire zone and the squad, somewhat disappointedly, returned to our defensive position. I feel guilty now as my response at the time was internal only. The army bludgeoned you to blind obedience and compliance. I didn’t think to protest outwardly.
What makes good men do bad things? This barbaric underbelly of our character is never more evident than when soldiers go to war. The ADF inquiry into the allegations of atrocities committed by elements of our special forces in Afghanistan will rake over the scars that many combat veterans try hard to conceal. In some cases, the wounds have never healed and the waves of guilt have never subsided. If the same ethical microscope had been placed over our actions in Vietnam, or indeed any other conflict, how would we compare?
We knew right from wrong and understood the rules of engagement. Why then did the order filter down one day from our company commander that we were not to take prisoners? It followed that one of my closer army mates was leading a section in pursuit of an enemy group with which they had just engaged.
When he eventually radioed his sitrep (Situation Report) back to company headquarters he was stunned by the response: “We have one enemy KIA (Killed in Action) and two captured,” he reported. The company commander immediately grabbed the handset. “No you haven’t. You’ve got three KIA,” he barked. Fifty years later, how can any civilised person make sense of or rationalise that. “Take no prisoners,” we were ordered. It’s a great battle cry for a footy team but much more serious when it’s a real war and real lives are involved.
There was another disturbing incident, involving a platoon from our company which also resulted in an enemy soldier’s tragic demise. The forward scout, advancing stealthily and carefully, as was his special skill, came across a lone Vietcong soldier asleep under a tree, his AK47 weapon in his lap. Quietly, the section lined up, then called on the soldier to rouse him. As soon as the unfortunate wretch stirred the soldiers opened fire with full and gruesome effect. The M60 machine gun, M16 and SLR rifles of an infantry section can inflict deadly and withering fire. So it was: another dead enemy soldier for the battalion’s tally.
The difficulty facing any soldier in a conflict in which the enemy does not wear a uniform and can melt inconspicuously into the local populace, is identifying from where the danger will come. The rules of engagement are distorted and the lines of morality are blurred. Who to trust? Who, though seemingly innocent, presents a deadly threat? The tragedy of innocent victims and civilians caught in the crossfire of liberating forces and insurgent terrorists is played out every day in war-torn regions throughout the world.
It is to these regions that we send our Australian troops. These are elite forces, carefully selected through the process of rigorous testing and psychological analysis; warriors in the true sense of the word. Tough and hard, it is the system that has made them ruthless and, whether they operate at home or abroad, they make Australia safer. Australia has shaped and created these fighting machines. If they have transgressed the rules of war, as soldiers in all previous conflicts surely have, Australia must share their guilt.
The allegations of our soldiers’ actions in Afghanistan, before any defence has been mounted, have drawn widespread condemnation. Our leaders, both military and political, have been quick to wade in with damning and self-righteous accusations but some do so without fully understanding the pressures under which combat soldiers operate, and the mind-turning impact those pressures have.
It’s 24 hours of heightened alert and ever present danger, either real or imagined. There’s no relief except for those few days of respite at the end of an operation but even then there’s a dark cloud at the back their mind. Then, all too often, they lose a mate under violent circumstances or are severely wounded themselves.
We prepare soldiers for war with rigorous, sometimes tortuous training. They pass all the courses but can anything prepare them for real combat? You can’t replicate, or predict even, the real dangers or the constant pressures. Depending on the length of an operation, the combat soldier is always tired through sleep deprivation, always dirty and always hungry.
In summer, thirst is a constant; in winter it’s the cold or wet. Sometimes, it’s even worse than cold. Such privation adds to the stress and goes some way to explaining why poor decisions can be made.
The Chief of the Defence Force, General Angus Campbell, could not have been more damning or accusatory in his public apology. No names were mentioned but the impression is the accused soldiers have been found guilty before any further investigation. An elite soldier, General Campbell cuts an austere figure. He wears the Infantry Combat Badge on his left breast, was a troop and squadron commander in the SAS and led 2RAR in its deployment to East Timor.
He has had a stellar staff career, culminating in his promotion to General and appointment as Chief of the Defence Force. Even though East Timor was not the torrid deployment that those in the Middle East were, he should know the pressures under which soldiers operate.
The report by the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security said: “None of these alleged crimes was committed in the heat of battle.” That is a trite comment which exacerbates the accusations. These soldiers don’t punch a clock and knock on and off. The term “fog of war” is a term often used to explain soldiers’ brutal behaviour towards their enemy or to explain the atmosphere that surrounds soldiers on operation in hostile environments. The Inspector-General may dismiss it but the fog of war is real and does not swirl only in times of battle. The fog of war never lifts.
Yes, good men do bad things and they will be punished, deservedly so, but who are we to judge if we haven’t been exposed to the same dangers? The escalating rate of veterans affected by post-traumatic stress and suicide is fast becoming a national emergency, and can be directly linked to their combat experience. It is a worthy, honourable profession of which any combat soldier should be justifiably proud, but soldiering comes at some psychological cost.
Further, revelations of their behaviour and the excoriation of those troops from Afghanistan will continue to assail the self-esteem of all veterans. The Department of Veterans Affairs does a great job and has significant resources, but not every veteran has the acumen to access them.
I’ve read the redacted report and seen some of the vision, but, as confronting as that may be, I cannot yet bring myself to condemn those soldiers.
They will surely face a court martial, and very possibly be dismissed from the army. If they have already retired they may face criminal charges. However, it is far too simplistic for staff officers back in Canberra to assign blame, to pass judgment and deflect responsibility. If war crimes have been committed, the frontline troops who have committed them cannot be made solely responsible. The system that shaped them and then empowered them must share some of that responsibility.
A notorious soldier once said: “Soldiers at war are not to be judged by civilian rules.” His name? Harry “Breaker” Morant, who was executed by firing squad in 1902 after a British court martial convicted him of war crimes committed during the Boer War. Our Australian soldiers who stand accused of similar transgressions of the rules of engagement must not be treated with the same summary disdain.
Graham Cornes was 21 when he landed in Vietnam in early 1970, a National Service conscript with the 7th Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment.
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