Show Lake 11 A Sunday Nwwnlw Tribune 12 IM7 c f ' Night So lens Viet Scars Gives War Odd Beauty (mm artillery and bombs the By John Wheeler Associated Pifss Writer swarms bullets crisscrossing the rice paddies are no Jef' for binK hidden by th mask of night' long shadows But the bright orates and from explosions" tracer! and distant burning homes moved one veteran Marine BON THE THU ALONG VIETNAM — At IUVKR In night Death's (are snfto-non the rountrytiilo snd h an almost ewle beauty goes about his grim ohores The Jagged plintrri of btll taks H sergeant Nuremberg Edicl Holds Scant Viet War Peril na Morrli writitn tni in lntw-ntloiptcul triiri tor liwvtr now trwwd Anoeiaa Timti tht Lm In laest rtwrth One of the most f rerj uently used arguments against milclaimed to be based on the Nuremitary service In Vietnam is ued by supposedly knowledgeable peoberg trial It has been ple some of them lawyers yet It has no validity In law The argument alleges that an American soldier who fights Jn Vietnam Is liable to b-prosecuted as a war criminal It Is not my intention here to into the rights and wrongs of that war but merely to consider the present argument which has obviously disturbed a great many young men who are faced with duty In Vietnam The argument assumes it Is an illegal war And that since the American troops in that tlieater are engaged in a criminal enterprise they are therefore war criminals Let us consider wha t the Nuremberg tribunal and other war crimes tribunals actually did rule on the question of the ordinary soldier and officer fighting in aid for an illegal war At the same time we will also discuss the related argument regarding soldiers who obey orders In such a war Tribunal Ordered by Allies The International Military Tribunal which tried the major German war criminals at Nuremberg 1945-4was set up by the allied powers In an agreement signed In London in 1945 The constitution jurisdiction and functions of the tribunal wert contained in a charter annexed to the agreement The sixth article of the charter specified the crimes which the tribunal had the power to try Paragraph (A) of the article net out crimes against peace "Namely planning preparation Initiation or waging of a war of aggression or a war in violation of International treaties agreements or assurances or participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of any of the foregoing" The 24 men who were indicted before the tribunal represented the remaining top political and military leaders of the German Nazi state which had Initiated and waged World War n description It was probably the defendant Wilhelm Fritsche who was hardly an adefor his boss Joseph Goebbels One defendant quate stand-IMartin Bormann was trted In absentia and has never since born found Robert Ley an accused committed suicide during the trial Gustav Krupp the industrialist was not tried because of his physical and mental condition an ot this exception n - With Same Crime Charged these defendants were charged in count one of the Indictment with conspiracy to commit crimes against peace as well as other war crimes In the second count they were all charged with the other crimes against peace specified In the All of charter Yet when the tribunal came to deliver its judgment on the count of conspiracy to commit crimes against peace it convicted only eight defendants of all these top leaders and ministers of the Third Reich men who had belonged to Hitler's Those convicted were Inner circle and had intimately collaborated with him in his plans for aggressive war In the same way In arriving at its decisions on the other crimes against peace including waging unlawful war the court acquitted Albert Sneer on these charges Yet Sneer had been head of the German armament industry for the latter half of the the war Entitled to Acquittal be seen therefore that the tribunal decided that It finding the slave labor necessary to run Hitler's war machine and producing the armaments that Hitler's armies used did not charge of those activities guilty of necessarily make the men will 1 n waging unlawful war in In fact it appears that these men had not been on a sufficiently high level In the Hitler hierarchy to Influence decisions on war and peace and thus were entitled to be acquitted This reasoning was put into words in a subsequent war crimes trial which followed on the Nuremberg trial and conformed to its principles This was the high command case 1947-4in which leading members of the German military were tried by an American military tribunal at Nuremberg In this case the court made It clear that before a defendant could be convicted of crimes against peace It was not sufficient merely to prove that the accused knew he was engaged In an unlawful war 8 A Bnk IIays 1 No Role a military officer It was necthe in to addition "that possessor of such knowprove essary ledge after he acquires it shall be In a position to shape or influence the policy" that brings about the war or continues it Event if he were high-ranki- ng Emphasizing this the court stated later "It is not a perrank or status but power to shape or influence the policy of his state which is the relevant issues for determining his son's his criminality" Under international law therefore only those on the "poli- cy level" can be convicted and punished for waging a war of aggression Those below the policy level that is the great mass of soldiers against peace and officers — cannot be convicted of crimes Therefore the mere fact that an American soldier serves In Vietnam can in no way be alleged against him as a war crime Mitigating Circumstances On the other hand a man who commits obvious war crimes on the orders of his superior officer cannot plead those orders as his defense As Article 8 of the Nuremberg tribunal's charter stated: "The fact that the defendant acted pursuant to the order of his government or a superior shall not free him from responsibility but may be considered in mitigation of punishment if the tribunal determines that justice so requires" Yet a soldier who receives an order is not required to act like a lawyer in regard to it Unless the order is illegal he is entitled to assume that the order is legal so far as he is con- cerned We have therefore the distinction between the soldier who Is ordered to take part in an illegal war for which he incurs no criminal liability and the soldier who is ordered to commit an Illegal act like shooting helpless prisoners The layer is criminally liable as are the superiors who gave the order r ? sitting to comment: know at night It doesn't wm so dirty This whole business seems to have a little style like a fireworks display atjhe fair grounds on the Fourth of July" Move Ambush spoke the displays were In the distance and Impersonal A half hour later the sergeant and his men stood adjusted their field gear and started to move their ambush "to a new position 100 yards away across a rice paddy he - The bif shells from the Mat An Hoa arrived and the white phosphorous rounds exploded "Up 100 meters and fire for effect" a muffled voice called into the radio headset Bright flashes In the t Sparks and shrapnel glowed briefly and vanished Mosquitos hummed aggressively as' they hunted out faces and hands In the distance Air Force Jets could be heard circling over their target an enemy-helThe roar Ivillage ncreased as first one and then the second jet dived toward the ground Harsh Bomb Crack - t V : srz ' m?$rf" ' ' r 4 - -- i4 -- Jus 20 Min I!y Freeway From Anywhere in Salt Lake All Roads Lead To Sears tree-lin- e Seaxs Mmmmm d mMm flash tie harsh other pass Miles away and toward the east the drone of a C123 flare ship could be heard circling over a government outpost Red tracers and white mortar shell bursts clearly marked the battleground A series of in the winks showed above the outpost as the chute flares ignited Nigh Necklace sky para- III I Midnight The ambush was patrol from already had moved toward positions nearstood Tlatoon Third by stretched cramped muscles and started silently home through the inkly black rice paddies and scrubland Overhead the clouds broke temporarily and the southern stars showed through The constellation Scorpio pointed the stinger of its tail straight down toward the Marine company's base camp The Tea Pot Scorpio's companion had tipped in its daily circle and poured celestial nothingness on the Annamese mountains At Sense the Camp last the observation at the base camp loomed ahead more sensed than seen Inside the barbed wire the final lights of the night appeared as the weary Marines sugged into their sandbagged bunkers pulled off jungle boots and lit their first in five hours — and their last of the night Minutes later these pinpoints vanished The only sound was the shuffling of boots as a new guard was posted around the perimeter tower rKii--- II Save Ml II usr One tablet per day supplies all the vita-mi- rr' t3js §140 nt Vitamin Each Tablet Contains: tain! the minimum adult rrquirrmcnt Vitamin Bu Vitamin C Kiacinamide Panlothrnie I Mrg SO Mg 20 Mg Ac!dl Mf Bcgular $119 C Vitamin ILSPUniti Vitamin D400 USP Unila 2 Mg Vitamin Bi 2S Mg Vitamin I?2 1 Mg Vitamin B mgs C-- 500 tablet conlb2s tim Each 250 Tablet 3b5 Tablets normally on 100 Tablets 18 fWADay'a Betulr$339 needed for adults and children over 6 Vitamin A 5000 Save Multiple Vitamin 365'® Y - In over Another Echo Company r (flip 1 II 500 of The flares dropped slowly line a necklace in the night the jewels began to burn out one by one The last still glowed brightly as it hit the ground and set fire to the brush on a hillside The murky night held the smoke close to the ground and gently pushed it down the slope toward the fields below The line of flares reflected in the rice paddies below the Marine ambush positions The Leathernecks crouched lower so enemy eyes would not be able to pick them out An hour later the fireworks ended Monsoon clouds hid the stars overhead and none could see his companion let alone any possible foe The only things audible were crickets a few nocturnal birds and the mosquitos Start for Home H f Further at Sears Your Dollars Go red-ho- Auoclattd PrM Phol jet exhausts and glowing shrapnel look like fireworks but their aim Is to quench spark of life the night Is lights and noise but especitracers muzzle blasts ally lights The flares was focrack of the first bomb exploding As the jet pulled up the pilot on the engine's switched afterburner The fiery gases spewed from the jet's tailpipe in a cone resembling a comet's tail The tail suddenly pointed down as the engine drove the jet upward for an- H v:-' ' In &r arine base The bright ' -- if As they began to move out a large Viet Cong unit opened up with machme gun automatic weapon and rifle fire The muzzle flashes blinked Red tracers bright yellow from the machine gun played almost lazily like water from a garden hose across the tree line where the Marines intended to set up their new positions The Marines sprawled In tlie dirt as noiselessly as possible The firing stopped withThe Marines out shifting crawled on all fours back Into Minutes the old positions later the night noises sounded again Mosquito Hum llowed by If there was " f night "You ambush As GI Not Criminal In v COMB MM SAM EM WEDNESDAY! 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