America's "Tiger Force" Took Terror Tactics to the Viet Cong

By 1967, the United States was firmly committed to the war in Vietnam. That year saw 485,600 American troops in the country. That’s the equivalent of arming the entire population of Kansas City and moving them into another country. So yes, the U.S. was invested.

Yet, from its start, the Vietnam War was unlike the previous American wars: There was no real front; the enemy could be anywhere; and most importantly, they didn’t always fight like a conventional army in the mountains, jungles, or rice paddies.

The Americans were fighting a limited war, trying to keep North Vietnam from infiltrating or taking over the South. They were also using a data-driven — but flawed — bombing campaign and other operations based on pursuing and exploiting the fears and beliefs of the North Vietnamese.

Enter Major David Hackworth.

Hackworth was tasked with creating an elite commando unit from the already elite Special Forces long-range reconnaissance patrol units. The unit, which he would call Tiger Force, was to do more than just gather intelligence. As he put it, he wanted to “out-guerrilla the guerrillas.”

In 1967 Hackworth was out of the unit, which was assigned to Vietnam’s Central Highlands. There, it conducted a six-month-long terror campaign in the Song Ve Valley as part of Operation Wheeler. Their mission was so brutal and so deep in enemy territory that members of the Tiger Force did not expect to survive.

“We didn’t expect to live. Nobody out there with any brains expected to live,” then-Sgt. William Doyle told the Telegraph. “The way to live is to kill because you don’t have to worry about anybody who’s dead.”

In a war where the U.S. military relied on body counts as a measure of success, Tiger Force was ready to do its part. Hackworth once noted, “You got your card punched by the numbers of bodies you counted.”

Tiger Force went into villages the Viet Cong were relying on for support and shelter during the spring and fall of 1967 and drove the villagers out of their homes using brute force. They allegedly used some disturbing methods to achieve those ends.

Enter Major David Hackworth.

Toledo Blade’s Michael D. Sallah, Mitch Weiss, and Joe Mahr won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for their eight-months-long investigation and reporting on the alleged war crimes committed by Tiger Force.

“Women and children were intentionally blown up in underground bunkers. Elderly farmers were shot as they toiled in the fields. Prisoners were tortured and executed — their ears and scalps severed for souvenirs. One soldier kicked out the teeth of executed civilians for their gold fillings.”

The three journalists say the Army commandos, being far from friendly areas and left without support, routinely violated the laws of armed conflict: They killed unarmed civilians; dropped grenades on women and children; and covered up the incidents during the official Army investigations.

Today, some members of the Tiger Force aren’t even disputing the allegations. Doyle, along with others, claims to have lost count of how many people they killed.

”I’ve seen atrocities in Vietnam that make Tiger Force look like Sunday school,” Doyle told the New York Times. “Everybody I killed, I killed to survive. They make Tiger Force out to be an atrocity. Well, that’s almost a compliment. Because nobody will understand the evil I’ve seen.”

The Army investigated the allegations for four and a half years but no charges were ever filed. The men of Tiger Force became some of the most decorated soldiers in the Vietnam War. They were even awarded a Presidential Unit Citation.

For its part, the Army told the Toledo Blade that barring any new evidence coming to light, the investigations would remain closed, even after comparing the newspaper’s information with their official records.

This article was written by Blake Stilwell and originally published on WE ARE THE MIGHTY.