Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam

I selected this book because it was about the Vietnam War. The title grabbed me, and I pictured the movie “Full Metal Jacket”. This book focuses on how horrible American soldiers were. How we slaughtered innocent people repeatedly. I’m not exaggerating either. It’s literally 355 pages of mass murder after mass murder. We need to tell this story, no doubt, but I felt something was missing. By the end of the 2nd chapter, I was thinking, “Okay, I get it”. But there were still 279 pages left.

Key takeaways:

- This book was horrifying. Reading such detailed accounts of the awful things people are capable of is stomach turning. Not just because you have to imagine what it would have been like to endure these atrocities, but because it brings you face-to-face with the fact that these acts were committed by normal people. If normal people could be made to do this, would I have been any better? Of course I believe I would have been one of the few to abstain and try to bring this senseless massacre to light, but it is naïve to dismiss the possibility out of hand. Build your integrity and character now, when there is little pressure to compromise, so that it is part of who you are, no matter the circumstances.
- You can condition people to do truly awful things. With the right methods, you can make ordinary people into monsters. Does it work the other way around?
- The message from the top is crucial to do this. If leadership encourages people to focus only on the numbers, the customer won't matter. If leadership encourages people to cut corners, they will. If instead leadership makes it very clear certain activities will not be tolerated or that certain actions are required, and that straying from these directives will be addressed, the people on the ground will follow suit.