Raiding a Village

In my blog about the two movies, I had stated that I preferred Full Metal Jacket over Platoon because Full Metal Jacket had more information about the Vietnam War than Platoon. There was one particular scene in Platoon that highly caught my attention and found it quite disturbing. It was when the American troops raided a small Vietnamese village. I found that to be very vague when they started killing the villagers.

The troops invade a small Vietnamese village. The Vietnamese women are going along with their chores when they invade. One of the troops finds a underground whole and threatens to shoot until all the women and children get out. The other soldiers push the women and children away. Once they do, a soldier yells “Fire in the hole!” and bombs the whole, killing whoever else was inside. What wrong did these Vietnamese villagers did to the American troops? They were only going about their daily chores when the Americans raided in. Yes this is a war, but I don't recall any of the peasants being armed when the American troops raided in. Killing innocent peasants is not a way to solve anything. What would you have done if your family was killed and only you survived when you had done nothing wrong?

The American troops continue to raid the village and kill more innocent villagers. At one point, a soldier grabs a villager and starts shouting “Why didn't you listen to me, you fucking asshole! Why?! Why?!” Then he just starts shooting at the villager. I found this scene to be very disturbing by killing innocent people that weren't armed for defense.