Free fire zone

In the US military, a " free-fire zone " denotes a complete release of fire at its own discretion, which serves to coordinate neighboring combat units. This designation used by US troops in the Vietnam War can be found in the so-called “FM 'field manual'” 6-20 : It describes a specific, predetermined area in which all weapon systems can be fired without further coordination with headquarters.

Second World War

General Chuck Yeager describes in his autobiography his squad's rejection of low-level aircraft attacks on all moving targets during World War II . In principle, these were missions with free fire zones, even if the term did not yet exist. He said that if lost , it could be considered a war crime . In the video game Chuck Yeager's Air Combat , the player flies such a mission and has to destroy ground targets in the given area.

Vietnam War

Returning veterans, affected civilians, and others said the US Military Assistance Command, Vietnam ( MACV ), the American high command in Vietnam, based on the assumption that all Allied forces had left the area, issued a doctrine according to the Free- Fire Zones were set up in which

• Any unidentified person was treated as an enemy combatant

Dellums hearings

Free-Fire Zones were discussed in 1971 during an unauthorized congressional hearing endorsed by Congressman Ron Dellums, California. This was held by the Citizens' Commission of Inquiry on US War Crimes (CCI).

Wilkerson

Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson flew helicopters through Vietnam near the ground. He claims that he had verbal disputes with his superiors and also some of his gunmen over the free-fire zones. Also in an incident in which one of his crew members shot a car that was carrying a little girl. He also describes an incident in which he prevented a war crime by flying his helicopter into the line of fire between an allied helicopter that was attempting to shoot at a location full of civilians.

See also

• Rules of engagement
• Area bombing
• Taylor-Staley plan
• Search and destroy

literature

• Lewis M. Simmons, " Free Fire Zones, " in Crimes of War: What the Public Should Know , Roy Gutman, Ed, WW Norton & Company, July 1999, ISBN 978-0-393-31914-9

Individual evidence

1. ^ Chuck Yeager, Leo Janos: Yeager: An Autobiography . Bantam , August 1, 1986, ISBN 978-0-553-25674-1 .
2. ^ That's Vietnam, Jake , by Michael Uhl, The Nation, November 29, 2001
3. ↑ Deborah Nelson , "THE WAR BEHIND ME: Vietnam Veterans Confront the Truth About US War Crimes" , Basic Books , ISBN 978-0-465-00527-7 , October 28, 2008