Nuremberg Prosecutor Sees Vietnam Parallel

The United States prosecutor at the Nuremberg war trials has declared that General William C. Westmoreland, Army Chief of Staff, could be convicted as a war criminal for his conduct of the war in Vietnam by the standards established at Nuremberg.

Telford Taylor, a retired brigadier general and presently law professor at Columbia, said Friday night that Westmoreland could be tried by the standards on which the Japanese commander in the Philippines, General Tomayuki Yamashita, was convicted and hanged. As commanding officer, Yamashita was held responsible for not stopping atrocities committed by troops under his command.

Taylor said that Westmoreland's responsibility was not merely confined to Mylai but included the overwhelming civilian deaths caused by indiscriminate shelling in so-called "free-fire zones," the forced evacuation of peasants from their homes and the deliberate lack of precaution in bombing targets.

Taylor also said that he meant to imply that the same standards could be applied to civilian leaders who participated in Vietnam policymaking, although he refused to elaborate.

Taylor refused to comment when contacted by the CRIMSOX.