Delmore Barry and the Apache sniper
In the first chapter, Delmore Barry meets the Apache female sniper.
During the Vietnam War the direct witnesses of this female soldier and her methods were many.
The episode told by Year One is the same event told by Carlos Hatchock in one of his books. The phrases told by Apache, in particular, are exactly the same as the ones told in reality, and I actually have seen the photo of an assumed Apache victim that received castration.
Anyway, not all historians agree on the fact that Apache really existed. Some think it was just an urban legend born from some photos that the Vietcong used to leave on the field to terrify the US soldiers. The photos depicted soldiers that had received the same torture described in my novel and you can also find on the Internet but I strongly suggest avoiding searching them.
Whether Apache really existed or not, tortures like the ones described were really used, and the strategic impasse lived by Delmore Barry happened many times.
Vietcong snipers often tried to make the US soldiers nervous in order to force them out from their shelters.
It seems that the Apache sniper story influenced director Stanley Kubrick too.
In the end of his 'Full Metal Jacket', a female sniper shoots some soldiers rather than killing them - and she does it on purpose – to shoot their rescuers too. Many snipers, even nowadays, still use this tactic.
Some think that Kubrick was inspired in both the strategy for his sniper and the fact that she was a female rather than a man.
In 'Apocalypse now' we can also see a scene where the Vietcong insult the Americans from far away, hoping to force them to make a mistake.
The keywords to study in deep the subject of the Apache sniper are:
“APACHE VIETCONG SNIPER”
Whether she existed or not, leaving horribly mutilated bodies on the battlefield was a practice that belonged to the tactic of 'psychological warfare'. As the Vietcong started doing it, some US soldiers did it as well and inside history books, both the armies accused each other of doing such a practice.
The keywords to deepen the subject are “VIETCONG PSYCOLOGICAL WARFARE”.
On the left, a real female Vietcong soldier of age, and on the right, the one in Kubrick's movie.
