I work on Vietnamese history. Rumor has it, and it's at this point just a rumor, that the US had some or most South Vietnamese soldiers circumcized (sp?) in order to tell their dead from NLF and PAVN dead. I'm skeptical, mainly because I've seen no evidence in the archives or elsewhere, but I've heard this in passing more than once from SVN and US vets. Any leads or personal stories?
I have never heard of this, and have spoken to more than a few ARVN veterans. Granted I didn't ask them about this.
Nor does it make sense to me. It would incapacitate new recruits for an extended time right when you need to train them, be improbably time consuming and costly, and make conscription unpopular. I also don't understand why this would be necessary to differentiate the dead. They all had different uniforms.
You heard this from Vietnamese veterans of ARVN?