When I was a kid my mother told me that during the Vietnam War, the Vietnamese would straps bombs onto their own babies and then throw the babies at the American soldiers, knowing that the Americans would instinctively try to catch and save them- resulting in both the baby and soldier being blown up. Is any of that true or was that just propaganda? Was it based on some isolated incident that someone witnessed, or just made up for the sake of making people support our troops? Can someone who knows about the war please answer this?
Sorry if you all think this is such a stupid question. I just want to know where my mother got that from.
Edit: I just called my mother, who is in her 70s now, and asked her where she heard that information. She said that it was “on the news and in the papers” in the 1960’s. She also added that they used babies and young children as human shields. I think it sounds like propaganda, but my mother still believes all of this because “it was on the news”.
I would really like to hear from a Vietnam War expert, who has credible sources, on any instance of these things happening.
The last few days I have tried to find some credible sources of events like this but have found zero evidence this ever happened, I even went and looked for situations like this in the Russo afghan war, second world war and Korean war but also found nothing besides some anecdotes and war gossip.
Your mother might have heard it during the late 60s when there was a lot uncertainty and war chaos at home and in Vietnam. I'd like to point out that this as a tactic would make zero sense because this meant the Vietcong or nva (for the record: there is no evidence they ever did this or even considered doing this) had to get babies (dead or alive) in throwing distance of American or south Vietnamese troops, while this was a close combat war it would be more efficient to just throw a grenade.
Edit: this is my research about the bombs strapped onto babies and thrown at soldiers