Jim Morrison’s Lethal Baritone
Press Action
Tuesday, March 09, 2004
http://www.pressaction.com/news/weblog/full_article/morrison03092004/
John Kerry loved to listen to The Doors as he cruised the Mekong Delta searching for Vietnamese to knock off. Here’s how Douglas Brinkley describes Kerry’s taste in music in his new book, Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War:
"Kerry’s favorite group was The Doors, and he would blast ‘Light My Fire’ and ‘Love Me Two Times’ while patrolling the Delta rivers, finding empowerment in Jim Morrison’s powerful baritone to send the VC fleeing … Yet Kerry -and all the men of PCF-94 [the Swift patrol boat that Kerry commanded] -reject the Coppola version of rock ‘n’ roll Swift boats zooming up and down the Mekong Delta rivers like psychedelic sailors."
The U.S. military and police agencies routinely use music and loud sounds as a weapon against their enemies. When Manuel Noriega took refuge in the Vatican embassy in Panama City after the United States had invaded his country in December 1989, the U.S. military played heavy metal music outside the building to force him out. A few days later, Noriega surrendered.
In 1993, the FBI used amplifiers to broadcast sounds at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, in a psychological warfare tactic intended to fatigue those inside. The FBI played Nancy Sinatra music, Tibetan chants and the noise made by dying rabbits over loudspeakers. The 51-day siege, along with the amplified sounds, ended on April 19, 1993 when the compound was completely consumed by fire, killing 86 men, women, and children.
By the time of the U.S. military withdrawal in 1975, John Kerry and his fellow American rock music blasters had succeeded in killing about 2 million Vietnamese people.