Contribute to Bach Mai
Artist Unknown
Offset, Circa 1972
United States
8579
Poster text:
Dropping from plane: “We have targeted and continue to target only military targets”
Bottom: Bach Mai Translates to “White Blossom”
Hospitals have long been targets in war. Their systematic destruction denies medical treatment for the victims of war and negatively affects a city or a nation's ability to recover from military conflict. As we witness the attacks on hospitals perpetrated by Israel and Russia, and the contradictory responses from U.S. politicians, we should remind ourselves that the United States has its own history of bombing hospitals.
In December of 1972, U.S. forces under the command of then-President Richard Nixon launched a strategic bombing campaign called ‘Operation Linebacker II’ on the cities of Hanoi and Haiphong in Viet Nam. Targets included the Bach Mai hospital in Hanoi, represented by a white blossom in this poster. The bombing destroyed nearly the entire hospital and killed 28 hospital staff and an unknown number of patients. When military correspondent Major Gilbert L. Whiteman was questioned by the New York Times as to why the U.S. targeted a hospital, his sole comment to reporters was: “We have targeted and continue to target only military targets.” His words are visualized in this poster as bombs raining down on Bach Mai hospital. U.S. denial is portrayed as a secondary attack.
Over the past six months, Israeli forces using U.S.-supplied armaments have destroyed 90 percent of hospitals and medical infrastructure in Gaza. The Washington Post reports that Israel has “made hospitals a key target” in its campaign against Gaza, claiming Hamas uses them as bases and to regroup. Despite words of grief from U.S. President Joe Biden over the bombing of Al Shifa Hospital in November, the U.S. has taken little action to stop Israel’s attacks on hospitals. In fact, the U.S. has continued to supply weaponry and billions of dollars in aid to Israel in a show of unconditional support. This is in sharp contrast with Biden's response to Russia’s strike on Ukraine’s largest children's hospital on July 8, which the President called “a horrific reminder of Russia’s brutality.”
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