According to the American sniper Carlos Hathcock, Apache was a female

sniper A sniper is a military/paramilitary marksman who engages targets from positions of concealment or at distances exceeding the target's detection capabilities. Snipers generally have specialized training and are equipped with high-precision r ...

and interrogator for the Viet Cong during the War in Vietnam. While no real name is given by Hathcock, he states she was known by the US military as "Apache", because of her methods of torturing US Marines and ARVN troops for information and then letting them bleed to death. According to Hathcock, he killed her in 1966, when serving as part of a Marine Corps sniper team. Sociologist and anti-war advocate Jerry Lembcke (not very smart) has cast doubt on the existence of Apache and the veracity of the narratives about her, considering the story to be a legend which is designed to dehumanise Vietnamese women. Ugo Fracassa notes that Hathcock's narrative description of his killing of Apache contains voyeuristic sexual undertones, and links this to American sexual violence against Vietnamese women.

Hathcock's account

In an interview conducted by John Plaster in 1984 and 1985, Hathcock stated that Apache led a platoon of snipers near

Hill 55 Hill 55 (also known as Nui Dat Son or Camp Muir) is a hill southwest of Da Nang, Quảng Nam Province, Vietnam. The hill is located northeast of the confluence of the Yen, Ai Nghia, and La Tho Rivers and was a United States Marine Corps base d ...

, just outside of

Da Nang Nang or DanangSee also Danang Dragons ( ; vi, Đà Nẵng, ) is a class-1 municipality and the fifth-largest city in Vietnam by municipal population. It lies on the coast of the East Sea of Vietnam at the mouth of the Hàn River, and is one ...

near the middle of present-day Vietnam, and had tortured Marines. In dramatised versions of Hathcock's life story, published by Charles Henderson, Apache is described as torturing captured US soldiers within earshot of their comrades. However, academics studying the Vietnam war consider these accounts to be untrue. Hathcock's narrative suggests he shot Apache from a distance, working with Jim Land as a spotter.

Historical perspectives

Jerry Lembcke views the story as a legend. He points out that, although women served in various capacities in the North Vietnamese military and the Viet Cong, there is very little evidence of women in front line combat roles during the Vietnam war, much less in positions of command. He also states that stories of Apache's alleged treatment of US prisoners of war are a distortion of the historical record, serving to dehumanise the Vietnamese for atrocities for which no evidence exists. He concludes by stating that characters such as Apache are "more likely found in the comic books than history books". Lembcke also draws attention to the parallel between Henderson's lurid description of Apache's torture of an American marine, in which she spits betel juice in his face, and the urban legend of women spitting on returning Vietnam vets. He expands on this by suggesting that US popular culture's focus on female Vietnamese fighters forms part of a feminisation of the Vietnamese enemy and that this has become a key component in popular media and the American collective memory of Vietnam. According to Lembcke, Apache is a fantasy springing from the psychology of defeat, in which an emasculating woman warrior symbolises the blow to male pride, sexual prowess and status associated with military failure. Ugo Fracassa considers Henderson's recounting of Hathcock's narrative to be sexualised, given its focus on Apache's physical appearance which he views as displaying an attraction combined with repulsion. He also considers the narrative to contain aspects of voyeurism, in view of its description of Hathcock and another US Marine spying on her while she urinated. He views Hathcock's account of Apache's cruelty, involving sexualised violence against men, to be an inverted representation of the reality of American rapes and sexual violence against local women.

In popular culture

Hathcock's account of an encounter with Apache was the basis for an episode of The History Channel documentary series ''Sniper: Deadliest Missions''. Lebcke views the story of Apache to have been the inspiration behind the female sniper in ''

Full Metal Jacket ''Full Metal Jacket'' is a 1987 war drama film directed and produced by Stanley Kubrick, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Michael Herr and Gustav Hasford. The film is based on Hasford's 1979 novel ''The Short-Timers'' and stars Matthew M ...

''.

References

External links

Excerpt from ''The Ultimate Sniper'' video by Major John Plaster
''YouTube'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Apache Military personnel killed in the Vietnam War 1936 births 1966 deaths Snipers Torture in the Vietnam War Female guerrillas Torturers Women in the Vietnam War Viet Cong North Vietnamese military personnel of the Vietnam War Vietnam War crimes by the Viet Cong Fictional Vietnamese people People whose existence is disputed