How did the US troops view Vietnamese people during the Vietnam War?

Poorly in most cases, quite harshly in rare cases. Many troops had only rare exposure to the Vietnamese. Some Soldiers did treat the Vietnamese very well and bonded with them. It is hard to generalize about this. A Soldier could be mean to a villager while on patrol, but very nice to the ones he encoutered off duty. Cultural training wasn't very good and this did hamper their ability to develop relationships.