Olson And Roberts, Eds., My Lai - A Brief History With Documents,

Abstract

No issue has more divided Americans in recent decades than the Vietnam War, and the painful reminder of the My Lai Massacre stills haunts the nation today. Charlie Company's murder of almost 400 noncombatants shocked a public already polarized by the government's growing credibility gap following the Tet Offensive. When Seymour Hersh's articles first appeared in November 1969, many people refused to believe that American soldiers could perpetrate such a heinous crime on civilians, but others were quick to point out that atrocities routinely had been carried out by both sides in the protracted Southeast Asian war. Ron Haeberle's graphic photographs of the massacre, which were published in Life magazine during the following month, further fueled the debate and led to creation of the Peers Commission to conduct a thorough investigation.