My Lai Probe Hid Policy that Led to Massacre

[babylonsister]

My Lai Probe Hid Policy that Led to Massacre
by Gareth Porter


WASHINGTON - For decades, it has been generally accepted that the My Lai massacre of as many as 400 Vietnamese civilians by U.S. Army troops on Mar. 16, 1968 was a violation of official policy directives on the treatment of civilians in South Vietnam.



That was the conclusion reached in the most definitive official account of why My Lai happened — the final report by Gen. William Peers, who investigated the question of responsibility for the massacre in late 1969 and early 1970 for the Department of the Army and the Army Chief of Staff.

Documentary evidence from U.S. army archives shows, however, that the Peers report misrepresented a key directive from the top commander in Vietnam, Gen. William C. Westmoreland, describing it as calling for a blanket policy of humane treatment of civilians in villages controlled by the Communist movement.

The directive in question, a copy of which has been obtained by IPS, makes it clear that the policy of humane treatment did not extend to civilians in areas which had been under long-term Communist rule, as was the case with My Lai. That revelation would have placed the responsibility for the orders on the My Lai operation squarely on Westmoreland’s shoulders.

The Peers report found that the troops who entered My Lai and three other hamlets of the village of Son My had been led to believe that everyone in the village should be killed. Testimony before the Peers inquiry also showed that the platoon leaders involved in the operation had been given that same message by two company commanders.

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http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/03/17/7727/