My Lai: A Brief History With Documents

America never fully recovered from or forgot the grim day in 1968 when the soldiers of Charlie Company killed almost four hundred Vietnamese civilians at My Lai. Introducing readers to the most controversial event of the Vietnam War, this brief history examines the massacre and its cover-up and discusses the ramifications that the ensuing investigation had for the public, policymakers, and the antiwar movement. Eight topical chapters reprint 68 primary documents - drawn mainly from testimony and reports of General Peers's inquiry into the incident - to chronicle the events leading up to, during, and after the massacre. An introductory essay places the carnage within the larger context of the war and considers the issues of culpability and human rights it engendered. Photographs, a glossary, a chronology, questions for consideration, a bibliography, maps, and an index are also included to make this book a fascinating resource.

This volume introduces students to the most controversial incident of the Vietnam War - the My Lai massacre when almost 400 Vietnamese civilians were killed in four hours. The authors discuss the ramifications of the cover-up and the ensuing investigations for the American public, policymakers, the anti-War movement and the soldiers involved. They examine the causes of the massacre and the issues of culpability and human rights. The narrative is built around 70 primary documents drawn mainly from testimony and reports from the government enquiry into the outrage.