Author Description

The My Lai massacre of March 16, 1968, and the court martial of Lt. William Calley a year and a half later are among the bleakest episodes in American history and continue to provide a volatile focus for debates about the Vietnam War. This book presents a gathering of writers, including journalists Seymour Hersh and David Halberstam, novelist Tim O'Brien, historian Stephen E. Ambrose, psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton, military prosecutor William Eckhardt, and veterans Hugh Thompson and Ron Ridenhour - the two true heroes in the My Lai story. Together they demonstrate why this tragedy remains one of the key emblems of the American experience in Vietnam. These authors address many of the troubling questions that still persist about My Lai. But these questions are asked again in the hope that they might lead to a better understanding of what My Lai means for us now.