My Lai — Whose Fault?

Over the course of this year, the centenary of William F. Buckley’s birth, we will republish an article by him weekly. This week’s column examines the aftermath of the My Lai massacre and seeks an explanation for the actions of American troops.

Saigon. General Creighton Abrams, who has a major war to think about, talks only reluctantly about the massacre of My Lai. Those who suppose that this is because General Abrams is anxious to disengage from a subject which is acutely embarrassing to him forget that a) General Abrams was not in charge of the Vietnam theater at the time that headquarters, after a perfunctory investigation, denied the rumor of a massacre at My Lai, b) and that even now the General is incompletely informed on the subject since the entire dossier was lifted from Saigon and flown to Washington, and c) do not know General Abrams, who retreats from difficulty about as much as a moth retreats from the flame.