Another cover-up job exploded

HAVING tried and failed to cover up the My Lai massacre, the United States is keeping quiet about another equally bloody mass murder which took place on the same day just a mile and a half from My Lai.

The cover-up job has been exploded by Seymour Hersh, a journalist who won a Pulitzer Prize for his exposure of the My Lai butchery.

The newly-revealed carried out at a hamlet called My Khe, involved Bravo company of Task Force Barker attached to the Americal Division's 11th Brigade.

Dropped

Lt William Calley, the only man convicted for the My Lai killings, belonged to Charlie company of the same task force.

A first lieutenant of Bravo company was charged with involvement in the murder of 20 civilians. The charges were dropped before the case came to trial.

More damning still is Hersh's revelation that though the Army publicly claims no figure is available for the exact number killed at My Lai, an Army Criminal Investigation Division put it at 347—twice as many as had been publicly acknowledged.

Hersh bases his information on the complete, unpublished transcript of testimony given to a commission headed by Lt-Gen William Peers which investigated the My Lai murders. He also obtained documents from other sources and interviewed scores of military and civilian officials.

*Precisely how many residents of My Khe were Slain will never be known,' he writes, but cites estimates ranging anywhere from Some survivors told military investigators early in 1970 that from 90 to 100 women, children and old men were slain. One exGI who kept a count said he knew of 155 deaths; other estimates ranged from 60 to 90.

Connections

He goes on: "The incident at My Khe would perhaps be just another Vietnam atrocity story if it were not for four facts: its vital connection with the My Lai tragedy; the American public's ignorance of it; the total, detailed knowledge of it among the Peers investigators, the Department of the Army and higher Pentagon officials; and the failure of any of these agencies to see that the men involved were prosecuted.' In his account of the massacre at My Khe, on the morning of March 16, 1968, Hersh said Bravo company had been assigned to attack My Lai 1, one of a complex of hamlets forming the village of Son My.

This was about the same time that Charlie company was attacking My Lai 4, scene of the original My Lai massacre.

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{17.12 for 12 months (312 issues) £8.56 for 6 months (156 Issues) £4.29 for 3 months (78 Issues) If you want to take Workers Press twice a week {1.32 for 3 months (24 issues) {5.28 for 12 months (96 issues Fill in the form below NOW and send to: CIrculation Dopl., Worker Press, 186a Clapham London. SW4. I would like to take out a subscription to Workers Press. Days required MONDAY THURSDAY (Please tick) TUESDAY FRIDAY Or Full subscription Name Address Amount enclosed I I would like information about THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE Fill in the form below and SECRETARY, SOCIALIST 186A CLAPHAM HIGH ST, Name Address The operation against My Lai 1 was called off after one US first lieutenant had been killed and seven men wounded by booby traps and mines. The men then came upon My Khe 4, inhabited by perhaps 100 women, children and old men.

Hersh said that, according to witnesses, a first lieutenant ordered • two machinegunners in his platoon to set up their weapons outside the hamlet.

'And then inexplicably, one of the gun crews began • to spray bullets into My Khe 4, shooting at the people in their homes.

Reports

'A few GIs later told the Peers Commission that a hand grenade had been thrown at them; others said that some sniper shots had been fired.

'But no one was shot, and none of the GIs said they had ever actually seen the grenade -t Calley: convicted.

Peers:

WEDNESDAY SATURDAY months. send to NATIONAL LABOUR LEAGUE, LONDON, SW4. explosion; had about it.' Hersh continued: When the gun crew stopped, the platoon, led by four point men, or advance scouts, walked into the hamlet and began firing directly at Vietnamese civilians and into Vietnamese was intense homes. The gunfire According to Hersh, a former May that he knew civilians were being shot.

Reid was quoted as saying: 'As soon as they started opening up, it hit me that it was insanity. I walked to the rear. Pandemonium broke loose. It sounded insane— the guys walked back:we got machine guns, grenades. One of remember him saying 60 women, kids and some old Referring to the civilian death toll in the original My Lai massacre, Hersh wrote that a careful examination of the testimony accumulated by the Peers Commission showed that military officials have deliberately withheld from the public important but embarrassing factual information about My Lai 4.

*For example, the army has steadfastly refused to reveal how many civilians were killed by Charlie company on March 16a decision that no longer has anything to do with pre-trial publicity since the last courtmartial... has been concluded.

'Army spokesmen have insisted that the information is not available.

'Yet in February 1970, the Criminal Investigation Division, at the request of the Peers Commission, secretly undertook a census of civilian casualties at My Lai 4 and concluded that Charlie company had slain 347 Vietnamese men, women, and children in My. Lai on March 16, 1968—a total twice as large as had been publicly acknowledged.' Hersh added that despite the 'vast amount of evidence indicating that the murders at My Lai were widespread throughout the company, only Lt William Calley was found guilty of any crime in connection with 'Eleven other men and officers were eventually charged with murder, maiming, or assault with intent to commit murder, but the charges were dropped before trial in seven cases and four men were acquitted after military court martial.' Lt Calley was last year given a life term for his part in the My Lai massacre. The sentence was later cut to 20 years and is still subject to further possible reduction as a result of additional appeals.

In Washingto As we have spokesman said: stated in the past, it would be inappropriate release the report of the Peers-MacCrate inquiry while the Calley appeal is continuing.

To that end the army cannot comment . on any information allegedly in that report.' (Robert MacCrate is a New York lawyer who sat with Gen Peers on the investigative panel.) US and Cuba Out to get it back THE LAST US ambassador to Cuba, Phillip Bonsal, reveals how, before the diplomatic break in the spring of 1960, the US government pulled out American and Cuban personnel who held positions in industry in order to undermine the economy.

In a book entitled Cuba, Castro and the United States', Bonsal explains how the Kennedy Administration continued to Trolaes TATDEFENGE OF THE TOBER REVOLU Scenes from the My Lai massacre which became famous after sabotage the Cuban economy and pressured other Latin American states to boycott Cuba during the preparations for the Bay of Pigs invasion attempt in April 1961.

While the State Department had agreed that the American companies operating in Cuba at that time should continue to the Secretary company not to do so.

Forced It was these hostile actions, described from inside by Bonsal, which forced Castro to nationalize the US corporations GERMANY WHERE IS BRITAIN GOING? HISTORY OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 3 vols AGE OF PERMANENT REVOLUTION REVOLUTION BETRAYED PROBLEMS OF CHINESE REVOLUTION Cloth PERMANENT REVOLUTION:

RESULTS AND PROSPECTS IN DEFENCE OF MARXISM LESSONS OF OCTOBER R. BLACK : STALINISM IN BRITAIN iAN: which controlled oil refineries, sugar mills, electricity generation and the telephone system.

The US then struck another blow at the Cuban economy by ending the sugar quota. Bonsal claims that this decision was taken by President Eisenhower.

These admissions add little that is new to the Cuban story, but they do show the cynical manner in which US imperialism proceeds in Latin America.

Clearly it regards its losses in Cuba as only temporary and will use the same methods to win back its property if a favourable Kennedy forced Castro to • opportunity presents itself. nationalize BOOKS cloth £1.25 paperback £1.25 377p £1.50 45p cloth £1.05 paperback 62}p £1.87} paperback £1.12} NAME paperback 75p paperback 75p ADDRESS paperback 60p Amount enclosed £ coth £2.00 10p postage for each book. paperback {1.12} MOSCOW The Stalinist Crisis resolution said, 'to reinforce the communist convictions, the sentiments of soviet patriotism and proletarian internationalism in every communist and. every Soviet citizen, to reinforce ideological firmness and resistance to all forms of bourgeois ideology.' Stripped of the jargon, this means that the bureaucrac!' is Cromyko: Ideological pep talk.

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