"This is an important book on My Lai, on the war in Vietnam, and on the way both My Lai and the war came to be framed in American culture. The book is divided into two parts. In the first part 'Reality,' the author performs a distinct scholarly service in his careful analysis of all of the evidence assembled by the Peers Commission leads to an original account of what happened at My Lai and why it happened. He demonstrates effectively that there was a massive intelligence failure in the belief that My Lai was a VC stronghold that morning and that no civilians would be present. The second part 'Myth,' is a bracing and well-sourced tour through the New Left, the Russell Tribunal, Hollywood films, the Winter Soldier hearings, and on to Robert Jay Lifton, Chaim Shatan, and the Vietnam Syndrome. This is the best account of what happened at My Lai and why it happened as well as a trenchant account of its cultural consequences." —Gary Kulik, author of "War Stories": False Atrocity Tales, Swift Boaters, and Winter Soldiers—What Really Happened in Vietnam; former department head and assistant director of the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution; and former editor of American Quarterly
"The Reality of the My Lai Massacre and the Myth of the Vietnam War makes two critical contributions to the vast scholarship on the Vietnam War. First, it offers the most empirically rich and analytically sophisticated account currently available of the Vietnam War's most infamous atrocity. And, second, it explains how that atrocity has been misunderstood and misused for political gain. Concise, well-written, and brimming with insights, this book is a modern classic." —Peter Zinoman, Professor of History and Southeast Asian Studies, UC Berkeley
"Using the wealth of available evidence to support his conclusions, Marshall Poe deconstructs some of the myths surrounding the My Lai massacre. This book shows that the ‘first draft of history’ written by war correspondents reporting from the frontlines and other journalists sometimes needs subsequent revision. And it demonstrates how real events can be used by academics, politicians, and activists alike to build a case that aligns with their point of view. This is a detailed and valuable reassessment of one of the key stories to come out of the Vietnam War." —Owen Bennett-Jones, journalist and former host of BBC World Service's Newshour