My Lai A Brief History with Documents

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.

James S. Olson is a Distinguished Professor ofHistory at Sam houston State University. He is a historian of recent U.S. history as well as popular culture. He also has a special interest in Vietnam and has edited the Dictionary of the Vietnam War (19988) and written The Vietnam War: Handbook of the Literature and Research (1993) and, with Randy Roberts, Where the Domino Fell: America and Vietnam, Second Edition (1996). Olson is the author of many other books and articles, including The Ethnic Dimenion in American History, Second Edition (1995); Saving Capitalism (1988); amd, with Randy Roberts, John Wayne: American (1995).

Randy Roberts is professor of history at Purdue University. His primary research areas are sports and popular culture within the larger context of recent American histroy. He is an award-winning biographer and is highly visible in the field of post-1945 American history. Among his more important books are Heavy Justice: The State of Indiana v. Michael G. Tyson (1994); Jack Dempsey: The Manassa Mauler (1979); and Papa Jack: Jack Johnson and the Era of White Hopes (1983). Roberts has served frequently as a consultant for PBS News, HBO, and the History Channel.