CBS News reported Sunday night that “documents held at the Nixon Presidential Library” have led researchers “to conclude that President Richard Nixon was behind the attempt to sabotage the My Lai court-martial trials and cover up” the massacre.
Read story here.
Nixon’s involvement is a goof thing. Surely, as President, he had a responsibility to pursue his war and the story was not a good thing for that effort.
A bigger issue is the role of Colin Powell. General Powell was the Public Information Officer for Vietnam.
In Vietnam, Powell was a major and staff officer in the Americal Division, whose soldiers had committed the My Lai massacre but not while Powell was there. He was involved in investigating the incident at the divisional level, and has been accused of issuing a report that whitewashed it.