To put things quite simply, the Newsweek article is factually
incorrect - a rather common problem with those who think that they
know about My Lai. Powell, as a Major, did indeed write a memorandum
in December of 1968. It was for internal military use, and was in
response to inquiries that arose from a letter sent by Tom Glen, and
in substance dealt with Americal's current procedures on training
soldiers on civil affairs and on treatment of the Vietnamese. It did
not, directly or indirectly, deal with the issue of the My Lai
Massacre of March 1968. At that point in time, the initial
"investigations" of My Lai which had been done by the 11th Brigade's
CO, Col Oran Henderson, under orders from Americal's Ass't CO, BG
Young, were long done and part of a then successful cover-up. The
orginal document is in volume 2 of the Peers Report and should be in
the recently released microfilm collection of My Lai documents. See
Michael Bilton and Kevin Sim _Four Hours in My Lai_, New York: Viking,
1992. p213.
John Tegtmeier