On a moonless night more than thirty years ago, a young lieutenant led a platoon of Navy SEALS into a tiny village in the Mekong Delta.
When they withdrew, they left behind the bodies of at least 13 Vietnamese women and children, all unarmed. The lieutenant was Bob Kerrey, who later became a United States Senator and a presidential candidate. There are different versions of what happened: Kerrey and some of his men say they were fired on and fired back, that the death of the villagers was a horrible accident. Others suggest the killing was deliberate: that for the protection of the platoon, Kerrey ordered the women and children rounded up and shot.
Atrocity or accident, the story has re-opened old wounds, re-cast questions about the nature of war, and of heroism. Bob Kerrey and the long shadow of Vietnam here.
(Hosted by Neal Conan)
Guests:
Joseph Galloway, author of “We Were Soldiers Once…and Young”
Former Arizona Congressman and Vietnam Veteran Jay Rhodes;
Tom Anderson, Producer for 60 minutes II.