Mỹ Lai 4 - A Letter From Soldier Tom Glen Poem by Unnikrishnan Sivasankara Menon

The Mỹ Lai Massacre
Of Nineteen Sixty Eight.

In November 1968,21 years old Soldier Tom Glen had written to General Creighton Abrams, the new MACV commander:

'It would indeed be terrible to find it necessary to believe that an American soldier that harbors such racial intolerance and disregard for justice and human feeling is a prototype of all American national character; yet the frequency of such soldiers lends credulity to such beliefs.... What has been outlined here I have seen not only in my own unit, but also in others we have worked with, and I fear it is universal. If this is indeed the case, it is a problem which cannot be overlooked, but can through a more firm implementation of the codes of MACV (Military Assistance Command Vietnam) and the Geneva Conventions, perhaps be eradicated.'