Four Hours in My Lai
By Christina C., Westborough, MA
This book will attract not only history lovers, but also people typically not interested in this kind of literature. Four Hours in My Lai is a well-referenced book that thoroughly describes the injustice and harsh reality of the massacre in My Lai during the Vietnam War, as well as its probable causes and how America's system of beliefs, values and morals were brought into question. It also touches upon the psyche of American society as a whole.
The authors are well-known reporters who gathered
information from many sources, including primary documents and a large pool of people who were there. They present many hard facts about the Vietnam War and the My Lai massacre but let readers form their own opinions based on the information provided by those people, which include presidents, army commanders, survivors of the massacre, and the American public.
Initially My Lai was covered up by the U.S. Army, and Bilton and Sim dig deep to figure out why. They guide us through the investigative process as America pieced together what happened.
The book provides a harsh dose of the war's reality. There are even interviews with members of Charlie Company, the company credited with the massacre, with specifics on how the Vietnamese were executed. The authors also get into the psychology of how it happened.
After reading Four Hours in My Lai, you'll not only have a better understanding of war, but also of the psyche of American soldiers, government officials, reporters and the American public itself.
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