Professor Affirms Massacre Report

Nearly a year after the Associated Press published an investigative report detailing a civilian massacre by United States troops at the outset of the Korean War, a Harvard professor will report to the Department of Defense that he believes the Army did a thorough investigation of the incident.

Charles Warren Professor of History Ernest R. May said yesterday that when Defense Secretary William S. Cohen concludes the investigation of the event, May will make his findings official.

"What I plan to say to Cohen is that the Army has done a very thorough, careful job searching out such facts as you can retrieve in a situation such as this," he said.

May was appointed last November to a panel charged with advising Cohen about the government's investigation of the alleged civilian shootings. Panel members met with military officials and viewed pertinent documents to determine if the Army responded appropriately to the claims made by veterans in the AP story.

"They've done a vacuum cleaner job of doing research," May said. "In my own judgement, it's gone about as far as it can go. It happened a long time ago, under circumstances which were chaotic. It's clear that American troops were in the area and they were not well led."

Drawing on the testimony of American veterans, the AP reported in September 1999 that in late July 1950, U.S. troops killed a large number of South Korean refugees, including many women and children, in a town called No Gun Ri.

Several national media outlets--including The New York Times and U.S. News and World Report--have questioned the accuracy of some of the AP's claims.

The AP reporters, who have acknowledged that one of their sources was not actually at No Gun Ri as he originally claimed, have said they stand behind their story. They won a Pulitzer Prize for investigative work.

May said that while he was "surprised and dismayed" by the findings of the AP report, he was impressed by the Army's response.

"It was a curious situation because when the AP broke the story, it turned out that the Army had not previously looked into this," May said.

May's service as an adviser included "seven or eight" meetings at the Pentagon with members of Cohen's staff.

"They brought in a lot of people, [they've] gone to the...Navy and Air Force, [and have] gone extensively through the National Archives," he said.

But despite all the research, he said the truth may never be known.

"I don't think myself, except in a very general sense, that we'll be able to say, in terms of numbers or anything, exactly what happened," May said. "Everyone is in agreement that whatever happened, it was nothing like My Lai [a massacre in Vietnam]. It was not a deliberate atrocity. Whatever happened was incidental to a panicked retreat."

He said he expects to wrap up his advisory role by late next month.

"I think [Cohen] would like to get it finished while he's still in office," said May, who has advised the defense secretary on other matters in the past. "I hope it happens, because I have a personal relationship with him and his people and he won't be there after January 20th."

Despite his somewhat limited role in the investigation, May said he was happy to participate.

"It's important for Korean American relations [that] if there happened to be a deliberate atrocity, it's important that the U.S. acknowledge it," he said. "The U.S. and U.S. army have an obligation to face up before the American public to any such accusation and to tell the truth."

He said the Army can make concrete improvements in the wake of the No Gun Ri controversy, even though he believes the U.S. will not pay reparations for its actions in the event.

"The army did not handle the original questions well," May said. " I do think the government needs a better procedure for dealing with this sort of thing...so they don't have to have such an expensive inquiry."