The American authorities issued a statement today saying that the United States does not condone atrocities, after reports of a massacre in March last year at a Vietnamese village.
╥The US Government does not condone atrocities in any way, in any time, under any conditions,╙ a statement, issued jointly by the American Embassy and the US military command said.
Survivors╒ accounts of a massacre at My Lai in March, 1968, were not reported in Saigon newspapers.
Blank spaces appeared on the front pages of several newspapers where the reports had been cut out. The Information Ministry had intervened to ask that they should not be published.
Survivors of My Lai told yesterday how US soldiers entered their village three times. Twice they handed out candy to children. The third time, they herded the villagers into groups and opened fire, killing more than 300 men, women and children.
Various figures have been given of the number killed. A statement released today by the army described one estimate of 567 victims, reported by the ╥New York Times╙ and ╥Newsweek╙ as exaggerated.
