Dear Progressive Reader,
This newsletter comes between two tragic anniversaries of United States foreign policy. March 24 is the forty-first anniversary of the assassination of Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero by members of a U.S.-supported death squad. Romero was named by Pope Francis in 2018 as the first saint born in Central America. Writing for our Progressive Media Project in 2015, Randy Jurado Ertil noted, “Romero taught us all an invaluable lesson: He stood up to bullies and he did not turn his back on his people.” In the afterword for a book by human rights attorney Matt Eisenbrandt on the efforts to bring Romero’s killers to justice, Benjamin Cuéllar of the Jesuit University of Central America said, “We still must build a force of good: one that comes from the people.”
Last Tuesday marked the fifty-third anniversary of the massacre of 504 civilians in My Lai, Vietnam, by U.S. troops. I wrote about the fiftieth anniversary commemoration and the efforts to address our responsibility for the tragedy in The Progressive in 2018.
On the morning of March 16, 1968, U.S. troops under the command of Lieutenant William Laws Calley Jr. were told to “kill everything that breathes.” Journalist Seymour Hersh was the first to break the story in the national press in November 1969. In his 2018 memoir, he relates the story of tracking down Calley for an interview on an army base in Georgia.
It was the voice of Ron Ridenhour that first lifted the case out of the shadows of an attempted military cover-up. Ridenhour had served in an infantry unit in Vietnam near My Lai, and knew some of the soldiers who had served under Calley. When they told him what had happened, he was shocked. “I just couldn't believe that not only had so many young American men participated in such an act of barbarism, but that their officers had ordered it,” he wrote in a letter to his Congressional representative Morris Udall and others in Washington. It led to a national investigation and a public reckoning that continues today.
In December 1994, at a conference organized in New Orleans to look back at some of the lessons of My Lai, Ridenhour presciently said, “I am also reminded, however, that some people have witnessed the same sort of thing in police work. The guys go through the academy, but as soon as they hit the street, the officer in the car who is breaking them in says: ‘Forget the book, I’m going to teach you how it really works.’ ” This message reverberates today as the United States reckons with the number of African Americans, many unarmed, who are routinely killed by police.
Sarah Lahm wrote last week about the beginning of the Minneapolis trial of Derek Chauvin, accused of the murder of George Floyd. But many of these killings are never prosecuted in a court of law. Just as Hersh had told Ridenhour in 1969, “until this story became public, the army had absolutely no intent whatsoever to pursue other officers [beyond the designated scapegoat, Lieutenant Calley].”
In other stories on our website this week, Bill Blum looks at the 1871 anti-Klan law being used in cases being brought against Donald Trump and others for fueling the January 6 Capitol insurrection. (Blum’s review of a new book of the writings of the late-Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg from our February/March issue was also featured on the prestigious SCOTUSblog this week). Arvid Dilawar presents a shocking investigation into health risks at a West Virgina medical center. And Christine M. Estel chronicles the life of nineteenth century pioneering women’s rights advocate Dr. Mary Edwards Walker. Finally, cartoonist Mark Fiore offers a humorous look at how to encourage the nearly 50 percent of Republican men who refuse the vaccine to take their jabs. (The Republican Party may otherwise go down the path of the tobacco industry, promoting a product that results in the sickness and death of their own adherents.)
Tomorrow, I hope to tune in to “The Cold War Truth Commission: A Day of Education Testimonials, & Action,” sponsored by Witness for Peace Southwest, Addicted to War, CODEPINK, Project Censored, and many more, and featuring an outstanding line-up of writers and activists. The event runs live on Zoom on Sunday, March 21, from 1:00-8:00 p.m. Pacific Time, and anyone interested in attending all or part of the presentations can register here.
Also, if you are looking for book to read, or a gift to give, check out the new additions to our online giftshop. A donation in support of The Progressive could get you an interesting book as our thank you for your support of this non-profit magazine.
Keep reading, and we will keep bringing you important articles on these and other issues of our time.
Sincerely,
Norman Stockwell
Publisher
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