Pulitzer Prize-winning female journalist and her series of shocking articles about Vietnam

Deborah Nelson – American investigative journalist, reporter for The Los Angeles Times, winner of the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for journalism, is the author of a series of articles exposing the crimes committed by American soldiers in Vietnam during the My Lai massacre nearly 50 years ago.

Journalist Deborah Nelson

Deborah Nelson traveled halfway around the world and spent years knocking on the doors of veterans who participated in the massacre of 19 innocent people in Vietnam in February 1968, persuading them to speak out about the seemingly forgotten incident. She also traveled for months in Vietnam to meet with witnesses to recreate a horrifying story.

Above all, the female journalist gave the American soldiers who participated in the massacre, which they had to carry out under orders, a chance to apologize to their victims!

In mid-May 2017, 12 years after the series “Behind the Crime” was published, Deborah Nelson shared the stories of a journalist full of conscience.

Turning back history

In February 1968, a month before the infamous My Lai massacre, a unit of American soldiers in central Vietnam swept through a small village and captured 19 unarmed villagers – including women, children, teenagers and an elderly man.

That day, the soldiers were ordered to “kill everything that moves.” They herded the villagers into an open area and opened fire. After the incident, army inspectors took sworn statements from dozens of soldiers, collecting haunting details describing the massacre. However, the case was hushed up, and no one was convicted.

Those testimonies—and those of hundreds of other American veterans who witnessed massacres, killings, rapes, and torture—were placed in a special file by the U.S. Army General Staff in the 1970s that was kept secret for thirty years. The file included substantiated cases involving more than 300 allegations, implicating members of every major division that fought in the war.

In 2005, journalist Deborah Nelson and military historian Nicholas Turse teamed up to uncover the truth behind the secret files. The articles were published and turned into a book called “Behind the War” – the most comprehensive account of the two authors’ search for answers from those accused of war crimes, from witnesses who accused them, and from high-ranking officials who covered up the truth.

Journalist Deborah Nelson with the shocking series "Behind the Crime"

“Behind the Crime” is the first look at the darkest secrets of the war in Vietnam, and is also a defense of the brave American veterans who protested the unjust war as well as the anti-war political activists of the era - who called for the community's sympathy for past mistakes.

More than 10 years have passed, but Deborah Nelson has not forgotten even the smallest detail about the time she and her colleagues investigated this case. She said that according to US law, after 30 years, all confidential documents - things that are kept and are not allowed to be disclosed - will no longer be confidential.

However, to turn the collected dry documents into stories, witnesses, confessions of all related characters, including victims, witnesses and American soldiers..., is a huge job, and requires a lot of skills and professional expertise to do it.

“I remember it was 2005, I started to access this huge mountain of records, including 9,000 documents. All of it, it was stored in a huge room like a big library. Time had made dust on them traces. I had to put up chairs, even put up ladders to reach it” – Deborah Nelson said.

Touching previously classified documents, Deborah said, was like touching a giant block of ice, and above all, it involved the honor and conscience of those involved.

Using a very scientific method, Deborah grouped them all, showing them on an excel sheet, according to many columns, what she called the data classification method.

“The information is huge. There are also numbers. I have to do this so that I don’t forget or miss any information, select and use the necessary information, ask questions about information that I feel confused about and need to be explained by the people involved.”

From this data sheet, Deborah Nelson said that she planned in her mind to directly meet with the veterans who participated in the massacre - those who were guilty of the victims. Another group of people were the witnesses and relatives of the victims - people she had never met, had never set foot in Vietnam, but could not help but go if she wanted to investigate the incident in the most complete and comprehensive way.

Another difficulty is that 30 years have passed, the veterans are now old, some are still alive, some have passed away. And, how can we convince them to talk about a story that everyone will surely avoid?

Again, relying on data analysis, Deborah Nelson went to the US Citizenship and Identity Management website. This website is publicly available. She used the information from there to find the home addresses of the veterans she would meet.

A glimpse of distant blue eyes, blurred glasses… It is impossible to guess the age of this experienced female journalist who has investigated many famous cases. Everything about her exudes the vitality, youthfulness of a heart full of enthusiasm and passion.

I, a colleague of her generation, although not speaking the same language, share the same passion, dedication, love for the profession, and love for the valuable information that we have to work hard to obtain.

In an almost sudden moment, I felt the endless inspiration for journalism that Deborah Nelson passed on to me, right now…

According to Vietnamnet.vn