Questions Raised About No Gun Ri

The U.S. Army is extending its sensitive investigation into the alleged massacre of civilians by American soldiers during the Korean War amid indications that some of the most visible witnesses to the atrocity may be unreliable, U.S. officials say.

After interviews with dozens of witnesses, Army investigators have turned up contradictory accounts of what happened in the hamlet of No Gun Ri in July 1950 during the panicked opening weeks of the war. Some witnesses have alleged that as many as 300 civilians, huddled under a bridge, were killed by U.S. soldiers who feared that enemy troops were hidden among them.

In particular, the contradictions have convinced officials that veteran Edward Daily of Clarksville, Tenn., whose account of events has been highly publicized in the media, is “not credible,” said a Defense Department official who requested anonymity.

Daily claimed that he had manned a .30-caliber machine gun that mowed down dozens of civilians under the bridge, and asserted that higher-ups had given the order for him to do so. He was quoted last year in an Associated Press story that brought new attention to the alleged massacre and in a variety of other publications, including The Times.

Many questions remain after eight months of investigatory work, the official said. “We have to be very careful in filtering the accounts” because they are based on 50-year-old memories, the official noted.

At the same time, newly discovered weaknesses in the accounts of a few witnesses “doesn’t mean that nothing bad happened” at No Gun Ri, the official said.

Among the most urgent questions are whether U.S. officers ordered the killings, and how many Koreans died during three days of attacks, which allegedly began July 26, 1950.

“We are continuing our investigation,” Army spokesman Maj. Thomas Collins said.

The Army was hoping to wrap up its investigation by June 25, the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the war. Now, however, it is expected that the probe might last until September.

South Korean victims and their families have long accused the United States of covering up a massacre at No Gun Ri. But what set off the Army investigation was the lengthy article released by AP in September. It quoted veterans who said they knew firsthand of the atrocities. Some said they were ordered by higher-ups to fire on the civilians.

The story won the news service a Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting last month.

But this week, AP’s account has come under fire from https://www.stripes.com, an independent online news service for veterans, and U.S. News & World Report, a newsmagazine.

The stripes.com story, which was distributed Wednesday, asserts that Daily was not a member of the battalion allegedly involved in the No Gun Ri incident. Instead, he was serving miles away with a division maintenance unit, the article says.

The story says another veteran, rifleman Delos K. Flint, who was reported as having been briefly trapped with the refugees, was evacuated from the area the day before because of a wound.

U.S. News, in an article published Friday, disputes accounts given by nine veterans cited by AP in its story. It says three of them, including Daily, may not have been at No Gun Ri at the time and maintains that five others interviewed by AP didn’t support the thesis of the story.

“My memory is that I was there at No Gun Ri and did what I said I did,” the magazine quotes Daily as saying. “But, you know, I have been sick for years. . . . I take three strong pills for mental illness.”

The article says its research “challenges” claims that U.S. soldiers killed hundreds of civilians at No Gun Ri. Still, the magazine’s executive editor, Brian Duffy, said U.S. News is not suggesting that there was no killing at No Gun Ri.

AP defended its story in a statement attributed to a public relations executive. The AP account, the statement said, “grew from extensive on-the-record eyewitness interviews” and a review of military documents.

Daily couldn’t be immediately reached for comment.