Declassified papers on Vietnam War atrocities

Re “Vietnam Horrors: Darker Yet,” Aug. 6

I congratulate The Times for giving appropriate attention to the now declassified papers concerning U.S. atrocities in Vietnam.

Former Army medic Jamie Henry, one of many American veterans who courageously tried to bring these crimes to light, deserves a Presidential Medal of Freedom for standing up to his superiors who successfully buried so much for so long.

Unfortunately, this article and those declassified papers arrive too late to expose as counterfeit the charges made by the absurdly named Swift Boat Veterans for Truth against Sen. John Kerry in the last presidential campaign.

Like Henry, the young Kerry went on the record in the attempt to bring out the truth. His testimony before a Senate committee in 1971 would have fit nicely into the article.

JAMES MAMER

Modjeska Canyon, Calif.

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The focus on bringing responsible parties to justice should extend far beyond the soldiers on the ground at the time of the massacres.

Warfare, in its most basic elements, involves young men armed with weapons and a mandate to kill.

Those of us thousands of miles away from the front lines mistakenly assume that there are effective, neat and tidy “rules” of warfare.

A contemporary examination of Iraqi civilians dying in firefights and residents of Lebanon and Israel perishing daily in bombings quickly highlights this fallacy.

In fact, the leaders who forsake diplomacy and resort to placing their own countrymen, both military and civilian, in such peril, should ultimately accept responsibility for the tragic war crimes that inevitably ensue.

MICHAEL MIYAMOTO

Mission Viejo