Introduction

Abstract

For Ronald Ridenhour the war would not go away. Even though he had been discharged recently from the army and was back with his family in Phoenix, Arizona; even though he had a job and had been accepted into college to study English literature; even though outwardly his life had returned to normal—still, the memories of his time in Vietnam stayed with him. He was particularly haunted by one horrible story he had heard, nine months earlier, about a company of soldiers who had gone on a killing rampage in a tiny hamlet in Quang Ngai province. In April 1968 he had been sitting in a bar in Vietnam, drinking a beer and swapping war stories with Pfc. Charles “Butch” Gruver.¹