It’s not often that a two-word question can shake a country’s self-regard as deeply as Mike Wallace’s to Private Paul Meadlo, the soldier he interviewed about the My Lai massacre.
“And babies?” Wallace asked.
“And babies,” Meadlo answered.
Showing posts with label Mike Wallace. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mike Wallace. Show all posts
April 10, 2012
Mike Wallace: The Question That Changed America
By David K. Shipler
It’s not often that a two-word question can shake a country’s self-regard as deeply as Mike Wallace’s to Private Paul Meadlo, the soldier he interviewed about the My Lai massacre.
“And babies?” Wallace asked.
“And babies,” Meadlo answered.
It was a pivot point in Americans’ downward trajectory of honor during the Vietnam War. Something snapped. The struggle to disbelieve the emerging story was now impossible to sustain. No longer was it inconceivable that a U.S. Army platoon had walked into a South Vietnamese hamlet on March 16, 1968, rounded up villagers, herded hundreds into a ditch, and gunned them down.
It’s not often that a two-word question can shake a country’s self-regard as deeply as Mike Wallace’s to Private Paul Meadlo, the soldier he interviewed about the My Lai massacre.
“And babies?” Wallace asked.
“And babies,” Meadlo answered.
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