The Fog Of War

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We may never find it. Decisions made under fire look different in hindsight. The trauma of the moment can leave permanent gaps and contradictions in testimony. Either Kerrey or Klann may be lying to himself--and us--now.

In an interview with TIME last Friday, Kerrey said the other five members of his squad have agreed to come forward with a "statement of facts" that he hopes will help set the controversy to rest. Later Friday, they all dined at Kerrey's house and talked the raid over for the very first time. The next evening, the six former SEALs issued a statement saying the allegation of an execution "is simply not true," adding, "We took fire and we returned fire."

In a citation that accompanied the Bronze Star, Kerrey is lauded for his unit's "heroic achievement" in killing 21 Viet Cong, burning two hooches, or peasant huts, and capturing two enemy weapons. Kerrey never mentioned the medal in his official bio. As he acknowledged last week, there was nothing heroic about what really happened.

Our experience of Vietnam is shaped by what we let ourselves say. Memory plays tricks--and to ward off horror, we make our memories play tricks. Except for long ago, when he told his mother, his first wife and a minister, Kerrey never brought up the botched mission at Thanh Phong. And then, on April 18 of this year, at a small speech to ROTC candidates at Virginia Military Institute, toward the end of his discourse about moral justifications of war, Kerrey spoke about the night in 1969 when he led six Navy SEALs on an operation to take out a suspected Viet Cong official. "We used lethal procedures when there was doubt," he said. "When we received fire, we returned fire. But when the firing stopped, we found that we had killed only women, children and older men. It was not a military victory; it was a tragedy, and I had ordered it."

As Kerrey recalls it, the nighttime assault unfolded amid the confusion endemic to Vietnam. In-country for just a month, the 25-year-old lieutenant had charge of a squad of elite Navy SEALs (short for Sea, Air and Land unit) trained to emerge from the dark, kidnap or kill local Viet Cong leaders, then melt back into the jungle. This night their target was a village secretary reportedly holding a party meeting in Thanh Phong. The straggle of hooches lay deep in the Mekong Delta "free-fire zone," where innocent civilians had--officially, at least--been cleared out, and everyone left was deemed an enemy.

Kerrey's Raiders, as the squad called itself, had little experience but lots of enthusiasm. Despite warnings of "considerable danger," toward 12 midnight on a moonless night, the men piled into a swift boat and headed for Thanh Phong. Darkness gave cover but heightened the confusion. As the men crept toward the village, they bumped into an outlying hooch they thought was a warning outpost. Kerrey says his men, wielding knives, told him they would "take care" of the people inside to prevent them from alerting the village. But Kerrey says he did not join in the killings or examine the victims.