NEW YORK -- Many readers of a recent series revealing alleged war crimes in Vietnam 36 years ago must have wondered: Why now? And why in The Blade of Toledo, Ohio? It seems more like a New York Times or Washington Post kind of project.

The simple answer is: When The Blade came across classified documents last February related to an official U.S. Army investigation into the 1967 slaughtering of civilians in a Vietnamese village, editors simply thought the information was worth pursuing. Eight months later, after three reporters and a photographer dug into the story using everything from interviews with Army veterans to visits to the village, the resulting series could end up being one of The Blade's most prominent efforts ever.

"It took a lot of time and some real digging," Executive Editor Ron Royhab said about the multi-part series, which the paper published beginning Oct. 22. It's been picked up, at least in part, by The Washington Post, The Associated Press, The Washington Times, and others. "We got the tip and we ran with it," Royhab explained, with reporter Mike Sallah taking the early lead.

Royhab would not say exactly which documents the paper obtained initially, or how, revealing only that someone in the paper's Washington bureau, which it shares with its sister Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, obtained the previously classified information.

The records related to a four-and-a-half year government investigation into the actions of a platoon of soldiers from the elite 101st Airborne known as Tiger Force who allegedly killed and mutilated dozens of Vietnamese civilians during a seven-month period in 1967. The investigation apparently concluded that at least 18 soldiers committed war crimes, according to Royhab, but nothing was ever publicly disclosed, no charges were filed, and the documents have remained classified since 1975.

The Blade's investigation, adding to the military's findings, and based on interviews with Tiger Force soldiers and Vietnamese civilians, concluded that the unit killed hundreds of unarmed people.

Royhab would not say how much the paper spent on the series, but said it was deemed important enough to expend resources that included allowing reporters to visit Vietnam and interview natives from the village. "We wanted to really look into it and we are glad we did," he said.

When the Associated Press launched a similar investigation of an alleged American-led massacre at No Gun Ri during the Korean War, it won a Pulitzer Prize in 2000, but the wire service also drew a lot of flack from veterans and other critics.

The Blade reported Monday that a Vietnamese military official is now investigating the atrocities.

Joe Strupp (jstrupp@editorandpublisher.com) is associate editor for E&P.

© 2003 VNU eMedia Inc

###