A Tortured Past

Documents show troops who reported abuse in Vietnam were discredited even as the military was finding evidence of worse.

By Deborah Nelson and Nick Turse, Special to The Times
August 20, 2006

In early 1973, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Creighton Abrams received some bad news from the service's chief of criminal investigations.

An internal inquiry had confirmed an officer's widely publicized charge that members of the 173rd Airborne Brigade had tortured detainees in Vietnam.